Domestic abuse shelter
Cornerstone helps victims

-- Shannon Harris

Cornerstone, a domestic abuse shelter in the city of Bloomington, is offering its first annual conference called, "The Three Faces of Domestic Violence: Perpetrator, Victim and Youth," on Feb. 6. The conference will be held at Colonial Church in the city of Edina from 8 a.m.–3:30 p.m.

"Domestic abuse is an extremely complex issue, with multiple persons involved, each being impacted in different ways and having different service needs," said Cheryl Kolb-Untinen, Cornerstone’s community coordinator who helped plan the conference. "This conference will touch on each of those primary impact persons because each must be addressed in order to move closer to an end to this problem and the intergenerational cycle of abuse that exists."

The conference’s goals are to explore the interconnectedness of relationships affected by domestic violence, to create synergy within the domestic violence field and to gain new ideas for providing services to clients at shelters. Several speakers at the conference will discuss alternatives to anger management as therapy for perpetrators of domestic violence, as well as discuss what makes kids in an abusive household violent.

In addition to offering this conference, Cornerstone offers a program to educate local schools about domestic violence called Preventing Abuse and Violence through Education (PAVE). "PAVE representatives make many presentations each week about bullying, harassment, dating violence, domestic abuse and healthy relationships," said Heather Guerin, Cornerstone’s volunteer program/community education coordinator, about PAVE. "They also have support groups for students and spend one-to-one time with victims of abuse, as well as students that are perpetrators."

In terms of its facility and services, Cornerstone offers two-bedroom apartments for its clients to stay in (there may be multiple families per apartment) and provides transitional and permanent housing for victims of abuse.

Cornerstone also serves male victims of abuse. "We will provide counseling, housing and legal services to male victims, just as we do for female victims. We stand against violence, not the male gender," said Guerin.

Cornerstone’s service cities include Edina, Bloomington, Richfield, St Louis Park and Eden Prairie. Although these are Cornerstone‘s specified cities, Guerin said Cornerstone is willing to serve victims of abuse from anywhere in the state if they specify they want services from Cornerstone.

If concerned about potential physical, emotional or sexual abuse, contact Cornerstone’s 24-hour helpline at (952) 884-0330, or visit its Web site at http://www.cornerstonemn.org.