Visitation House Ministries
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Mission Statement
Visitation House Ministries holds as central the needs and concerns of economically poor and vulnerable women and children. We implement the mission through the Visitation House transitional housing and education program for women and children who are suffering homelessness. We also extend the mission into the community by providing an education program for other low income women.
About This Cause
The Visitation House (VH) program serves two functions– transitional housing, which provides residential stability, independent living skills training, and education opportunities for women and children who are experiencing homelessness or near homelessness; education, which provides education resources for the women in the housing program and other women from the San Antonio community who attend the Visitation House women’s learning center. To provide shelter for women and children in the San Antonio area who were homeless, two Incarnate Word Sisters opened VH in 1985. What soon became evident to the sisters was that providing short-term shelter was a band-aid solution as the same faces were cycling back through the shelter. As such, it did not offer an alternative to the revolving door aspect of shelter life nor did affect the root cause of the families’ homelessness - Poverty. In addition, the sisters realized that unless there was some improvement in the women’s skill sets, these families would continue to live at or below the poverty line and be subject to the threat of homelessness. The sisters determined that lack of education was (and still is) both a root cause and a symptom of poverty and that providing the resources to help raise women raise their education levels would be a key anti-poverty strategy. Thus, in 1993, the sisters instituted a transitional housing and education program, which provides subsidized transitional housing integrated with a fundamental focus on education to address inadequate education among women with young children who are were suffering homeliness. To reach out to more women than the housing program could serve, the Sisters opened a women’s learning center in 2006 to provide education services to both Visitation House transitional housing residents and to other low-income women from the community. E. is a typical housing resident who exemplifies an outcome of the VH program. She is a mother with four children who entered the program in October 2017, after experiencing domestic violence, and spousal abandonment. She had dropped out of high school and had been a stay at home mom with no work experience. Her initial education goal was to earn her GED. Since entering the program, she worked diligently with her GED instructors at La Casita del Saber. She passed all four tests components and recently received her certificate. She also found a small part-time job, her first experience as an official member of the work force. Both achievements have increased her self-esteem and expanded her view of what the future might hold for her – beyond the GED to higher education, a better job and self-sufficiency. E. began college in the Fall semester and is studying to be an Administrative System Specialist at San Antonio College (SAC) with an ultimate goal to pursue an Associate Degree in Paralegal Studies. In Emy’s own words: “After trying to obtain my GED for six years, on and off, I came to the Visitation House Program and I completed the GED in less than six months. This has been a great experience. It has given me the confidence and the opportunity to pursue my dream of going to college. This accomplishment was made possible thanks to all the support I received from the sisters and teachers at Visitation House and at the learning center”. Visitation House provides the opportunity, the means and the support to enable Emy, who had failed in her past educational endeavors, to achieve her goal. The more far-reaching impact is that her horizons have expanded to see all the possibilities that are now open to her. This transition in perspective not only affects Emy but also her children. Their mom is talking about college, which means they will be talking about college. The ripple effect is already influencing the lives of her children and encouraging their educational advancement.