Mary Ann Zollmann, BVM speaks at the Open House for Teresa Shelter.

On any night in Dubuque, Iowa, 290 people need shelter. Some of these will be served by agencies like the Maria House which provides transitional housing for women and children. But until this spring, no agency in Dubuque served those women who are newly on the street, or who have active substance abuse issues, or mental illness.

This need for emergency shelter is now being met by Teresa Shelter, a drop in shelter for women and children strategically located downtown in a beautifully renovated former union hall.

According to the Shelter's Program Director Sr. Carol Karwoski, SSSF, “Teresa Shelter fulfills a dream of the Dubuque community to provide emergency shelter which was never lost even after Maria House opened its doors six years ago.”

Open from 6 p.m. to 8 a.m., Teresa Shelter provides a safe, comfortable sleeping space, showers, an evening snack and breakfast to approximately four to six women and children every evening.

Sr. Carol expects the average number served per evening to grow as word about the Shelter spreads. The Shelter can accommodate 30 people.

The dream to create an emergency shelter in Dubuque was carried by area religious congregations, community and other religious leaders. Mary Ann Zollmann, BVM (Clement Mary) served on the Emergency Shelter Task Force whose work resulted in the creation of the Shelter.

She comments, “The truest thing that can be said about Teresa Shelter is that it is a miracle of collaboration. Three years ago the women religious of the area, desiring to continue our shared mission of bringing about justice and peace, especially for women and children, decided that we wanted to work together on another project.

“…Engaging in our exploration, we realized that other groups, particularly the Homeless Advisory Board, had been attempting to address this need for a shelter for sometime. The interest on the part of the women's congregations simply added energy and possibility to a vision and dream that others had held for awhile.”

Mary Ann continues, “At times it felt as though Teresa Shelter simply fell into place. It felt that way because the project has been carried along by the communal energy of an increasing number of involved persons.” Some examples of this collaboration are:

• A core group representing churches and social service groups, committed to staying with the project over the long haul, attending to details of finding a director, seeking a site, drawing up guidelines, and assuring ever-widening participation in and expanding ownership of the shelter;
  
• Opening Doors Board members who, in a spirit of risk and responsibility, took this shelter under their official auspices and embraced it as a companion ministry to Maria House;
  
• The professional architects and construction engineers, painters, duct workers, woodworkers, window installers, and carpet layers; the volunteers who came to clean; the donators of appliances and furnishings—all of whom have entered an empty building and transformed it into a beautiful home.

Additionally the BVM congregation pooled moneys with other religious congregations to provide the salary for the Shelter's Program Director as well as for the long term loan which made it possible to purchase the building.

Mary Ann concludes, “Teresa Shelter will continue in the same spirit of collaboration that made it possible…It will meet a need not met by any other existing service in Dubuque: a safe, clean, warm overnight shelter for homeless women and children.”

The ribbon-cutting is a moment of celebration for the Dubuque community. Shelter director Carol Karwoski, OSF stands beaming behind the sign.

About the author: Amy Golm, BVM is a campus minister at Clarke College, Dubuque, and a graduate student.

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© 2006 Sisters of Charity, BVM