BUSINESS CENTRAL
March April 2013
Her Mother’s Daughter
As a child Maxine Barnett’s mother taught her that everyone had gifts and a responsibility to share them.
As executive director of Anna Marie’s Alliance, Barnett has spent a lifetime proving her mother right.
By Gail Ivers
One of the first things you notice when you walk through Anna Marie’s shelter are the children.
Children of varying ages eating snacks at the dining table, playing games in the play room, being rocked
by parents and staff, running through the halls with mothers close behind…. The place is full of children.
It’s not uncommon for women to tolerate domestic abuse right up until it involves their children. But
Anna Marie’s offers more than simple shelter for women and children. It also offers one of the most
comprehensive children’s services programs in the country, according to Executive Director Maxine
Barnett.
“Many times we think of the woman and what she’s gone through,” Barnett said. “People forget about
the kids and how hard it is on them. We have a program here very specifically for helping children
heal.” The St. Cloud shelter is the only one in the U.S. that has a child psychiatrist who visits the shelter
to work with the children. “We’ve learned that the kids do better when they’re in their own
environment,” she said.
The shelter also offers a wide variety of on-site activities for the children, including Girl Scouts and Boy
Scouts. The children are able to go to the St. Cloud Area Family “Y” and to the Boys & Girls Club. “We
did a presentation at the World Conference on Domestic Violence because what we’re doing with the
children is so successful,” Barnett said.
That Doesn’t Happen Here
There was a time when programming for children in trauma was the least of Barnett’s worries. Instead,
she was spending her time convincing people that domestic abuse existed.
Barnett moved to St. Cloud in 1968. Always oriented toward issues of social justice, she became part of
a group of women who met to talk about women’s issues. Domestic violence was one of those issues.
“In the 1970s there was a shelter in Minneapolis and one in St. Paul and that was about it,” Barnett said.
“We started exploring what could be done in St. Cloud – funding, grants, even a small place for women
to stay.”
The group approached the St. Cloud City Council for help, hoping for some funding or possibly an older
HUD (Housing & Urban Development) house that could be redeveloped. What they heard was: We
don’t have battered women here.
“They told us that any problems that did exist could be taken care of with counseling,” Barnett said.
“What they didn’t understand is that without a safe refuge, women wouldn’t talk about it – that can be
risky – even lethal.”
So Barnett and the group of women decided to take a different approach. They worked with a professor
at St. Cloud State University to do a survey of Wright, Sherburne, Stearns, and Benton counties. “The
survey asked ‘Did they know anyone in a bad relationship?’ ‘Had they had personal experience with
domestic violence?’ And the response was really high,” Barnett explained. “With that documentation
we went back to the City Council.” But they didn’t go armed with just the survey results. They brought
respondents with them to the meeting.
“We wrote to survey respondents and asked them to come to the meeting and lots of them came,”
Barnett said. “I mean, a lot of them came. At that time there were no limits on how long testimony at
council meetings could last and we kept bringing people up. It got to be 11 pm. Midnight. 1 a.m.
Finally one of the council members said, ‘Just give them something so we can go home.’ And that’s how
we got our start.”
The first shelter was a small three-bedroom house by St. Cloud State University. “It was small, but it was
a start and a way to reach people,” Barnett said. “We were instantly full.” The demand was so great
that Barnett and her associates arranged for 15 private homes to also take in women in need. “That
wasn’t ideal,” according to Barnett, “because it’s important for the women to come together and share
their experiences. They need to know that they aren’t alone.”
With this demonstrated need, the St. Cloud Housing and Redevelopment Authority worked with the
shelter to find a larger house near SCSU. This one could hold 13 people. After a few years, a neighbor
next door to the shelter moved out. This home was also turned into a shelter and the houses were
physically connected. “Now we could hold 18 or 20 people. We also had our offices there. We were
there for 16 or 17 years until we determined with the board of directors to build something that would
be more suitable for our needs.”
By this time, of course, the recognition of domestic violence had changed dramatically. No one said
“That doesn’t happen here” when the topic of funding came up. Barnett, other shelter directors, and
concerned citizens had successfully lobbied the Minnesota legislature to establish new laws around
domestic violence and orders for protection.
Her Name Was Anna Marie
“We had more community support – not major donors – but regular givers that made us confident we
would be able to do something,” according to Barnett. The board purchased property and work began
to raise funds for the building. One day Barnett received a call from a gentleman who wanted to meet
with her to talk about the building project. He was from California, but was in St. Cloud visiting his
mother and had read about the project in the paper. During the meeting the gentleman explained that
his mother, whom he greatly respected, had been an abused wife. She had four children and eventually
left her husband. Her name was Anna Marie.
