Lisa Farmer is glad to once again be working in the nonprofit sector. After nearly 15 months of working for health care information technology firm HealthMedX, the longtime health care marketer began work June 18 as the executive director of Harmony House, succeeding Patty Ingle. The move represents a return to her roots. Farmer had worked about a dozen years locally with nonprofits including a stint as director at The Victim Center before taking a marketing position at Mercy. Now, overseeing a roughly $1 million annual budget, Farmer is working to raise awareness for the victims of domestic violence. Last year, Harmony House had to turn away some 1,600 people looking for temporary housing.
For-profit ‘Foray’ “I had been in health care marketing for about 13 years, with Mercy for about 12 years. I had a short-lived move to Kansas City at St. Luke’s Health System, and then we returned and I took the HealthMedX position. It’s a great organization that does health care IT, so from that perspective, it was a good fit, but I didn’t have a lot of direct contact with the customers. I’m the kind of person that needs to feel I am making a difference in what I do, so that is what got me contemplating a move back to nonprofit [work]. It was my first foray into for-profit, and that is a great organization, but it was a big shift.”
Nonprofit Home “Right out of college, I very first worked for Burrell [Behavioral Health] Center in a clinical role. I knew I didn’t want to get a master’s degree in counseling or clinical social work. I knew if I wanted to progress my career, for me, I wanted to go more of the administrative route. So, that’s what I did. I (then) worked for United Way of the Ozarks. That’s when homelessness and homeless families were first becoming a national issue. My first position was a partnership between the city of Springfield and the United Way. They jointly funded my position, which was homeless services coordinator, and then it evolved into a special project or project development position. … From there, I went to the American Cancer Society and was the area director. And from there, I went to The Victim Center and was executive director. I was there for four years … So, I’ve kind of come full circle in my career.”
Breaking the Cycle “I think one of the big misnomers out there about domestic violence is it only happens to a certain group of people – the lower socio-economic level. … or that it is only women who are impacted. The truth is, it happens at all socio-economic levels. … And one of the things we forget is kids are hugely impacted by domestic violence. Typically, 40 to 60 percent of the people in our shelter, on any given night, are children. When a woman is abused, if there are children in the house, those children are victims, as well. Very often, they are also abused either emotionally or physically. Even if they are not, they often witness it, and that creates tension and feelings of insecurity and all sorts of issues for children. We focus on the women a lot, but we also focus on the children and breaking that cycle. Abuse is learned behavior to a certain degree, and it is cyclical.”
Meeting Needs “We run at capacity every night. We have 110 to 112 people in our shelter seven nights a week, 365 days a year. … Last year, we turned 1,600 people away. The year before that, I think it was 1,200. So, that’s a huge increase. This year, we are on track to do (1,600) again. Unfortunately, there are not enough beds. Our staff is trained to reach out to other sources. There is an organization in town called Safe to Sleep. … So, we refer to Safe to Sleep. We refer to the Missouri Hotel. We do have some hotels and motels that will work with us occasionally. … Sometimes, the only thing we can do is keep telling a person to call back every day. It’s not a good feeling.”
A Good Night’s Sleep “We have what we call safe-night beds, which are our shelter rooms. Then, we have a transitional housing program. With our shelter beds, we say that is a 90-day maximum, but we are flexible with that. … I would say it is generally a 30-day minimum. These women, when they come to the shelter, it’s not as easy as finding them an apartment. Often their abusers will isolate them in ways that you and I wouldn’t think about. It’s not uncommon that they have no transportation. Their abuser may have taken their driver’s license or their Social Security card. Their abuser may have cut off access financially, and they don’t have their checkbooks or know their account number. They may not have worked in a long time. … One of the things the women will say is, ‘You know what, I slept last night for the first time in a long time.’ When you are in an abusive situation, they can kind of sleep with one eye open. That was something even I didn’t think about when I started working here. Something as simple as a good night’s sleep can be something we all take for granted.”
This installment of Springfield Business Journal’s Architects & Engineers Project Report showcases 26 endeavors by area design and engineering professionals.
