On March 8, 2019, on International Women's Day, at the intersection of South Washington and East Second Street, in downtown Bloomington, a street was named Toby Strout Way. Strout, who passed away in 2017, spent her life being a catalyst for change. Her impact on the Bloomington community was exceptionally vast. As pioneering abolitionist and human rights crusader Ida B. Wells said, “The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them.” That is how Toby Strout lived.
For three decades Strout was Executive Director at Middle Way House, which, since 1971, has served myriad survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault and human trafficking. Strout began her work there in 1984. In 1987 she took over the Executive Director position planning to stay “no fewer than four months and no longer than a year,” as she once explained.
Yet Strout saw how women’s lives were completely stifled from fear of violence perpetrated against them. She also learned how she could be of service. “I found that we could make opportunities for people who didn’t have them and really make a difference in their lives,” Strout told William Morris on the talk show Conversations on Indiana. “Toby provided a visionary leadership,” adds her husband Robert Arnove. “Her life work illustrated what one individual could do to bring about significant radical change in the way a community perceived and tackled a public issue.”
For half a century Middle Way House has provided safe and secure shelter, transitional housing and permanent housing to individuals and families. They also offer around the clock crisis intervention services, emergency shelter, legal advocacy, child care and support groups for domestic violence survivors. “At Middle Way House we really focus on strengths,” Strout shared with Morris. “When women come to us the first thing we think is, what courage.”
In 1973 Strout came to Bloomington from her native Brooklyn to get a masters and PhD in Education from Indiana University. Taking a stand for equality and change seemed to be embedded in her DNA. Over dinner her parents engaged their children in animated political, ethical and literary discussions. “We talked about doing the right thing, the moral thing and understanding the plight and struggles of the underdog and vulnerable,” shares her brother Gary Schoichet.
Barely out of childhood Schoichet took Strout to Woolworth's to protest their policy of maintaining segregated lunch counters in the South. “Our first visit to the 1964 Worlds Fair was to picket the employment practices that only gave construction and other jobs to white workers,” says Schoichet.
Years later Toby Strout brought her daughter Anna Strout to marches, rallies, community meetings and city hall press conferences where Anna could see first hand how her mother advocated for services for survivors of domestic violence or sexual assault. “She empowered and challenged others through personal conversations, public speaking, and simply by being herself,” says Anna Strout who is a producer along with her brother, Anthony Arnove, for Voices of a People’s History. In her own work Anna remains motivated by her mother’s teachings. She and her husband, actor/writer Jesse Eisenberg, remain committed to Middle Way House as volunteers and fundraisers.
Middle Way House is one of six national model domestic violence shelters in the United States. Strout’s vision was that survivors should not be living in the shadows nor ostracized from society. In order to reclaim their lives Strout was steadfast in her belief that people need to feel seen, heard and fully empowered to have the opportunity to make their own choices.
During her time at Middle Way House Strout won the National Historic Preservation award for transforming an old Coca-Cola bottling plant into an emergency shelter, permanent housing and administrative building called New Wings. She also helped create The RISE! This transitional housing program provides affordable housing for low income and homeless families, headed by women, who have experienced life-threatening violence. Strout and her team did all they could to make these buildings places of aesthetic beauty with vibrant colors and rooftop gardens. Artists like Danielle Bruce and Christopher DeYoung paint community murals with shelter residents to make the spaces more inviting.
Strout’s powerful legacy and the programs she helped establish continues to blossom through the many lives she touched. “Toby did so much to fight for equality and justice,” says Debra Morrow, who currently serves as executive director for Middle Way House. Morrow was a former resident, then became an employee who worked with survivors and was ultimately trained by Strout to succeed her as executive director.
Ten years ago in recognition of Domestic Violence Awareness Month, Middle Way House established its annual Wrapped in Love display. Strout and her team, including Maryann Gingles, Donna Storm and Katherine Devich launched a program where all winter long trees in downtown Bloomington are literally wrapped in sweaters handmade by Bloomington residents. Businesses and organizations throughout the community sponsor each tree sweater. As Middle Way House envelops survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking in support, fabric artists envelop these tree sweaters around dozens of trees.
Not only do they enrich the landscape, The Tree Sweater Project also broaches an uncomfortable subject. It helps raise awareness about domestic violence and sexual assault while sharing important information in a safe way as the Middle Way House crisis line is listed on each tree sweater.
In March 2019, as the street sign was erected on Toby Strout Way, a man who worked for the city and overseeing the job introduced himself to Anna Strout to share how inspired he was by Toby Strout’s devotion to the community. He said, “I joined the union and ended up holding a leadership position for the city because I was inspired by your mother.”
It was a fitting Toby Strout Way moment of kismet. “Our hope is that the street sign will serve as a catalyst for action, as people remember her work or ask about her legacy, and become inspired to act. Because Toby was a woman of not only brave words, but brave actions,” says Anna Strout. “My mother believed in bringing people together to give back. And that is the Toby Strout way.”
