When Cheryl Bozarth applied for the position as director of the Domestic Violence/Sexual Assualt Program of Jefferson County, the location was almost a deal-breaker.
In 2005, the program was housed in two converted apartments off an alley behind a video store. Some of the rooms used for counseling traumatized victims of violence had no windows.
“It was a very poor therapeutic environment,” Bozarth said. “But they did wonderful work out of that space for 20 years.”
Now the program has moved uptown, to the $2 million Dove House, which opened its doors Jan. 14.
The 8,000-square-foot building near Jefferson Healthcare hospital houses program offices and services on the first floor and has four transitional housing units on the second floor, with views of Admiralty Inlet.
Bozarth presides over operations from a spacious, art filled office — with large windows.
She lives in Kitsap County and commutes to Port Townsend daily. For now, she is planning to stay put while her teenage daughters are in school. She also has a son in the Air Force.
Bozarth, 46, moved to the Kitsap Peninsula from St. Marys, Ga., with her now-ex-husband and daughters just four days before she applied for the directorship in Port Townsend.
“I was attracted to the opportunity that allowed me to work in this environment,” she said. “The practical side of meeting needs appealed to me, as did the variety of types of people that we serve.”
The move to the Northwest was a drastic change for Bozarth, who is originally from Charleston, S.C., the fifth of six children.
She holds a master’s degree in counseling psychology from the University of North Florida and worked at Sutton Place Behavioral Health in Nassau County, Fla.
There she did school-and community-based therapy as part of her graduate work, then became the director.
While she didn’t work solely with victims of domestic violence or sexual assault at Sutton Place, it was often part of the equation.
“Domestic violence runs through the story of many people. It’s not foreign to me,” she said. “Domestic violence cuts across everything — it can happen to anybody.”
Bozarth said she was surprised at the level of need for the program’s services in the small community, but she’s also been pleasantly surprised at the level of community support.
“It’s been amazing to me. I’m so grateful for it,” she said. “Dove House wouldn’t have happened without it.”
She credited the community with rallying a successful capital fundraising campaign and the Port Townsend City Council for partnering on a community development block grant.
“When I started, they were already talking about the need for a new building and more housing,” she said.
“I thought, ‘Yeah, let’s do that.'”
The four units are already occupied, with a waiting list of 22 applicants by mid-February. Residents can stay for up to two years, with rent based on income.
Bozarth noted that Jefferson County is the second least-affordable county in the state for housing, second only to San Juan County.
“The scenario we see is people making the choice to return to an abusive situation because they can’t find a place to live,” she said. “It’s a horribly painful choice to have to make.”
In 2009, the agency served 520 households, or 1,160 individuals.
“Affordable housing is the greatest need for people,” she said.
While the majority of the clients are women, Bozarth said they also see men, who usually need legal advocates or help with matters surrounding a divorce.
Bozarth doesn’t do any hand-on counseling, which she said she misses.
On a recent day, she was in court in the morning, testifying at a shelter case hearing. Then it was back to the office to finish a federal grant application before the deadline, prepare invoices for other grants, attend a staff meeting and finish off with more grant reporting.
The bulk of her job includes designing the program, grant writing and management, fundraising, client services and coordinating with other agencies.
She said the best part of the job is having the opportunity to build the program and to “be future oriented and visionary.”
“Being able to take this from a thought to reality is an amazing thing to do, and to be in a county that has the ability to do that,” she said.
In December, Bozarth was presented with the 2010 Woman of Excellence Award by the American Association of University Women, Port Townsend branch.
In sponsoring Bozarth for the award, Gay Eisenberger noted she had been able to obtain state approval to increase the maximum emergency shelter stay length from 30 to 90 days.
She also said under Bozarth’s leadership, the program has moved beyond response to crisis situations to prevention-based education, and she has dealt with the negative social stigmas associated with domestic violence and sexual abuse by bringing them out into the open.
“Cheryl epitomizes a successful social services director by continually inspiring, motivating and helping her clients, staff and related agencies achieve success beyond their wildest beliefs,” Port Townsend Police Chief Conner Daily said of Bozarth in a letter of support.
Bozarth said her family taught her to focus on goals, but her first boss taught her the work ethic she relies on today.
She was 15 when she learned that her biology teacher was starting an Italian restaurant.
“I told him I wanted a job,” she said. “I was networking at 15.”
“That job taught me that if you go to work and do what you are supposed to do you will get a paycheck,” she said.
She still remembers what she bought with that first paycheck: “black jeans and a red and white striped shirt,” she said with a laugh.
With her time divided between work and home, Bozarth said she hasn’t had much time to check out the social scene in Port Townsend.
She is a musician and plays violin, guitar and piano. She has also sung since eighth grade.
She has been in bands in the past but currently plays music only at home with her daughters.
“I keep saying I will get to the ÂCentrum Blues Festival, but I haven’t yet,” she said.
She said she is able to manage the long hours away from home each day because she and her daughters have a sense of teamwork.
The girls prepare meals and do their own laundry — and also volunteer at Dove House when they can.
“My kids were raised with a volunteer ethic,” she said.
They participate yearly in the American Walk for Diabetes, are active in their church’s youth group and are Honor Society members.
“It’s important to me to nurture my family’s patterns and traditions,” she said.
Bozarth sees herself perhaps moving on to another position in five years, making 10 total with the domestic violence program.
For now, she’s enjoying the unpaid perks of the job.
She related an experience recently in which one of the new Dove House residents was standing on her balcony and told Bozarth how grateful she was to be there.
“She said she couldn’t believe it happened to her,” Bozarth said. “We give real hope — that’s the thing that makes it worth getting up and driving over from Kitsap every day.”
