Editor's Note: This is the third in a six-part series on domestic violence.

You'd never know by looking at it that this ordinary house in a residential Warsaw neighborhood is really a haven for the women who find shelter here.

The inside of the house - with its toys, books, bunk beds in the bedrooms - looks just as comfortable as the outside, as though any ordinary family could live here.

Only the security cameras placed at strategic locations, the television monitors and other security devices hint that this is not a typical family home.

In fact, this is not just any house - this house has meant the difference between life and death for hundreds of women. This is the Beaman Home, Kosciusko County's only shelter for battered women.

The Beaman Home's biggest advantage is its anonymity, its ability to blend into the neighborhood and remain pretty much unnoticed. To maintain this confidentiality - of the shelter's location and of the women who stay there - first-time residents are usually met by a staff member in a protected public location and then taken to the home.

"It's a temporary emergency shelter. Our services are free, because these women come with no resources. They can't obtain resources," said Jeannie Campbell, executive director of the Beaman Home.

The shelter can house between 13 and 15 women and children at any one time, she said, and they can stay there for up to 30 days. In fiscal 1995, 238 women and children and one man used the shelter's services, Campbell said (the 239 clients does not include repeat visits).

Campbell said the average length of stay is 10 days, and the average client is between 25 and 35 years old and has been married an average of seven years.

All cooking and cleaning are done by the residents, and a list of chores is posted near the kitchen so everyone knows what is expected of her. Posters on the walls advise residents of their legal rights, of house rules, of emergency procedures.

On-site counselors are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Security is tight.

"You have the best security that you can and you never let your guard down," Campbell said.

Women at the shelter learn that the violence they're fleeing is not their fault, that they can make their own decisions and that it is never right to hit another person. Each woman works with the staff to develop a plan of action, whether that action includes returning to her partner or going out on her own.

Either way, Campbell and her staff let the woman know she's welcome back anytime.

"It's no matter if she's at the Beaman Home for two days or two hours - we let her know she can run right back to us," Campbell said.

On a recent weekday afternoon, four Beaman Home residents were watching TV in the living room while Campbell talked with Ruth, a counselor, in her office. A sudden eruption of laughter from the residents stopped their conversation in mid-sentence.

"Do you know what an unusual sound that is for this place?" said Ruth of the laughter. "Most women, for at least the first two or three days they're here, don't even know how to laugh."

The shelter's space is limited, but Campbell has never turned a woman away because there was no room for her. "Usually women who come to us have to get away right now," she said. If the shelter is full, the staff will arrange for the woman to go to a shelter in another county or to a hotel.

Since the Beaman Home is a nonprofit United Way agency, the staff runs the shelter as frugally as possible while relying on the help of about 20 trained volunteers. Donations from the community, largely from area churches and businesses, Campbell said, range from personal items to paper products to a water softener and monthly salt supplies.

Still, a steady increase over the years in the need for shelter services, added to cuts in government funding, has Campbell concerned about the future.

"I have had several state grants cut this year, and I can't cut down on services," she said. [[In-content Ad]]