The gentleman appreciated what the shelter was trying to do and he wanted to make a donation. He
offered to give $500,000 to the building fund. “That was really something,” Barnett said. “I didn’t know
if he was legit. Was he putting me on? Who was this guy? I didn’t know him, had never heard of him.
So I checked him out. I made some calls and I was told if he said he wanted to donate the money, we
could count on it. That gift really helped us get additional donors.” In fact, they were able to build the
new shelter without any debt and opened in 2000.
Anna Marie’s Shelter, named after their benefactor’s mother, can hold 35-40 people depending on the
ages of the children and is generally full, according to Barnett.
We All Have Gifts
Though women’s issues have been at the forefront of Barnett’s life for 34 years, it was never her
intention to make it her life’s work.
One of 11 children, she grew up in South Dakota near an Indian reservation. “My mother was dedicated
to the fact that we all have gifts to give and we need to share them to benefit others,” Barnett said.
“She would talk about how we weren’t taking care of the people in our own state and that the poverty
on the reservation was unimaginable.” The idea of a life of service, particularly on a South Dakota
Indian reservations, was always in the back of Barnett’s mind.
Immediately out of high school she entered a convent. “That was really good for me,” she said. “It
helped me formulate my direction. Right before my final vows I decided to leave and go to college, but
that experience was really good for me and I’ve never regretted it for a minute.”
She went to the College of St. Mary in Omaha, then attended graduate school at Marquette University in
Wisconsin. Her first teaching job was for an inner city junior high school for African-American children in
Milwaukee.
“This was the height of the Civil Rights movement in Milwaukee. It was a time of great unrest. I was
there when there were marches and burnings,” Barnett said. It was also a time when there was a
movement in the black community to decrease the number of white teachers and professionals in the
lives of black children. “I was one of two white teachers in our school. I never felt threatened,” she
stressed. “The other teachers and the students and parents were wonderful. I understood their
position. I knew people who were housekeepers, but who would have wanted more education if they
had been given the opportunity.” She recalled being invited to tea by one of the parents. “They had a
room just for guests,” she said. “It was clear they were very poor, but so gracious.”
After one year she left that position and returned to South Dakota where she taught at a boarding
school on an Indian reservation. “I had known for a long time that I wanted to be part of helping the
Native American population,” Barnett said. And she found that her mother had been right. “There was
so much poverty.”
Even though women’s issues were still not on her radar as a career, knowledge of domestic abuse
always simmered under the surface. “When I was growing up a neighbor lady would cover over and my
Mom would hide her,” Barnett said. “Her husband would come and beat on the door. Yes, it was scary
– and risky – but it was something my mother just did. And she’d call the police if she needed to. One
day they moved away and we don’t know what happened to them.” Even during her teaching days she
knew of students whose mothers were abused. “On the reservation it was related to alcohol. In the
inner city it was related to how hard life was,” she said.
After a year at the Indian reservation, Barnett moved to St. Cloud and taught school. In 1977 she took a
job with Stearns County as a case aide, visiting families in their homes to determine what type of
services and financial assistance they might need.
I Like To Make A Difference
Ever since arriving in St. Cloud she had worked to secure a shelter for battered women. In 1979, the
volunteers who had succeeded in creating a shelter determined to hire an executive director. Barnett’s
colleagues at the county urged her to apply. “I decided to do it, but only so they knew that I wanted to
work there. I didn’t want to run the place.”
Five women were brought in for interviews, all at the same time. “We had to run a group with the other
applicants as if they were women in the shelter. We had to go into a room alone and write a letter to
the editor about why we needed a shelter. It was a five hour interview,” she said.
To Barnett’s surprise, the board offered her the job. “I told them no,” she said. “I told them I had
mislead them, I wanted to work at the shelter, not lead it.” She shared the conversation with her county
colleagues who again urged her to take the job. “A couple of days later they called again, and I said
yes.” That was in 1979.
Though Barnett had never run a business, leading the shelter became her passion. “You have to
remember that when I started, we weren’t this big,” she said. “I learned how to run this organization
when it was much smaller. And as we grew I hired the right people to fill in the areas where I wasn’t as
strong – facilities, finances, counseling – a skilled director hires the right people.”
Barnett could write and she was a trained teacher, so grants, public speaking, and advocacy became
well-honed skills. “I wasn’t a numbers person, but I wasn’t hired for that,” she said. “I had no trouble
saying this is what we need and why, and working to get the community on-board with our program.”
