Shelter Director Gets Service Award

When Carol Anne Williams began working for Interval House in 1979, she saw it as an opportunity to spend a few months helping battered women.

Fourteen years later, Williams is executive director of the shelter and shows no signs of giving up the post.

Williams was recently named the first recipient of the HomeAid Community Service Award. The award was given by HomeAid of Orange County, a nonprofit charitable corporation of the Building Industry Assn. of Orange County.

The group praised Williams for her “strong and inspirational leadership” of Interval House.

“This is a big honor for me,” she said. “These are the kinds of things that push people to continue doing the work they do.”

When Williams joined Interval House, the organization operated out of a three-bedroom home in Seal Beach and could shelter only six women at a time.

Now Interval House has three shelters and houses 55 to 60 women and their children each month. It offers shelter, food and counseling to battered women and helps them find jobs and permanent homes.

“It’s been challenging all the way. But we continue to expand,” said Williams.

In recent years, Interval House has worked to improve its services for Asian and Latino women by having translators on hand when they arrive at the shelters.

Interval House recently expanded one of its shelters and is planning renovations at another.

Williams said that as difficult as the job sometimes is, she takes pride and pleasure in helping the women and their children.