By Rita McInerney

A new night shelter for women and children has opened in Decatur, an ecumenical effort of the Decatur Cooperative Ministry (DCM). The seven-nights-a-week shelter is housed in Holy Trinity Episcopal Church on Ponce de Leon Ave.

St. Thomas More Church, while not a member of DCM has joined the shelter project, contributing $1,000 to the start-up cost of the venture, and staffing it with volunteers for designated times.

The shelter, which opened Monday, Nov. 3, can accommodate six women with up to three children each. One of the children has to be younger than six, none can be older than 15. The families will be allowed to stay up to 30 days.

Six Sunday school rooms in the church have been adapted for their use, with thick mattresses and built-in cabinets to hold clothing and other possessions, said Sue Ellen Mears, chairperson of DCM and head of the shelter steering committee. At the end of the hall there are two bathrooms with a shower stall in each. A washer and dryer will give the women a chance to wash clothes. There is a small kitchen and lounge, and a play area for the children.

The shelter will be open through the end of March, Mrs. Mears said, and possibly into April if the cold weather lingers.

Mrs. Mears said the shelter project has received a grant from DeKalb County which provides for a nurse to come in three to five nights to look after some of the health needs of the women and children. The grant enables the homeless women and their children who come to the shelter to get into the county health care system. “They will get a number and go into the computer,” Mrs. Mears said. The shelter will also be working closely with Family and Children’s Services, she said.

“The churches have come together in such a committed way,” Mrs. Mears said. The host church, Holy Trinity, contributed $12,000 of the start up costs, and $3,000 was received from Episcopal Charities. Funds for the shelter will be included in the budgets of the DCM member churches from Decatur and surrounding areas in 1987, Mrs. Mears said.

Initial costs were high, she explained, because of the need to install the bathrooms, firedoors, smoke detectors and an alarm system.

One church, while not a member of DCM, contributed toiletry bags for the women, and the younth group at Decatur First Baptist will sponsor three Christmas parties for the children and take them Christmas shopping. Oakhurst Baptist, the other church which operates a shelter in Decatur, is planning “something special” for Christmas eve, Mrs. Mears said.

St. Thomas More parishioners will be providing Thanksgiving dinner for the shelter guests and have also taken the week of Dec. 28 to Jan. 3 to staff the shelter and bring in the cooked evening meal, according to Mary Ellen Davis, a parishioner who will be working as a resource volunteer at the shelter. Breakfast foods are obtained from the Atlanta Food Bank.

Resource volunteers, Mary Ellen Davis said, provide the mothers with information on resources available in the community: housing, jobs, medical and welfare benefits. The women will be encouraged, she added, to follow through on obtaining these services on their own.

The churches will take turns staffing the shelter each week. Two volunteers will serve the hot meal supplied each night by the members of the church of the week and two people will spend the night with the women and children. Shelter hours are from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m.

Mrs. Mears said there are a few weeks open in January and March. She would be happy to hear from churches willing to take part in the shelter by volunteering for these weeks. She can be reached at the DCM office, 377-5365.