That, not surprisingly, makes Barnett’s short, and humble, list of accomplishments. She counts among
her successes, “Getting the doors open in the first place, and getting a positive response from the
community that this is an issue that needs to be addressed. And creating community partnerships,”
Barnett said, then added, “Working with law enforcement – they are so good now, we are truly
partners. It used to be that unless they actually saw him hit her, their hands were tied. I think the police
were as relieved as anyone when we finally got some laws on the books.”
Barnett has seen many changes during her tenure at Anna Marie’s, not the least of which has been in
the women themselves. “Many of the early women who came here were in longer-term relationships –
20 and 30 years,” Barnett said. “They didn’t know there was a way out and if you don’t know there’s a
place available to you , you don’t reach out because you could be in worse trouble. Today we see more
younger women because they know there’s a safe place available to them.” Barnett also says they see
more women who are interested in becoming self-sufficient; in securing an education and finding work.
Big changes are in the works for Anna Marie’s. Barnett plans to retire this month. “I’m not running out
of steam,” she said. “But it’s the right time. The agency is in a good place. I feel excellent about our
leadership team. Our finances are in good shape. Of course we can always use more funding, but,
we’re not grappling for every dollar just to keep the doors open. It’s the right time for me and the right
time for the agency.”
Her initial plans are to do some traveling. Her many siblings are scattered across the United States
giving her a chance see the U.S. and family at the same time. She plans to be involved in community
volunteerism, though not at the shelter. “That’s too hard on the new director,” she said. But whatever
she chooses, it will still be in human services, because in the end, she’s her mother’s daughter and she
still has talents to share. “I like to make a difference,” she said.
Gail Ivers is Vice President of the St. Cloud Area Chamber of Commerce and Managing Editor of Business
Central Magazine.
PERSONAL PROFILE
Name: Maxine Barnett
Age: 70
Title/role: Executive Director, Anna Marie’s Alliance
Hometown: Sioux Falls, SD
Education:
BA, College of St. Mary, Omaha NE
MS in psychology, St. Cloud State University
Graduate work at Marquette University in WI
Work History: Taught school in a variety of places, including Wisconsin, South Dakota, and St. Augustine
and St. Anthony Schools in St. Cloud; case aide for Stearns County; executive director of Woman House,
which later became Anna Marie’s Alliance.
BUSINESS PROFILE
Company Name: Anna Marie's Alliance
Business Address:
44 28th Ave N Ste E
PO Box 367
St. Cloud, MN 56302-0367
Phone: (320) 253-6900
Fax: (320) 253-5563
Public email: [email protected]
Website: www.annamaries.org
Executive Director: Maxine Barnett
Business Description: Anna Marie's Alliance consists of five programs addressing domestic abuse in a
five-county central Minnesota region: Anna Marie's (emergency shelter), Children Exposed to Violence
Initiative, Jill Eckhoff Transitional House, School Youth Program, and Criminal Justice Advocacy Program.
Adults served in 2010-11: 1,500
Adults served in 2011-12: 2016
Children served in 2010-11: 260
Children served in 2011-12: 683
Number of employees: 32
Number of volunteers: 80
Budget: $2 million
Sources of Funding: Violence Against Women Act, a federal grant administered through the state;
(At the time of this writing, funding for the VAWA was still being heard in Congress and there was
question about whether or not it would be approved.)
community fundraising; ¼ owner of the Bingo Emporium (the profits are used to fund four area not-forprofit groups)
Service area: Stearns, Benton, Sherburne, Wright, and Mille Lacs counties
TIMELINE
1966 – Maxine Barnett spends a year teaching at an inner-city school in Milwaukee
1967 – Barnett moves to South Dakota and spends a year teaching at the Crow Creek Indian Reservation
1968 – Barnett moves to St. Cloud
1972 – Barnett teaches at St. Augustine and St. Anthony Schools in St. Cloud; she begins meeting with a
group of women interested in women’s issues, including problems of domestic abuse
1977 – Barnett starts working for Stearns County Social Services as a case aide
1979 – The first battered women’s shelter, a three bedroom house near St. Cloud State, opens with seven
staff and a budget of $137,000. It is called “Woman House,” and one night provides shelter for eight
women and their 13 children. Woman House coordinates nine safe homes in St. Cloud, Sauk Rapids and
Watkins, in addition to the shelter.
1980 – Woman House moves to a larger home in St. Cloud that can hold 13 people
1983 – Woman House expands into an adjacent house. In addition to the staff, the facility can now house
18-20 women and children.
1999 – Woman House purchases property to build a new shelter. A gift of $500,000 allows the facility to
be built without debt. The program is renamed Anna Marie’s Alliance.
2000 – Anna Marie’s Alliance opens in their new facility and new location
2013 – Anna Marie’s Alliance now has a $2 million budget and a staff of 32. They shelter over 2600
women and children annually. In March Barnett retires as executive director.