Feature Friday: Sisters in Shelter

Feature Friday: Sisters in Shelter
August 12, 2021

Happy Feature Friday, where every Friday the Chamber team will highlight one of our fantastic members by repping them for the day and telling the community more about them.  This week's Feature Friday is: Sisters in Shelter!

About Sisters in Shelter:

Sisters in Shelter is a non-profit organization located in Downtown Tiffin, Ohio that offers a wide array of services to human trafficking and domestic violence survivors. SIS also strives to educate the community on these issues and the need to address them right here in Tiffin.  They operate a safe house that houses three women that each get their own bedroom and bathroom.  In the safe house, everything is provided for the women including food, hygiene products, case management, and transportation. 

Sisters in Shelter Offered Services:

  • safe housing

  • financial assistance

  • emotional support

  • community education

  • case management

  • advocacy transportation

  • anything else the clients need, they find a way to get them access (STD testing, counseling, legal help, etc.)

Sisters in Shelter History:

Following a human trafficking survivor's desperate plea for safe haven, quickly followed by a second victim's plea, the Sisters of St. Francis, of Tiffin, Ohio with the Religious Sisters of the Toledo Diocese, in 2008, agreed to do all in their power to eradicate sex trafficking in Northwest Ohio. Those pleas for safety were met with the help of Sisters of St. Francis, until priorities shifted and with a lack of staffing and funding, victim housing was no longer feasible. In 2010, the safe house was closed.

 Established in March 2009, the advisory board, despite the safe house closure, locally, continued to educate and raise awareness of the horrors of human trafficking. It was then too, that founder, Sister Mary Kuhlman began a quest to establish Sisters in Shelter the agency.

 With the help of significant partners, Sisters in Shelter opened a new safe house for victims of trafficking and received formal, not-for-profit 501(c)(3) status in 2014. The advisory board became a Board of Directors who in turn named Sister Mary Kuhlman the Director.  The Salvation Army's Anti-Trafficking Training Program for Service Providers Recognizing and Servicing Victims of Human Trafficking Training Manual became the basis of volunteer's 8-week, required training course. In 2015, a part-time, the Case Manager position was created to assist with volunteer management and to provide safe house residents assistance.

 A new strategic plan, an unsolicited request for proposal from the Ohio Attorney General's Crime Victims Unit, coupled with a critical need for additional safe house round-the-clock presence, in 2016, the Board agreed to expand the agency's staffing to a full-time Case Manager solely responsible for residents' medical, social and mental needs.

In 2019, as Sister Mary Kuhlman retired, the board agreed on a new executive director, Kjirsten Chevalier who is still holding the position. They also employ a full time Case Manager and Community Outreach Advisor. 

We appreciate the important and vital work that Sisters in Shelter provides the community and are so happy to have such an amazing cause as a member of the chamber!  Learn more on their website at: https://www.sistersinshelter.com/

« Back to Blog

member directory

the best services to you,
by The best in our community

VIEW THE DIRECTORY »

Copyright © 2024 Seneca Regional Chamber of Commerce. All rights reserved.