Shelter welcomes new director

Melissa Teague spent part of her first day at work chasing down a trash truck in high heels.

Not a very glamorous task for the new executive director of the Shelter Home of Caldwell County, but it had to be done.

“That's what it's all about,” she said with a smile. ”You do what you've got to do.”

Teague spent the early part of her married life focusing on raising her family, but when she thought she was ready to go back to school, and her family was prepared for her to go back to school, she headed to Appalachian State University (ASU) and got her bachelor's degree in social work. She also received her master's degree in social work from ASU.

Her heart has always been in working with victims, whether they are children who have been abused or neglected, or senior citizens who have had their purse or wallet stolen. She wants to be the voice for those who may not be able to speak up for themselves.

“For my career, everything I've ever done has been in the helping field and it surrounds victims,” Teague said.

In the past, Teague has worked with those dealing with substance abuse issues, child protective services investigators, physical and sexual abuse victims, and neglect cases. Most recently she worked with the Hickory Police Department and Family Net of Catawba County.

She began her work with the Caldwell County Shelter Home at the end of March and already is finding an appreciation for the community.

“This community gives openly,” Teague said. “It's a very supportive community. Every day there are people knocking at our door, ‘Can you use this?' or ‘Our Sunday school class collected this money and we want to bring it to you.'”

She also feels privileged to work with a highly skilled staff and willing board members.

“The Shelter Home is really lucky to have a very gifted, caring and compassionate staff,” Teague said. “This board for the Shelter Home is amazing. They're a working board, they're not just a board in name only. Whatever you ask of them they do. If you need them to come help and clean, they will.”

Teague joined the Shelter Home just a few months before the organization's biggest fund-raiser of the year, and she's excited about the opportunity to be able to be a part of the fund-raiser and meet community members at the event.

The sixth annual Planting Seeds of Peace Home and Garden Auction will be May 8 in the fellowship hall of First Presbyterian Church in Lenoir.

Teague has enjoyed her work at the Shelter Home so far, and she is looking toward to the future.

“Anytime you come into a new position and there's a change in leadership there will be a lot of adjustment,” Teague said. “I have a lot of new ideas that I want to incorporate.”

One of the new ideas is the Darkness to Light program. The program will train volunteers to recognize and identify signs of sexual assault in children. These volunteers will then go out and teach others and as the program progresses hopefully any adult who works with children will be educated on spotting signs of sexual assault.

“Children don't know how to respond like adults and you have to be able to recognize that. It really takes a little bit of the stress off of children,” Teague said, adding that she recently finished writing a grant to get the program started. “This is a really good program. There's also a need for a children's advocacy center, to give children a safe place to tell their story of physical or sexual abuse.”

Teague also wants to build on what is already a successful shelter for battered women and their children.

“We just want to keep improving on what we've got,” Teague said. “This shelter does a wonderful job in the community. I don't need to come in and make drastic changes I just need to build on what we're doing already.”

The Shelter Home of Caldwell County allows women, and their children, who live in abusive conditions to come to the shelter for a safe place to live. While living at the shelter, the staff works with the women individually as well as with the children to help them understand what has happened and how they can live a normal life outside of an abusive relationship.

“We don't want this to keep happening, we want to stop the reruns and start new programs with these families,” Teague said. “They've done nothing wrong that is the most important thing they need to know.”

In her time working with abused women, Teague has come to understand that these women don't know just how strong they are.

“You see such strong women when they walk in the door and they don't know how strong they are because they've been beaten down,” Teague said. “I admire all of these women for having the strength they have to walk away from the situation and it takes a lot of strength to do that. That's a strong individual.”

It takes the counseling and the help of the staff and volunteers at the Shelter Home for these women to realize the strength it took for them to make a very hard decision.

Teague also knows it takes the support of the community and she is eager to see how much can be accomplished when the Shelter Home and the community work together.

“I'm just going to enjoy seeing the work that this community does and this agency does to give these women a chance to be strong individuals and to give these children a chance to break the pattern,” she said.

Teague lives in Burke County with her husband Bruce and her son, who just graduated from college.

She also has a grown daughter who lives in Colorado.

For information about the Shelter Home of Caldwell County or to make donations to the upcoming Planting Seeds of Peace Home and Garden Auction, call 758-0888.