“Come show Mommy what you drew,” the 19-year-old mother coaxed her 2-year-old son. He tottled over with his yellow paper covered in pen scribble.

She looked and with a far-away voice said, “I’ve got to get a refrigerator.”

Emily* is picturing a new life – a normal life, one without abuse – for her and her three children. She’ll start that new life safely in the arms of the Families in Crisis shelter in Killeen.

She’s been at the shelter for three days. But it’s not her first time there. This is the third time, she’s tried to escape the boyfriend who hit her.

“It was hard to swallow my pride and come back,” she said. “I stayed on the streets for two days before I called (Families in Crisis). I really came her for my kids. They deserve better than I’ve been giving them and I’m going to give them what they deserve.”

Starting in July, abuse victims like her - and their children - who are taken from Temple to a shelter in Killeen, will be able to stay closer to their homes and to their jobs as they stay safe from abusers.

“This is not a new need,” Shannon Gowan said. Ms. Gowan is on the Leadership Temple team that is creating the Temple shelter. She’s also the director of communications for the City of Temple. “Temple needs this. These women who are in domestically violent relationships need a place to go that’s in our city.”

In 2006, Temple police reported 3,160 domestic violence calls, compared to Killeen’s 2,002. Belton reported 77, and Rogers reported eight. Across the county, law enforcement offices received 26,107 domestic disturbance calls that ranged from arguments to fights leaving an injured victim.

Last year, Families in Crisis provided 11, 456 shelter nights to 434 adults and 277 children in addition to serving 606 outreach clients.

“We’re confident that the need is there and that we will keep (the new shelter) full,” Families in Crisis’ Suzanne Armour said.

The decision to stay with an abuser or to leave the environment is difficult for some.

“When they have to leave their entire support structure - their jobs, their families, sometimes, their familiar places - to get the help they really need, sometimes they opt not to,” Gowan said, adding that this is a particular problem for abuse victims with children in school.

Ms. Armour agreed that it is a problem.

“And for a long time, the rules for shelters like this prevented us from putting one in Temple since we had one less than 50 miles away in Killeen. But the law has changed,” she said, “and we’re opening this one as a satellite shelter, not as an independent shelter.”

The 1800-square-foot facility will be able to hold up to 16 people. It will have a private office, a full kitchen and dining area, a laundry room, four bedrooms, three bathrooms, a living room with a computer and television and a small children’s play room.

Gowan said the shelter will be located near many of the services its clients need but asked that the exact location not be disclosed in order to keep its future residents safe.

While the Leadership Temple team has benefitted from donations exceeding $300,000 - including the structure, the land, and other services - she said they still need more.

“We need individuals or groups to help outfit rooms with alarm clocks, pictures, lamps, multiple linens, everything we can use to make the room like it was one in their own home or a guest room,” she said. “We also need dishes, forks, spoons, toys, baby items, fire extinguishers - everything including a kitchen sink.”

Ms. Gowan hopes and believes the community will embrace the project as it has the Temple Free Clinic.

“That started as a Leadership Temple project,” she said. “But the community comes through every year to support its on-going needs. We’re giving Families in Crisis a turn-key facility but the need won’t stop there.”

Emily’s certainly won’t.

She’s working to finish her G.E.D. and hopes to go into the Air Force where she wants to train as a registered nurse. But mostly, she wants to move forward.

“My family is disappointed that I’m pregnant again,” she said, noting that she thinks she’s due in September. “But I can’t do anything about that now. I have to move forward. Here, they help me move forward.”

Donations to help the Temple shelter move forward may be made by mail to “Families in Crisis – Leadership Temple Shelter, P.O. Box 25, Killeen TX 76540.

For information on volunteer opportunities or other specific needs, contact Families in Crisis at (254) 634-1184 or any other member of the Leadership Temple team. They are Paula Conti, Shannon Gowan, Carrie Kline, Susan Simpson and Eric Weeden.

*The mother’s name was changed to protect her identity.