CLIENT NEWS: A new ‘sanctuary for healing’ in South Miami-Dade

A new facility in the heart of downtown Homestead is hoping to better connect South Dade residents with child abuse, domestic violence, and sexual assault resources.

Two Miami-Dade nonprofit organizations are partnering to open what’s been dubbed the “Healing Sanctuary” and expand resources into an underserved part of Florida’s biggest county.

Kristi House, a children’s advocacy center coordinating legal, medical and social services for child victims, and M.U.J.E.R, or Mujeres Unidas en Justicia, Educación, y Reforma, a one-stop responsive agency for domestic violence and sexual assault survivors in South Dade, are the two organizations spearheading the project.

“Our goal is to create a full service site that will respond to every single need that a family needs,” said Susan J. Rubio-Riverra, the founder and executive director of M.U.J.E.R. “I’ve always said, if we can’t provide it, M.U.J.E.R, then our partners will because that’s how we work in Deep South Dade.”

The 31,000 square-foot property in Homestead was once a First Baptist Church for the area, then a Montessori school. Now, it’s in the process of becoming a resource hub where M.U.J.E.R, Kristi House, Miami Dade County’s Coordinated Victims Assistance Center and other partnering organizations looking to open space in South Dade will be able to reach out to more people in the area affected by trauma, abuse and violence.

“The demographics in the community, and going back into the early 50s, this area was made up of mostly migrant farm workers and immigrants,” said Rubio-Riverra. “There was always a special need for folks, especially now, people that fear authority, that may not go to mainstream programs or traditional programs.”

M.U.J.E.R is one of only two certified rape crisis centers in Miami-Dade County, handling all sexual assault calls south of Kendall Drive.

People like Patricia, who recently left an abusive marriage with her five children, currently rely on M.U.J.E.R’s services. WLRN is only using Patricia’s first name to protect her identity.

Both Patricia and her eldest daughter receive individual therapy, and Patricia attends weekly support group sessions where she said she’s found a community of women that uplift each other.

“We spend some really beautiful moments together,” she said. “As women, we have endured critical moments that we keep quiet and we are silenced because of the fear and shame of what others might say.”

But at M.U.J.E.R, where she’s also receiving help applying to a scholarship to enter the medical field, Patricia has a newfound sense of peace and support she hopes other women will be drawn to with the new facility.

A ribbon cutting ceremony for the new $5.1 million facility was held Nov. 1, but the organizations expect to be fully moved in by June of next year.

The project was funded by a grant from the Miami Foundation’s Open for Business program as well as a loan from the Fredrick A. DeLuca Foundation.

It was born out of a desire for M.U.J.E.R, which has been working to serve deep South Dade for just shy of 3 decades, to expand out of a small house in Camp Redlands and for Kristi House to keep up with increasing demand for child therapeutic services at their Homestead satellite office.

Kristi House’s Homestead location opened in 2018, but started to become overwhelmed over the years as more people came in requesting services.

“It’s bursting at the seams,” said Amanda Altman, the CEO of Kristi House.

But with the Healing Sanctuary, Kristi House is planning to hire more therapists, operations staff and a clinical supervisor to expand their reach.

“There’s a huge need in the deep South of Miami-Dade County,” Altman said. “It’s unfortunately a very underserved portion of the community. We are all doing it a massive disservice.”

Altman also said the sanctuary will allow Kristi House to bolster their human trafficking prevention program, Project GOLD.

Currently, trafficking survivors and at-risk children receive mental health support, life skills courses and educational enrichment at their drop-in center in Little Haiti. Children in the program from South Dade are bussed to the center and back.

“That’s a three hour trip basically,” she said. “So I’m really looking forward to being able to hopefully have a satellite of that human trafficking program…so that the kids don’t have to come all the way up here.”

The Healing Sanctuary is actively looking to accept other nonprofits with similar missions into the space as well.

“We don’t need all that space,” Altman said. “We’re looking to build a community of services that we can provide to residents of the deep south.”

WLRN’s Sherrilyn Cabrera contributed to this report.

Published on November 15, 2024 on wlrn.org