Oct 24, 2018 3 min read

City Mission will celebrate the grand opening of their newly renovated Women with Children Shelter at 10 a.m. Thursday.

“At the new Women with Children Shelter, women and children can get the help they need to build strong, stable lives,” said City Mission Chief Development Officer, Dr. Sally Mounts. “The children are given shelter, food, clothing, and medical care. They are enrolled in a highly-responsive school system. They have support groups and family therapy and are given presents on birthdays and at Christmas.”

City Mission’s newly-expanded Women with Children Shelter consists of 12 suites, each uniquely designed to feel like home for a family in crisis. It can be a place of healing for broken families.

“The women and children come here when they are at such a vulnerable and broken state of their life,” said Amber Miller, City Mission’s housing coordinator for the Women with Children Shelter. “It’s so important for them to know that they are at a safe place and that they are able to get the love and the care that they need. While they’re here, they don’t have to worry about bills or about the outside stressors in the world. They can just come here and heal and just focus on themselves and their children.”

City Mission also provides childcare on site, which will be a significant help for single mothers seeking employment.

“Single mothers are at a great risk,” said Leah Dietrich, director of residential programs at City Mission. “If they don’t have access to childcare, that can lead to missing work and losing a job, and without a financial safety net, it can lead to eviction and homelessness.”

The mothers can work on their recovery by attending classes, counseling and support groups during the day, and then they can spend every night in their own, private suite with their little ones.

“Women in recovery in the Washington area have very few options to continue to parent while also working on their recovery. At City Mission, we are able to provide that support,” said Dietrich.

“Our Women with Children Program balances the needs of the women,” Dietrich said. “That includes recovery from whatever brought them to us as well as helping them build a solid foundation for parenting in the future. We will be offering addiction recovery classes, parenting classes, and codependency classes. These classes, combined with one-on-one support including counseling, case management and life skills will help us to move each family from homelessness to stable independent living.”