It is the Shelter School at the Women's Resource Center of the New River Valley. In the past five years, the Women's Resource Center, a United Way partner agency and a Combined Virginia Campaign participant, has housed more than 750 children whose mothers, as well as themselves, are victims of domestic violence. The Shelter School began in 1992 after receiving a Stewart B. McKinney federal grant to educate homeless children. Since that time, almost 100 children have attended the school and countless others have been helped through the efforts of Regional Homeless Youth Educator Donna Merkt. Teaching grades K-12, Merkt coordinates with 45 contacts throughout Montgomery, Giles, Floyd, and Pulaski county school systems and the City of Radford.
Area schools donate textbooks, while local churches and the general community donate other supplies.
Computers and software were also purchased with grant money available when the program was first established. In many instances, children whose mothers are staying at the Women's Resource Center are in danger. It is not always in the child's best interest to remain in public school. According to Merkt, these situations occur quite frequently and are a terrifying possibility for both mother and child. The Shelter School gives children staying at the shelter an opportunity to attend school and be counted present in their own school without having to leave the safety of the shelter.