Concern is circulating around the recent challenge to management of A Safe Home for Everyone.

Among the fears are that those who need the Safe Home will not know where to turn and those who want to donate to the shelter’s operation will hesitate to give.

Those are real concerns and the answer to the concerns is more communication about the issues.

The present concerns circulate around a challenge presented by Ron Yancey, a former volunteer of A Safe Home for Everyone, the program developed by the Ashe County Partnership for Children. Yancey, dedicated to the needs of abused women and families, has said the Partnership program is not doing enough. He seems a credible figure in all of this. He grew up, he says under the influence of an abusive parent, and he has worked for years, assisting projects at the Safe Home.

Ultimately he decided to incorporate under the name A Safe Home for Everyone, Inc., a name very similar to the program run by the Partnership for the last 14 years.

We were glad when Sarah Wolf and Chris Robinson of the Partnership for Children brought to light the fact that Yancey had sought and obtained incorporation of an organization by this similar name

They were concerned about the confusion and I agree they should be concerned. We proceeded with a story on the issue as a result of their information.

I believe the Partnership has done a decent job of running the Safe Home. Families are being helped now when previously – 10 years ago – they were not being helped.

Over those years, the Jefferson Post has reported on the successes of the safe home and how it has helped women in need and their families, so we know it has helped the community. I personally volunteered at the Threads of Hope thrift shop on the run up to its opening. I found the deals on clothing there to be stupendous. I encouraged others to shop there. That the Threads of Hope helps fund the Partnership program A Safe Home for Everyone, and I can support Threads of Hope gives me a good feeling. I believe in the shelter.

I believe in the Partnership. It has helped and continues to help numerous families in this county through, not only the shelter, but it’s efficient collaboration with a coalition of aid agencies like Ashe Really Cares that also provides clothing and food for the hungry. The Jefferson Post has supported the Partnership with two pages of information celebrating Week of the Young Child in 2009. The space was valued at $1,367.40.

I encourage you to support the Partnership and A Safe Home for Everyone.

Currently Ron Yancey’s group has no service of which it has made us aware to offer to abused families. What it does have is knowledge and passion and questions about the existing shelter.

I know many of his backers to be credible people. If they have questions, you can believe the questions need to be answered.

They are perfectly capable of leading an effort for a shelter, but is it really necessary to bring together another shelter?

Their questions should be answered. Some of them have been answered.

Why can’t every woman in need find help? Patricia Calloway, chairwoman of the Partnership, answered that question at least in part in our story on this subject Feb. 2. There are limitations to space, she said.

You have to agree. Space is a likely problem for shelters. There is way more need than any one group… probably any two groups could overcome. Still, Calloway says, the Partnership tries, looking to out-of-county agencies to fill the need in Ashe.

Lack of space and shortage of resources is a common problem among such agencies across the nation.

Other questions lurk. What no one should doubt is that we will ask those questions.

The answers will likely help solve the concerns swirling around the shelter now.

Let’s continue to support current shelter and seek the answers that will improve it.

Adamson is editor/general manager of the Jefferson Post and lives in West Jefferson.