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Safe Shores -- The DC Children's Advocacy Center

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Michele Booth Cole headshot by Mike Morgan.

Michele Booth Cole
Executive Director
Safe Shores-The DC Children's Advocacy Center

Making life happier, healthier and safer for all children and helping ease them through life transitions is a calling that became clear for Michele Booth Cole early in her life. A longtime Washington area resident, Cole spent part of her early years in the Midwest before moving to Washington at age nine. Having lived in three different quadrants of DC and riding Metro buses across the city to school, she knows Washington well and considers it home. Cole completed high school at a boarding school in New England. Through all these experiences she learned first-hand about transitions and the importance of having a community of caring adults in her life.

Looking back, a major milestone in helping Cole realize her passion for helping children was being a big sister during her last two years of college. She still remembers the difficult life circumstances of the little girl named Gladys from a nearby neighborhood in Cambridge. Those years in particular sparked a desire to reach out to vulnerable children to offer hope, encouragement and opportunities for progress.

After graduating from Harvard University and Georgetown University Law Center, Cole completed a judicial clerkship and then spent two years on Capitol Hill as a senior legislative aide. By then she knew that she didn't want to go the traditional route of working at a power law firm in D.C. She chose instead to work in leadership and policy positions for organizations that serve young people.

It was the position at Safe Shores that connected the dots for her, bringing together her passion for kids, her skills as a child advocate and an administrator, and her expertise at guiding organizations through transitions. "There is no other organization like Safe Shores in the District, working with multiple public and private agencies, to serve the needs of kids who have been victims of abuse, neglect, or who have witnessed acts of violence," she says. "We are a place where kids come first, where their immediate needs are met, and where parents can find the resources to get the family on the path of healing."

As Executive Director since 2003 of Safe Shores-The DC Children's Advocacy Center, she and her staff have also helped child victims of abuse and violence make the transition through traumatic life experiences in an environment of respect and safety, surrounded by capable professionals.

Safe Shores does this work with all of the agencies responsible for helping to keep children safe -- the police department, prosecutors, doctors, mental health professionals, and social workers. The organization serves as a facilitator, helping this multidisciplinary team work together for the health and wellbeing of each child. The team ensures that the best interest of every child victim seen at Safe Shores is met.

During her tenure at Safe Shores, Cole has moved the organization through a board transition, and has put the organization on strong financial and programmatic footing. She worked successfully with the mayor and DC Council to secure ongoing operating funding for Safe Shores.

Now she prepares to guide the staff, clients and partner agencies through another transition, a happy one that is a long time coming: a move in 2008 to new space at the Bundy School on O Street, NW where Safe Shores will be able to offer medical and mental health services, prevention, and parent education, with space for all of the multidisciplinary team members on site – easier for the children and their families.

"Some of these children are born into such chaos, devastation," Cole says. "When they walk through here, everything's supposed to be different: adults who respect them and listen to them, nutritious food, new clothing." Cole feels it's as important to honor these young people as well as help them. "There should be no sense of shame," she says.

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