About the Women's Shelter

The Women's Shelter offers temporary emergency shelter to homeless women.
We house up to 12 women at a time and between 100 and 150 a year.

The transitional housing program offers women up to two years to address
long term issues like secure employment, reuniting with their families,
working through finincial or legal problems, pursuing educational goals
and locating permanent housing. The program has expanded to nine homes
which house up to 23 women. The Women's Shelter has also developed a
lease-purchase program for the rare woman who can go from "Homeless to Homeowner".

Last year, 55% of the women we served were in recovery from alcohol addiction,
80% from drug addiction and 72% were receiving treatment for a mental illness.
62% reported that they had considered suicide at some time in their life.

We offer comprehensive services including: counseling, AA and NA support groups,
assertiveness training, a codependency support group, health screening and dental care,
employment counseling and other lifeskill training.

The Women's Shelter also operates a health screening clinic that serves over
200 residents of Midlands area shelters each years. Volunteers who do everything
from run errands and answer phones to renovate houses and provide professional
services.

The Women's Shelter's annual budget is approximately $200,000. We are a private
non-profit that has served the Midlands for 20 years and most of our support comes
from individuals, churches and civic groups in the community.

The Women's Shelter's annual "Thanksgiving Souper" is our main appeal for community
support and has grown into a Thanksgiving tradition. A simple meal of bread and soup,
the "Souper" is offered as a symbolic experience on the Thursday before Thanksgiving
to promote greater understanding of hunger and homelessness. We depend on this
fundraiser for 10% of our annual budget.

For more information, call (803) 779-4706