Missoula Abuse Shelter For Children Full Heading Into Holidays

Watson Children’s shelter in Missoula is preparing for the holidays and according to Executive Director Mike Boehm, there are lots of helping hands because their facilities are at capacity.

"Watson is a crisis shelter home for kids that have been physically or sexually abused, severe neglect, abandonment or family crisis from birth to 14 years old," Boehm said. "Even though we have more than 30 rooms, bulk capacity for us is 24 children, because we do serve toddlers and infants, sometimes we have a number of those infants need one to one care. "

The shelter accepts those that don’t fit into the foster system. Boehm says that they have frequently had to turn away children seeking shelter because there was no more room. In October two children had to be turned away, back in August the number climbed to eleven.

"We have been mostly full," Boehm said. "We opened our second shelter in 2010 based on need at that time. It is now five years later, and we have been full for nearly two years. We will have a day or two where we are down one or two beds and will have some capacity, but they quickly fill back up."

Watson Children’s Shelter will host a an open house for the public on December Sixth. Those who would like to help out can do so by going to the Watson Children Shelter website.