Breanne McLendon had no idea that her life would be so affected by seeing her mother help a woman escape domestic violence years ago.
McLendon, 35, is the new executive director of the Women’s Shelter of Central Arkansas in Conway.
“What really spurred this is … I had known I wanted to work in a nonprofit since high school,” McLendon said.
Her family moved from Mississippi to Mountain Home when McLendon was in the fifth grade. Her mother is a nurse; her father is a homebuilder.
“Mom had a patient come in who was experiencing domestic violence, was wanting to flee, and my mom played a vital role in that,” McLendon said. “She also didn’t hide it. The lady and her child actually lived with us for a little while.
“As a kid, I definitely didn’t realize what effect that had on my life.”
Well-meaning people gave McLendon advice to “have a backup plan,” because there wasn’t much money in nonprofit work.
“I loved kids, so I thought, ‘Let me be a teacher.’ I started out at [the University of Central Arkansas in Conway] and was in the education department and got pretty far in, three years in, and realized, ‘I do not want to teach.’
“I called my parents, crying, and I said, ‘I know I want to work in a nonprofit, and I think I want to get a degree in theology,’ and they were really supportive.”
McLendon transferred to Central Baptist College in Conway and graduated in 2008 with a bachelor’s degree in biblical studies. Then she moved to Nashville, Tennessee, to intern at a nonprofit, Center for Student Missions, which served as a liaison between groups who came to volunteer in the city and nonprofit organizations that needed those volunteers. She helped them get immersed in the culture of the city, too.
“I loved it so much,” she said of her job.
From there, she moved to Los Angeles to work full time with the Center for Student Missions.
“It was a huge culture shock, and I got to really be in the middle of urban ministry. … I feel like I learned so much about myself. I definitely found a new appreciation of the South,” she said. “Besides growing personally, I found — I really found — that passion for what I want to do.”
Still, she missed her family. She moved back to Arkansas in 2015 and experienced “reverse culture shock.”
“Strangers in the store were talking to me,” she said, laughing.
She believes that working in a smaller community, she can make a greater impact.
McLendon got a job at Our House homeless shelter in Little Rock as its Career Center manager, overseeing employment and training for about 120 men and women.
“They focus on full-time employment,” she said. “I really loved it. I knew, again, that I wanted to stay in nonprofit [work].”
She worked at the shelter just over three years, and a friend sent her an email about the job at the Women’s Shelter of Central Arkansas.
“I just decided, ‘OK, I’m ready.’ It’s an opportunity to be a leader and put things I’d learned into place,” she said.
Megan Greenland of Conway, president of the Women’s Shelter of Central Arkansas Board of Directors, said McLendon got the job for several reasons.
“She was extremely professional and had a long history in the nonprofit sector,” Greenland said. “It was also clear from the moment we met her that she had a servant heart and was dedicated to helping others Her career choices were not about money or personal fame, but about how she could use her skills to guide people into being their best selves and overcoming devastating obstacles.
“She seemed to have the perfect balance of being firm but also approachable, which is a necessary character trait in a field like this,” Greenland said.
McLendon said that although her work with domestic-violence victims has been limited, she is listening and learning.
“Because I’ve never been totally immersed in the domestic-violence world, it’s been a huge learning curve, but I’ve also been able to spend some time with the ladies living there to find out what it is they need. What are some ways we can support them? What do they need to empower them to get out on their own — resources we don’t have that they need?”
The shelter, in a private location, has space for 25 people — women and their children, and men, on a rare occasion.
“When I first started, we did have a man and his three kids. We usually try to find them housing pretty quickly. … We’re not set up that way” — to house both men and women.
One day last week, there were two beds available in the shelter, but it’s often full, she said.
When she interviewed for the position, McLendon said, she was surprised that many people didn’t realize the shelter exists in Conway.
Creating more community awareness about the shelter and its services is one of her goals.
“It’s not just a shelter; we have domestic-violence support groups, a sexual-assault program. We’ve been working to get on UCA’s campus and really just promoting so people know about it,” she said.
“I want to get more programming into the shelter. I’d love to be able to offer some mental-health programs through a mental-health professional. We do have a really great [mental-health] partnership in the community that we are able to refer people to.”
McLendon said she wants to continue to find ways to connect shelter residents to the community.
“From the research I’ve done,
that seems to be the best way to, hopefully, get them to not return to their abuser. Maybe they’re not from Conway. They don’t have family here; they don’t have that support system here.
“We want people to know, ‘Hey, these people are going to your church. We can’t tell you who they are,’ but bring more awareness so they feel connected.”
The shelter requires the women to look for employment while they are residents.
“We work with the United Way,” she said. “We send them there to work on financial classes, and they do some resume writing there, and we help them do job searches.
“Our goal is to get them financially stable, just stable in many aspects of their life. They save money while they’re here, and we give it to them when they leave.”
McLendon said her strengths include “being able to tell stories. I feel like that’s really impactful for people to hear real stories, just bringing it to life and personally connecting it to someone. They probably know someone who has experienced some domestic violence, or they, themselves, have experienced it.
“Another thing is the empathy I’ve learned just over my life and working hard just to not judge someone for the decisions they make. I grew up very middle class; my parents are still married. I haven’t experienced some of those things [that domestic-violence survivors have], but even at Our House, I’d have people say, ‘I just love talking to you, and I don’t feel judged for the things I say, and I can walk away with real solutions and a goal.”
McLendon said statistics show that women leave their abusers seven times before they leave for good.
“There’s a lot of shame in going back. The last thing they need is someone asking, ‘Why did you go back? I can’t believe you did that.’ You learned, and you’re growing, and you need to call [the shelter]. I want to say, ‘Let’s figure out a plan; let’s figure out how not to let this happen again.’”
The business-office number is (501) 329-7405, and the crisis hotline is (866) 358-2265.
McLendon also has her mother to emulate in her new role.
The woman her mother helped all those years ago did eventually leave her abuser, and McLendon’s mother and the woman still keep in touch.
“To see my mom continue to be there for her and work with her … it’s not my place to judge them for going back, but it is my job to be that support. To see my mom in that relationship with her, I saw — even if it is one person — how much you can change someone’s life.”
Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.