‘This work is really important.’ Centre Safe’s executive director retires after 25 years
After more than two decades as Centre Safe’s executive director, Anne Ard is officially stepping down from the nonprofit that has seen numerous changes through the years and worked to help the community recover after the Sandusky scandal.
Though she began in the executive director’s position in 1997, she was involved with Centre County’s domestic violence/rape crisis center as a volunteer in the early ‘80s. But when Ard came to State College, it was to be a campus minister at Penn State.
“I did Campus Ministry on campus for an ecumenical group. My particular responsibilities were in the area of social justice and women’s issues. And so not surprisingly, I got linked up with what was then called the Women’s Resource Center. Because domestic and sexual violence, that’s the places where social justice and women’s issues intersect,” she said during a recent interview with the Centre Daily Times.
During that time, she volunteered with the center and was on the board. Through her time working as a senior diversity planning analyst for the university, and working with the Commission for Women and the newly formed Commission on LGBTQ equity, she had learned administrative skills that she wanted to put to work. She applied for the executive director position with Centre Safe (at the time, it was called the Centre County Women’s Resource Center).
Originally, she thought she’d work there for about five to 10 years. She “had no idea I’d be here 25 years later.”
“I think this work is really important. It’s important in the community, it’s important to students, it’s important to community members. It is important that we do what we do really well. And I feel like I have some gifts and skills that can facilitate that. And to be able to use those is a gift for me,” she said.
Changes over time
Over the years, Ard has seen Centre Safe expand its operation, change its name, and find new solutions to existing problems.
During her first couple of years as director, Centre Safe’s building in downtown State College was renovated; the building tripled in size with a four-story addition and the size of the shelter doubled. They quickly learned that if they have more people in shelters, then there will be a bigger need for permanent and transitional housing. That led to an expansion of Centre Safe’s housing program.
There are now two additional facilities in Bellefonte, including its law office and the Child Access Center.
Other things that have caused major shifts in how they approach situations include different partnerships. That’s been extremely important for the work that Centre Safe does, Ard said. Partnerships with places like the district attorney’s office, State College police and the health care system help them learn how to do things better. For example, there is a Centre County Domestic and Sexual Violence Task Force that meets and it has a subcommittee that does fatality review.
“When there’s a domestic violence homicide, we review it. Not to point fingers or assess blame, but to say ‘Where did the system break down? And how can we do it better next time?’ So we’re constantly looking at ways to improve the response for survivors of domestic and sexual violence,” she said.
The Jerry Sandusky child abuse scandal was an “earthquake,” not only for the community but for the nonprofit as well, Ard said. They were able to work with the Centre County United Way and the Youth Service Bureau to put things in place to address the issues. To date, the Darkness to Light Stewards of Children training program has taught more than 8,000 people how to prevent, recognize and react responsibly to child sexual abuse.
“We’d been doing that work for a long time. We had been doing trainings around child sexual abuse prevention for years. But nobody really was very interested in that until the Sandusky scandal and then at that point, our phone was ringing off the wall,” she recalled.
Ard said they were later able to grasp that there were a lot of male survivors of child sexual abuse in the community and they were put off by the center’s former name, Women’s Resource Center.
“They didn’t see us as a resource for them. So we got very intentional about our outreach to male survivors. And we took presentations and panel discussions all over the county and engaged in a process that ultimately ended with us changing our name so that we can be more inclusive,” she said.
Ard remembered having a “light bulb moment” while talking with a national service provider for male survivors of child sexual assault.
“She said, ‘You know, your mission is inclusive. Don’t you think your name ought to reflect that?’”
The change was difficult, as they had longtime donors in the community and people who had been very invested in the work of the Women’s Resource Center, she said. Statistically, women are much more likely to experience sexual assault or domestic violence than men are. Ard said they had to take all of that seriously while being inclusive.
During the past five years, Centre Safe has seen the number of males accessing their services increase. The name change helped, she said, but they were intentional about their outreach, too.
Meaningful moments
Ard’s skill set focuses on administrative and visionary work. But the things that standout to her during her 25 years as executive director are the interactions.
Direct service — or the direct client contact — is a shared responsibility for everyone who works at Centre Safe. One of the most meaningful things for Ard occurred a few years ago while she was on call. A sexual assault victim went to the hospital and Ard sat with her and provided support during a rape kit exam.
“At one point, when they got ready to do the pelvic exam, I could tell that she was just really tense. And I just reached over and I said ‘Would you like to hold my hand while this is happening?’ And she said, ‘Yeah, I would,’” Ard recalled. “And so I just sat there and held her hand through that exam. And I think that just reminded me in such a powerful way about why it’s important that we do the work that we do.”
About 10-15 years ago, the task force said there needed to be a team approach and created a Sexual Assault Response Team (SART) that included an advocate, a specially trained nurse in forensic evidence collection, and a police officer. At the hospital, someone would ask the survivor if they wanted an advocate. Oftentimes, Ard said that answer would be “no.”
“Nine times out of 10, the answer was no, because people don’t know what an advocate does or how it would be helpful. And so one of the things we changed was to say in the SART response, everybody shows up, the forensic nurse is there, the advocate is there, the police officer is there. And then everybody says, ‘Here’s why I’m here. Here’s how I can help you. And if you don’t want one or all of us around, then then we won’t stay. But here’s how we can be helpful to you.’ And it just it it really transformed the way we did the work.”
Retirement & what’s next
Ard, who has been working professionally since 1981, makes her retirement official on Sept. 30. At 66 years old and with a fully retired husband, she said now is the time to step away. Plus, there are people working at Centre Safe who are ready to move into leadership roles.
“We have a program staff and directors of our various program teams who are just extraordinary. They really understand their work, they know what they’re doing, they understand how it all fits together. And so I feel good walking away because they got this and they can do this work,” she said.
For the first several months of her retirement, she wants to have her schedule completely open for herself. That may include cleaning out a closet or a day of painting, but mostly she wants to be able to sit on her porch in the morning with a cup of coffee without worrying about having to be somewhere.
But, of course, there are still things she cares about and hopes to be more involved in, including issues like reproductive health and justice, particularly in Centre County.
“We need to figure out how we can get a Planned Parenthood in this community. We don’t have one now, we need to do that. We need to figure out how we can make sure that reproductive health, including abortion, continues to be available for people who need it,” Ard said.
A search process was started for Centre Safe’s new executive director, but Ard’s replacement has not yet been announced.
