Our Programs

What We Do
Women’s Empowerment is a nonprofit that works with homeless women to help them build the skills they need to go back to work and find a home.

Accessibility
In order to make our program accessible to homeless women, we begin by addressing their basic needs.

Homeless Children
First, we provide daycare so moms don’t have to worry about where to send their children while they attend classes.

Transportation Assistance
Second, we provide transportation assistance. As you can imagine, when you have little or no money, paying for bus passes and light rail tickets can be very costly.

Partnering with Existing Nonprofits
Third, we are physically located across the street from Loaves & Fishes, where the women can receive a free, warm breakfast. Once well fed, this enables women to come to class ready to focus.

Addressing Causes of Homelessness
Our holistic program focuses on the causes of homelessness in an effort to break the cycle of poverty. Eighty-five percent of the women in our program have experienced domestic violence, so we provide counseling. We also provide anger management counseling, addiction recovery assistance, and a counselor who works one-on-one with each woman to address her specific needs.

Long-term Stability
We also want women to succeed once they find work. Therefore, we offer parenting, fitness, and nutrition classes. We want them—and their children—to be healthy so mom doesn’t have to take time off work once she finds a job.

Job Readiness
We also focus on job-readiness skills: writing a resume, computer training provided by Intel volunteers, mock interviews, communication skills, and more. In fact, community business leaders teach many of our classes, which helps keep our costs low.

Health
The homeless population experiences an alarming rate of unmet health needs. At Women’s Empowerment, 85 percent of women in the program have experienced family violence, 69 percent struggle with drug and alcohol recovery, 59 percent have mental health diagnosis, and 45 percent have no health insurance. Other health-related problems include clinical depression, hypertension, high blood pressure, asthma, diabetes, cancer and more. We offer a wide range of solutions. Women receive health education on topics including women's health, nutrition, smoking cessation, and relapse prevention. We offer access to healthcare including eye exams and glasses, dental visits, office visits and care from a private physician, child development assessments, yoga, fitness, and more.

Empowerment
We also help women rebuild their self-esteem. As you can imagine, when she has lost her job, her home, and sometimes her family, a woman’s self-esteem plummets. We help her rebuild her confidence through journaling workshops, leadership training, and the power of working with other women who have faced similar struggles. We also fit her with used suits donated from the community, so she feels good from the inside out.

Holistic Approach Equals Success
This holistic combination helps women succeed. You can read stories of the women who have taken this journey, and find out where they are now.