Women Alive! Program: Women Alive! Program

Friday, April 1, 2011

Women Alive! Program

....‘one bright aspect of this work is contemplating how a person, insufficiently cloth and fed and deprived of all worldly goods, maintain their courage and dignity’…..’ 'I respect them for their endurance and their patience and for the hope which they cling to in the face of tremendous odds.’ Dorothy Day

Vision and Mission of the Women Alive Program! The Women Alive! team is committed to homeless women living on the streets. The primary objective of this program is to create a safe, non-judgmental, nurturing space for homeless women, beginning with an emergency overnight shelter. We are committed to listening, encouraging and empowering women by providing basic resources and facilitating positive changes in their lives.

Women Alive! Program Description Women Alive! Program is a Hospitality Center and Emergency Shelter for homeless women from the Salinas and Monterrey Area that serves homeless women who otherwise would be wandering from house to house seeking shelter from relatives and acquaintances or simply sleeping out in the cold.

Since 2005, the Women Alive! Program has opened nightly from 7PM until 7:00AM. The primary objective of this program is to provide emergency overnight shelter for homeless women. This program seeks to build community with and for those who work on the margins: we try to provide them with a nurturing space. Services include: bedding, food, laundry, some meetings for socializing, case management and advocacy. As a hospitality center, we consider the women we serve our guests. Also, this shelter distinguishes for deeply listening, encouraging and empowering women to move forward with their lives. We hold the vision that homeless women could move beyond provision and gain experience for relationship and self-esteem building. Women find in this shelter a non-discriminatory, non-judgmental and compassionate environment.

Goals of this Emergency Shelter: To move out of homelessness by acquiring a renewed identity that gradually supplants demoralization of homeless; advancing in their own goals recovering in work and social commitment. To learn desire to survival and improvement.

Advocacy program: We actively support of the women we serve. The advocate seeks resources and help women in their physical and emotional needs and adaptation challenges to society. Advocate offers Case Management, a process of assessment, planning, facilitating options and services to meet women’s general needs.

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Homelessness

Homelessness describes the condition of people without a regular dwelling. People who are homeless are unable or unwilling to acquire and maintain regular, safe, and adequate housing, or lack "fixed, regular, and adequate night-time residence."[1] The legal definition of "homeless" varies from country to country, or among different entities or institutions in the same country or region. Homeless may also include people whose primary night-time residence is in a homeless shelter, a warming center, a domestic violence shelter or other ad hoc housing situation. Government homeless enumeration studies; also include persons who sleep in a public or private place not designed for use as a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings

We seek a Personal Journey beyond Fear

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us most. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and famous?' Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that people won't feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in all of us. And when we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” Marianne Williamson

We seek to learn and practice Empathy and Deep Listening

Empathy and Deep Listening involves the listener connecting with the essential core of an individual's experience and offering a kindly energy of presence. It is often referred to as "giving empathy." It is more accurately a procedure that supports the development of true empathy. This process involves listening for, and sometimes guiding the other person towards describing: Observations as to what happened, Feelings evoked, sometimes guessing what feelings might be, if the other is in blame mode, Needs both met and unmet, although the unmet needs are most likely to be provoking the feelings involved. This process for another may be conducted out loud, as an interaction with that person, or silently, as an inner approach to awareness of that person's experience. It brings about understanding of the needs of the one "receiving" empathy and relieves emotional charge.