FRIENDS OF SAINT FRANCIS INC - ST. CLARE INN
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Mission Statement
The Friends of Saint Francis, Inc. is a small, privately funded, not-for-profit organization whose sole project is St. Clare Inn, a transitional housing program for homeless women with diagnosed mental health issues. Inspired by the death of a local homeless woman who struggled with mental health issues, St Clare Inn opened it doors in 2007 to care and assist for this often overlooked, marginalized and at risk group. Our goal is to empower homeless women with mental health issues to achieve a lifetime of independent living, self worth and respect. Currently in its 11th year, St. Clare Inn is now a highly respected program in the City of Toronto among social workers, caseworkers, psychiatrists, doctors and hospital discharge planners.
About This Cause
St. Clare Inn is a transitional housing program that offers accommodation, support, care and life skills training to homeless women between the ages of 30-60 who are struggling with a diagnosed mental health issue. The house accommodates five women at a time and is designed to feel like a home rather than a shelter or institution. Each woman at the Inn has her own comfortable, yet simple bedroom and is given up to a year to stay at the Inn. Over the past decade, we have learned that offering at risk women a bed and a roof is not enough. Our work has taught us that care means more than simply “providing” and that in order to truly serve women in need we must affect real change. At St. Clare Inn our work is focused on eliminating the hurdles that keep homeless women with mental health issues from breaking the cycle of street, hospital, temporary shelter and back to street. The home-like and safe housing offered at St. Clare Inn combined with dedicated professionals focused on one-on-one programming is a turning point for these at risk women who find themselves in need. We believe that it is through our life skills training, civic and community engagement and mental health management that we have been able to transform the system of care to one of far reaching empowerment providing homeless women who struggle with mental health issues the opportunity for an independent and stable life. The philosophy behind St. Clare Inn is that every woman who comes through the door must be an active participant in her own healing and recovery process. Professionally trained staff assists each woman in developing and executing her Personal Plan in order to develop self-reliance and independent life skills and possible job training while at the same time promoting self sufficiency and community engagement. Women establish goals as they begin their life at the Inn and use these goals as a way of evaluating their growth as they continue to rebuild their lives. Addressing and alleviating the risk factors these women faced prior to entering the Inn and equipping them with the tools to move forward is a key element of St. Clare Inn’s individualized program. Upon departure from the Inn, every woman is helped to develop a Safety Support Plan of her own to reduce the likelihood of a relapse. Coming from homeless situations, many women need to be taught or re-introduced to the fundamentals of living such as managing a budget, dealing with stress, personal fitness and well being, nutrition, keeping appointments, decision making, conflict management, grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning. Most of us take these simple yet essential skills for granted, but for homeless women who suffer with mental health issues many have never acquired these skills or may have forgotten them and therefore been unable to resettle in a community. The one-on-one individualized professional programming at St. Clare Inn gives each resident the opportunity for a life off the street alleviating their personal risk of poor health, poor nutrition, poverty and often abusive situations. Educating, training and ultimately empowering the women who enter St. Clare Inn with the skills to forge a new life where they are off the street, healthy, and able to manage their personal mental health issues is the focus of St. Clare Inn’s program. Community Engagement is also a foundation of our work at St. Clare Inn as each woman is required to volunteer weekly at a supervised local charity with the goal of establishing involvement and integration within the greater society. Just recently one of our past residents was hired to work part-time at the organization where she volunteered during her stay at St. Clare Inn. We firmly believe that our civic engagement component of the program plays a critical role not only in transforming how the women view themselves and their self-confidence, but changes how society views this marginalized at-risk group of women. The demand to serve homeless women who struggle with mental health issues in the City of Toronto continues to be high. St Michael’s Hospital, CAMH, Sunnybrook and Michael Garron Hospital (formerly Toronto East General) regularly offer candidates for placement at St. Clare Inn as our program has proven to be effective in making real change in the lives of homeless woman who struggle with mental health issues. St. Clare Inn is a privately funded program and does not receive any government support. We rely fully on the generous donations of individuals, companies and foundations. The cost of running our program includes comfortable and safe housing, food, supervision and guidance from a Personal Care Worker, and individualized one-on-one programming and care. Every year it is a challenge to meet the needs of serving homeless women of Toronto who struggle with mental health challenges and this year is no exception.