DATE: Tuesday, September 16, 1997           TAG: 9709160255

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B5   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY DIANE TENNANT, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   55 lines

ABUSE SHELTER OFFERS POLICE, LAWYERS AND ADVISERS NEW BEACH FACILITY PROVIDES THE BATTERED WITH TEMPORARY ESCAPE FROM VIOLENT SCENE.

In a new twist on the shelter concept, Samaritan House has opened a short-term center for victims of domestic violence with police, lawyers and counselors on site.

The idea is to give battered women, children and men a temporary escape from a violent situation, and to advise them on how to permanently leave an abuser, should they want to.

The Safe Harbor center opened Monday in Suite 210 at 3145 Virginia Beach Blvd. The center is open from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily, and walk-ins are welcome.

Samaritan House Executive Director Ellen Ferber said the center is unique in Virginia and perhaps the nation in its combination of on-site legal help and short-term shelter.

Personnel at the center include a lawyer, a paralegal, a Virginia Beach detective, a children's advocate, a victim's advocate and peer counselors. Ferber said the center will also provide training for clergy and community agencies.

Ferber said that the center provides an option for the majority of domestic-violence victims who do not go to residential shelters.

``Ninety-seven percent of all battered women do not come into a shelter, mostly because it's far more dangerous to leave (the home) than to stay,'' Ferber said. ``Seventy-five percent of those who are killed are killed after they try to leave.''

Others decide to stay in an abusive home because their children are not being hurt there, although most children of abused women also suffer from domestic violence. Others stay in the home because they have no money, Ferber said, and some women just need time to get their affairs in order before they leave the abuser. The average woman leaves an abusive situation seven times before she stays away.

``We think that is where Samaritan House will come in,'' Ferber said. ``If you know that every Friday night he's drunk, you come to Samaritan House and go home after he's asleep. Lots of women want to stay (at home) but want to know that, if it gets bad, there's a place to stay.''

The center can help women and children with practical ideas, such as developing a code of telephone rings to seek help without the abuser knowing.

Battered men are welcome, too. Ferber said that 2 percent of domestic-violence victims are male.

Most of the center's $165,000 annual budget is funded with Victims of Crime Act monies through the Virginia Violence Prevention Program. A fund-raising luncheon for the remaining $40,000 will be held at 11:45 a.m. Oct. 8 at the Virginia Beach Holiday Inn Executive Center. The cost is $50 a plate. MEMO: The crisis number for Samaritan House is 430-2642. Safe

Harbor's number is 631-0710.

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