Area children's shelter
will close doors for good
Published Thursday, April 17
By L.A. Story Houry
Staff writer

After more than 25 years of providing shelter for abused and neglected area children, the Northeast Mississippi Emergency Shelter for Children announced that it has begun the gradual process of closing its doors for good.

Official notification from the Alcorn County Resource Agency said that, "after careful consideration and evaluation of all the current factors," the shelter would simply not reapply for licensure with the Mississippi Department of Human Services. The current license is valid until the end of June.

The reasons cited for the shelter's closing have been the culmination of several years of changes in MDHS placement procedures.

Crista Norman, LSW, has been the director and social worker for the Emergency Shelter for Children for the past eight years. She explained: "DHS has been making policy changes over the years, such as increasing the age of the kids -- they now cannot be under the age of 10, unless there are special circumstances.

"They [DHS] are also trying to place these children with family members or working more with the parents, or with foster care, rather than putting them in shelters. In the long run, it's probably better for the children, but it lessens the number of children we take care of."

With fewer and fewer children to care for, a deficit has been created in the shelter's funding. There was also another added difficulty the situation created.

"We get calls for less and less children and the children we are typically getting now ... well, they need more structured care than we are equipped to handle. They need more therapeutic environments," said ACHRA executive director, Annette Stringer.

The shelter has provided housing and care for many abused and neglected children over the years, and Norman pointed out that they would continue to provide care for the children they have up until their license expires.

"We are not going to displace any children," said Norman. "If we have any children, we will serve them until the time we are supposed to. This will be a gradual phasing out as opposed to an abrupt closure."

The closing of the Corinth shelter will help boost the numbers and support for similar shelters in other parts of the state -- most notably the two nearest shelters: Tupelo's Safe Haven and West Point's Sally Kate Winters, according to Norman.

The Northeast Mississippi Emergency Shelter for Children employed nine people, including Norman. She said many of the employees are part time, some will likely retire, but there would be about three or four left to look for other employment.

Both Norman and Stringer praised their community and expressed enormous gratitude for the support the shelter has received over the years.

Notably the City of Corinth, the Board of Supervisors, the Junior Auxiliary of Corinth, local churches and doctors offices and most of the surrounding counties.

"We want to express our gratitude to basically the entire community. Everyone has been so supportive or we wouldn't have been able to care for these children for all these years," said Norman.

Without the community support the shelter has received, they would have been forced to make this decision many years ago, according to Norman and Stringer.

"Everyone has been very generous over the years," said Stringer. The shelter will continue to need support until the end of their licensure at the end of June, and those who would like to discuss the matter are invited to contact the shelter at 662-286-7745.

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