Women's Empowerment Graduation Pictures +: December 12, 2007

Greetings and Merry Christmas! Jesus Is the Reason for the Season!

~Peter S. Lopez~
sacranative@yahoo.com

Here is a Link for Women's Empowerment Graduation Pictures of December 12, 2007:

http://picasaweb.google.com/peta.aztlan/WE122007

LInk to Previous Women's Empowermnt Graduation:

http://picasaweb.google.com/peta.aztlan/WomenSEmpowermentGraduation

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http://www.womens-empowerment.org/index.html

http://www.womens-empowerment.org/html/about.html

Working with homeless women, we have learned about the causes, the challenges, and the issues that have brought, and in many cases kept a woman homeless. In an effort to break the cycle of homelessness, we have created a safe, supportive and educational place called Women's Empowerment (WE). Our eight-week classes offer homeless women the training, mentoring and support necessary to obtain and maintain employment. Our curriculum (view curriculum) includes in-depth job seeking and job development skills, but in addition, we offer personal empowerment exploration, personal issue problem solving and job retention support. It is this unique mix of experiences that we feel helps our students be successful.

Homeless women face many unique barriers that make it difficult to succeed in typical welfare-to-work programs. These women need help identifying their strengths, establishing a secure home and developing a recent work history. Individual case management and mentoring helps each women connect to the community resources and services she needs as housing, childcare and transportation. Eliminating these barriers help the women get one step closer to breaking the cycle.

We have found that women lacking a home often lack hope. Through the work in the classes and the support of their classmates, these feelings of despair and anger fade as women discover their strengths and begin to rediscover their potential. Self-confidence takes root and women blossom as they express themselves creatively through journaling, clay work and other experiential activities. Our staff and volunteers provide encouragement and mentoring to help the women participate in many of these unfamiliar and therapeutic activities. Within our safe and intimate classroom setting, the women have the opportunity to develop close personal relationships and begin to trust each other. These relationships, along with monthly support meetings, help provide an ongoing support system for our graduates.

Also, be sure to view these Resources for Women.
THE PROBLEM

Homeless women who want to change their lives face many obstacle
personally and in the workplace. They want to succeed, but they need help – securing a safe place to live, creating a resume, developing basic work and personal skills. Add to this the problems of transportation, childcare and domestic violence, and it's no wonder that homeless women are trapped in part-time work and low paying jobs – never breaking the cycle of poverty.

THE PROGRAM

Women's Empowerment is a unique program, located at Loaves & Fishes, which provides a holistic approach for homeless women to become truly self-reliant.

Through mentoring, the transformative training curriculum, peer support and individual job development the Women's Empowerment program provides homeless women with the skills and self-confidence necessary not only to get a job, but also to succeed at work.

The Women's Empowerment program works! 80% of Women's Empowerment graduates have secured housing and 80% have obtained employment or are enrolled in school.

THE DIFFERENCE

There are many welfare-to-work programs, but Women's Empowerment is targeted to specifically address the barriers faced by homeless women. Women's Empowerment provides childcare, transportation assistance,
parenting enrichment, and family violence prevention. "At Women's Empowerment, the staff and other students believed in me until I could believe in myself."

THE ESSENCE

The program focuses on four main areas:

Job Training and Placement	Empowerment
Interpersonal communications Developing good worker traits Support systems Career exploration Resume preparation Money/time management Obtaining GED/college re-entry Dress for success Job search and interviewing skills Mock interviews Continued contact between job mentor and graduates	Anger and stress management Writing and Journaling Goal Development Women of History Meditation and relaxation One-time make-over Parenting classes Poetry
Support	Health
Weekly one-on-one meetings with case manager Weekly meeting with volunteer job mentor Childcare solutions Housing information assistance Transportation assistance Clothing for interviews Legal support Ongoing support groups for graduates Individual support to maintain employment	Women's Health Education HIV/STD referral and counseling Mental health referral and counseling Substance abuse prevention and support Nutrition Coping with depression workshop Domestic violence learning and support group Yoga

CASA 12-Steps Program Blog=
http://casa-12steps.blogspot.com/

Join! CASA 12-Steps Yahoo Group=
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CASA-12-Steps/

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