OAKLAND ELIZABETH HOUSE
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Mission Statement
Oakland Elizabeth House is a transitional program for women with children who have experienced homelessness, domestic violence, addiction, and/or poverty. Oakland Elizabeth House opened its doors as founder Pat Lindstadt’s response to the needs of homeless women and children she met on the streets of Berkeley and Oakland. Today we continue to integrate the founding values of hospitality, hope, empowerment, community, compassion, and nonviolence into our program.
About This Cause
Background Since 1994 in the former Convent at St. Augustine Parish an area in North Oakland, called Rockridge, Oakland Elizabeth House residents benefit from an ideal location offering safety, accessibility, dormitory-style housing and a welcoming communal living space. While it was originally intended for a group of Nuns, it has stretched to accommodate families who benefit from the positive energy of the Sisters who lived here for decades before us. Rockridge is one of the wealthiest, cleanest and safest neighborhoods in Oakland. For our families who have lived in neighborhoods where guns, gang violence, drugs and limited educational opportunities exist, Rockridge is like a slice of heaven. Our philosophy is built on the premise that in order for families to break the cycle of poverty and homelessness they must first be provided with basic needs. This includes safe affordable housing, nutritious meals, clothing, and family support. We help the women meet the program benchmarks and to complete their personal plan of action. We assist them in learning to balance their cognitive, physical, emotional, and spiritual needs, and to practice and integrate the necessary practical skills and self-responsibility for true independence. A critical component of our success is building the capacity of the women of Elizabeth House for them to live independently and self-sufficiently. Elizabeth House introduces the families to the skills and tools necessary for self-sufficiency, offers the time and support to learn the tools and practice the skills, and the support to use those skills and tools in their daily lives to develop positive changes for their family. Since March 2009, we have re-assessed our process and program to promote greater effectiveness for our mission and success with the women we serve. Our program and benchmarks are more directed and focused to provide women with resources that will help them secure permanent housing plus Educational necessities, Employment Skills Training, Money Management, Parenting Classes and the support through safe cooperative living. Provide in-house individual case management, trauma informed services with other collaborative agencies: Alternative Family Services, Child Protective Services, Homeless Family Networks, the Berkeley Women’s Drop In Center, and Goal For Women. Promote educational achievement for the children of Elizabeth House through attendance at after-school Homework Club, Summer Reading Program, Community Education Partnership, and continuous dialog between teachers, parents, volunteers, tutors, and Elizabeth House Staff. Offer on-site care for continued recovery from addiction, and mental health support. We have initiated a targeted, results-oriented program to prepare the women for the new economic realities. Upon entering, each woman agrees to work toward achieving the program benchmarks and to create a personalized plan detailing what they need to accomplish to live on their own. The women learn and practice the skills and development their plan of action with the Women’s Life Coordinator. The plan, along with the cooperative living component of the program and the program benchmarks, promotes healthy communication skills and life choices to support the women as they transition from homelessness to independent living. Elizabeth House provides structure, support, and resources for the women to meet the benchmarks to help them achieve and sustain self-sufficiency. The women are given a key to their room and a key to the front door. This makes Elizabeth House unique; we want the women to feel that they belong here at Elizabeth House and that this is the family’s home while in our program. A family participates and lives at Elizabeth House for 12 to 18 months. Our success rate is about 80%, which is measured by the number of participants who obtain permanent housing when they leave our program and maintain housing on their own. Our paid staff includes the Executive Director (1 FTE), Women’s Life Coordinator (.5 FTE) and Program Support Staff (.5 FTE). Community Resident Interns, who are in their positions for one-year, comprise of two additional staff positions, Facility & Women’s Program Coordinator and Families &Volunteer Coordinator. These two staff positions receive housing, food, and a small monthly stipend. We have added a Therapist to our team, who is MFT. Elizabeth House thrives on our volunteer base, who generously donates time and talent to support our program, projects, and activities. Seventy-five volunteers help the program on an ongoing basis. Life at Elizabeth House is enriching and very busy. We provide services but we also provide opportunities for a family. The program is a model of healthy living, a haven of safety in a loving non-violent community. We rely on the generosity of our donors to support the financial needs of the program, as we do not receive government funding. Our Need With the current economic unpredictability, the organization continues to meet its daily obligations of providing a home and program services to families despite the fact individual donations (money, goods, and services) have significantly decreased, since program inception. Our costs for providing this consistent level of services has increased over last year and we anticipate even higher operating expenses in the next year due to increased rent, utility expenses, food and transportation costs, and our assuming a greater responsibility for the maintenance and upkeep of our aged facility. We currently receive ten to fifteen calls daily requesting help with housing and services. We have over forty names on our tracking/wait list. We now have space for (10) families and want to make the best use of our resources to serve the greatest number of families. We continue to see an increase in the number of impoverished and working poor families who are confronted by multiple and complex issues. These issues include lack of stable income, the need for more education and training, poor finance history, inadequate finances, past or continuing trauma, inconsistent access to health services, limited parenting skills with an inability to sustain a healthy family, extenuating legal or Child Protective Services issues, and limited extended family support. Overall Program Goals The core of the Oakland Elizabeth House program is to provide a safe and stable home, in a warm and non-violent cooperative style of living. We model respect for each individual, support good physical and mental health, education, and the pursuit of satisfying work and career goals. Along with the opportunities for the women, the program offers children’s programs as an integral part of Elizabeth House with homework club, reading club, tutoring, and visual/performing arts classes. We collaborate with other programs such as Homeless Families of Alameda County, Center For the Vulnerable Child, Alameda County Food Bank, Rainbow, Pathways, or the Women’s Drop In Center to provide additional resources. Oakland Elizabeth House objectives: • To focus with clarity on our mission. To model a way of life that reinforces skills that can be carried over into independent living. To set achievable personal goals. • To provide secure housing and nutritious meals in a non-violent, cooperative and stable environment. • To provide resources, guidance, and support to help the women develop self-sufficiency and independence. • To provide resources for the development and maintenance of good mental and physical health, and quality of life. • To provide access to money management counseling, training and workshops on self-development, parenting/child development workshops, and health and wellness classes/workshops. • To develop children’s enrichment programs in a loving and consistent environment to increase their self-esteem, foster socialization, and support academic readiness and success. • To actively create opportunities for the women and their children to learn and practice valuable life skills.