24-Hour Crisis Line
(812) 336-0846

A National Model Domestic Violence Program and Rape Crisis Center

Middle Way House History

Middle Way House incorporated as a 501.c.3 in 1971 (Federal ID: 23-7300355; Indiana Not-For-Profit: 001087754 000 0) in order to provide crisis intervention services to people in Bloomington. For the next ten years, the agency operated as a volunteer organization, responding to needs in the community as they arose. Middle Way provided peer counseling to people abusing drugs and alcohol, operated a venereal disease clinic, and answered the phone 24-hours a day to provide a listening ear to people who were lonely, anxious, frightened, or in need of information and referral services.

In 1981, following the arrival in Bloomington of Planned Parenthood and the South Central Community Mental Health Center, the agency refined its focus, selecting as its target population abused women and children. In addition to the 24-hour crisis line, the agency began to define a set of appropriate responses to this population. Middle Way first opened a domestic violence shelter, providing, in addition to safe housing, case management and facilitated in-house peer support groups for women and children from a six-county area in south central Indiana. In 1984, Middle Way started support groups for Monroe County women not in residence but coping with the aftermath of intimate partner violence.

In 1987, we began to provide children's programming in the shelter setting.

In 1988, at the request of the city, we opened a rape crisis center; later in the year, we established a legal advocacy program.

In 1989, we opened the Community Resource Center to house, circulate, and distribute titles on abuse and recovery.

In,1990 we initiated formation of the Monroe County Domestic Violence Task Force, a group consisting of representatives from law enforcement, the courts, the prosecutor's office, corrections and probation, Child Protective Services, City government, and health and psychological services. In 1992, we offered support group programming in Greene County, and we began providing services at-the-scene in Bloomington immediately following a police intervention in cases of domestic violence and sexual assault. In 1994, we opened offices in Lawrence, Owen, and Greene counties to provide crisis intervention and legal advocacy to victims of domestic violence and sexual assault.

In 1995, Middle Way became a Community Housing Development Organization and, in 1996, we initiated creation of the Housing Network, which successfully negotiated implementation of the Affordable Housing Trust Fund with the City of Bloomington.

In 1996, we opened the Family Support Center (FSC) to provide assistance to precariously housed women-headed families in hopes of preventing homelessness in this population. Through the economic development component of the FSC, our first business, a paper shredding concern, opened in March 1997, to provide living wage jobs with benefits and appropriate supports to women entering the job market after leaving abusive relationships. Also in that year, we began construction of second stage housing for battered women and their children as part of our commitment to the provision of a continuum of housing for this population, and we acquired our second rental unit--low-cost, third stage housing for our target population.

In 2000, we opened a satellite office in Martin County.

In 2001, we opened an office in Morgan County.

In 2002, our second business, Food Works, began serving nutritious meals to children in area childcare programs.

In 2003, began serving nutritious meals at Senior Nutrition sites in Monroe and Owen counties.

In 2004, we opened a second office in Greene County.

In 2005, Middle Way purchased the historic Coca-Cola Bottling Co. plant to enable expansion of Middle Way House programs and provide for new initiatives.