MY SAFE HARBOR INC
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Mission Statement
My Safe Harbor is a program designed by women for women - especially single mothers struggling with a variety of life skills deficits. Our mission is to provide a pathway to hope by offering long term support and tools for breaking dysfunctional cycles and building healthy families. We do not provide crisis intervention. Instead, we provide a safe place for addressing cycle breaking solutions for mothers who have been tossed around by the storms of life and are ready to do the long, hard work of changing their lives and the lives of their children. At MSH, we are literally mothering mothers -- many of whom have had little or no access to adequate role models. Our programs build trusting relationships,equip mothers with real, life changing tools that empower risk-taking and honest personal assessment and give hope and new direction for themselves and for their families.
About This Cause
By design this is not a clinical program, but an ongoing peer and mentor program where ultimately women who have completed the program and made substantive changes in their own lives will pay it forward by investing in the lives of other mothers in their own community. We purposefully take the long view and believe that this is a true generational program. Generational cycles are not broken in a six week class or 12 counseling sessions. It requires long, sometimes halting and painful personal assessment and incremental progress. Our programs are not just about classes or counseling or curriculum, they are about building trusting relationships, with real, life changing tools that build trusting relationships and equip mothers with real, life changing tools that empower honest personal assessment and the dignity of self-reliance. My Safe Harbor is committed to: Empower – by creating an environment that builds assets and self-esteem, promotes self-reliance, provides opportunities for growth and connects participants to community resources. We are able to help our clients dream again and take a pathway to hope. Equip – by delivering, practical, cost effective, straightforward programs that help our clients accept responsibility for their own lives and make effective and measurable changes for themselves and their families. Expect – by insisting on a high level of personal responsibility from our clients and believing that part of their success is connected to their willingness to meet clearly articulated expectations. We provide a non-coercive culture where hard work, integrity and accountability are valued and promoted. One of the things that makes us most unique is the long term nature of our programs. Most organizations working with our population are geared toward crisis intervention or a coerced requirement from CPS or the courts, or contract requirements. We are a completely non-coerced program and work by referral only. The women come to us from those crisis intervention agencies, the local schools and counselors. We also share our facility with a full service Family Resource Center. For instance, many women come to us after they have finished an eight week domestic violence program, a parenting class offered at their child’s school or for follow up after completing counseling. We provide a place for the "next step" for mothers who have weathered a crisis and are ready to do the hard work of changing their lives. We provide a vital "gap" service that is presently not available anywhere else in our neighborhood. Once a mother has weathered a crisis, what can she do next? In our community, most options are still short term and unconnected to further services. But even more crucial, these other agencies are not designed for the long term mentoring and advocacy that we provide our clients. If we closed our doors, these crisis interventions and short term services would be their only choices. Unlike many agencies, we don’t close files. There is no time limit to personal improvement. Women can stay connected to us indefinitely, as long as there is measurable, satisfactory progress. We have an active SFI Alumni Association and regular opportunities for service at every level. We create a safe place to share life, dream dreams and be held accountable. That’s why we call it a pathway to hope. This work is a journey – not a destination. We provide an environment for women to improve their own lives, then their children’s lives and then the community as they join PTA or their school’s Site Council, find employment, continue their education, invest in their neighbors and literally change their community. Gateway Programs The Mothers Clubs and Electives are considered our gateway programs that introduce women to the MSH culture, present new opportunities and begin the relationship building process. With free child care and activities, they help women make friends, take personal assessment, meet positive role models and gain helpful, practical information for improving their lives. Mother’s Clubs are primarily about making friends and enjoying simple craft projects, holiday activities and occasional guest speakers. Enrichment Electives are 2-6 weeks sessions on topics from crocheting and cooking to computers and parenting. Though there is usually no cost, participants are required to pre-register, and there are expectations for attendance and commitment. The Strong Families Institute The Strong Families Institute (SFI) is our intensive long term program where the real work of change begins. It offers 112 class hours over 32 weeks for in-depth information, participation and evaluation. It requires referral for admission, stringent participant expectations and a financial commitment. The curriculum is built as a quarter program that uses nationally known curricula and a variety of expert contributors that have designed practical programs for personal and family development. Built on a cohort model and lead by one facilitator, each group of 12-15 women stays together with just one trained facilitator to build a strong, intimate support group. The cost for each woman for the entire program is $1,000. That includes a trained facilitator, curriculum and books, supplies, child care, a weekly meal, special events and graduation activities. Each woman is expected to contribute at least $100 of her own money and supplement the remained with volunteer hours to support the program. For those who cannot pay the full tuition (no one has paid in full), additional volunteer hours offset tuition at $11.25 per hour. Upon graduation, each participant will have paid their way through the program, received valuable job experience and enjoyed the accomplishment of changing their own lives. At the end of the first quarter, each woman receives a personal mentor who will be her advocate through the rest of the program. The ultimate goal is to have future Strong Families Institute cohorts mentored by women who have successfully completed the program and can then encourage their peers in growing a healthy community together. Already half of our present mentors are Strong Families Institute graduates. My Safe Harbor’s mission addresses a complex and urgent problem. There are no easy answers or quick solutions to generational dysfunction. The reality is that the work is difficult, slow and requires committed and sustained effort. So many of the problems that community agencies address – youth programs, health care, education, poverty – are really just symptoms of a much deeper problem. We have parents that were poorly parented raising another generation that will continue the cycles of poor choices, ignorance, dependence, underemployment and hopelessness. Without the commitment to a generational program, we cannot address generational dysfunction. My Safe Harbor is committed to the long haul.