Safe Haven moves to new building

Safe Haven has moved its location to 316 Broadway, Suite 4, and has a new director, Kelli Bloedel.

Bloedel said, “We feel like this is a more private location to where if you’re here, you could be a lot of places. You could be getting your nails done, you could be getting your haircut, or you could be at the VFW. You know, it’s not… where we were before. It was not very inconspicuous. This just gives a little more privacy to the clients. We feel like it’s better suited for their needs.”

Bloedel started in her position in February. The previous director Kaitlin Stone left because she had other opportunities. 

Bloedel has a law enforcement background where previously she was a detention officer in Rock Springs, and she has a degree in criminal justice from 2004. 

Regarding how Bloedel’s background led her to become the director at Safe Haven, she said, “I felt like being in detention, I was too late in that process to help anyone. And you don’t realize that when you’re young and you go to school and you get your degree and you set out to change the world. And then I realized, uh oh, I went too far in this process. So I want to back it up to where I can help people before they’re in a detention situation or before it’s that late in the process.” 

Regarding her new role, as the director Bloedel said, “My overall vision is to pull the community together, educate them on the fact that this is something that goes on everywhere. It’s not something fun to talk about [the trauma and abuse]. But it does happen everywhere. And if we have that support of the community, the survivors have that support.”

Bloedel said that they will have an open house soon for their new location. The Safe Haven board and its relationships with law enforcement have remained the same. 

To contact Safe Haven, call 864-4673.