COMMUNITY-BASED SERVICES

House of Ruth extends its services to the community at large through the Domestic Violence Support Center and Kidspace Child and Development Center.

At the Domestic Violence Support Center, more than 400 women each year are provided with free counseling to help them work through issues surrounding domestic violence. Through group and individual counseling, women come to understand the impact that abuse has had on their lives - and on their children. With their counselors, they develop and carry out plans to establish safer lives and avoid abusive relationships.

The staff has begun delivering group counseling to the women living at our various housing programs. The focus at the Support Center’s downtown location is on individual counseling. All services at the Support Center are free.

Kidspace Child and Family Development Center provides developmental day care for up to 76 children ages six weeks through five years who are from families that are recovering from homelessness and abuse. Many of the children live with their mothers at one of House of Ruth's residential programs for families. Others are from very low-income families in the neighborhood, or other programs for homeless families. Kidspace is accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children, an indication of the consistent, high quality of the services provided to the children.

All of the children entering Kidspace have delays across all developmental domains. An enriched curriculum and individualized developmental plan for each child helps most of them overcome their developmental delays. For children who have been severely affected by trauma and the chaos of life in a homeless family, specialized therapeutic services are also provided. Speech and language therapists, psychotherapists and occupational therapists (to address fine and gross motor skills development) work with the children who need special assistance to help them achieve their greatest potential. Of course, in order to help the children, House of Ruth must also help the parents. A team of social workers, called Family Advocates, work directly with the parent(s), most often a single mother.

JUNE

June was referred to the Domestic Violence Support Center when she went to court to get a restraining order against her abusive boyfriend. At first, she went only because it was a necessary step to getting into a housing program. She needed to get her children away from their father after he molested their daughter. It was clear that June and her family needed safe, stable housing and supportive services, and, luckily, there was an opening at one of House of Ruth’s residential programs.

June kept up with her counselor after getting her immediate needs met because by that time, after just four visits, she found that the counseling was really helping her. Over time, her story began to come out. June had herself been abused as a child. Her mother was an alcoholic who never sought treatment. Her father was gone. Sometimes her mother would disappear for a two or three days at a time, leaving June to care for her younger siblings. Her earliest clear memory of this happening was when she was in the sixth grade. The turmoil at home contributed to her failure to graduate from high school.

In counseling, June is identifying and working through her feelings of anger and pain from being neglected and abused. She is also coping with shame and guilt stemming from some of her own choices. With help from her counselor, June is trying to forgive herself and accept that she did the best she could in very difficult life circumstances. She found the courage to leave, even though it meant choosing homelessness, in order to protect her girls. Now, at House of Ruth, she is building the skills and confidence to manage on her own.

The saddest thing is that June is very bright. Had she been born into a nurturing family, she might be in medical school or law school right now, instead of trying to get her GED and into a training program that will enable her to earn a living wage. However, given what she has been through, June is doing just fine. Her counselor is confident she will get her life on track.

SHAWN

Shawn’s family came to live at one of House of Ruth’s service-enriched housing programs for families when he was three years old. Like all of the children at House of Ruth, Shawn demonstrated developmental delays as a result of being born into the chaos of homelessness. Shawn was behind in every developmental area: social and emotional development, speech and language, cognitive development and both gross and fine motor skills.

Of particular concern was the obvious, extreme distress that Shawn experienced. He was very fearful and prone to violent outbursts that would end with him crying inconsolably. His teachers immediately brought his extreme distress to the attention of the Kidspace Program Co-Coordinator and Family Advocate, who both met with Shawn’s mother to ask her to allow him to have a psychological evaluation. It was hard for her to hear that her little boy was so badly hurt by his life experience that at just three years old he might need psychotherapy to cope. But Shawn’s mother was willing to try to help her child and agreed that our child therapist could see him.

Six months of weekly sessions with the therapist, who uses play therapy to interact with Shawn and learn from him about his issues, have helped Shawn express his anger and pain. This little boy witnessed the violent abuse of his mother by his father – many times – and it had left him hurt, angry and afraid. Now Shawn has begun to feel safe, both at Kidspace and at his new home at House of Ruth, and he has had the chance to express his feelings and be comforted. His mother has learned several new ways to help Shawn soothe himself.

Now that he can manage his feelings better, Shawn is more able to engage in the enriched environment at Kidspace where his other developmental needs are also being addressed.

For this little boy, access to specialized therapy was critical to his ability to get on track developmentally.

RESULTS

House of Ruth sets outcomes for each program to measure the progress the women and children are making toward safety, stability and self-sufficiency. Data is collected and compiled into reports every six months for review by management to ensure that programs are having the intended effects and to identify opportunities to improve.

Results for the community-based programs in the most recent six-month reporting period include:

• At the Domestic Violence Support Center, 94% of the women who attended at least six sessions and developed a treatment plan with their counselor used new coping skills.

• At the Domestic Violence Support Center, 100% of the women received information on safety planning (both written materials and a face-to-face discussion) during their first visit.

• At Kidspace, 85% of the children participating in speech and language or occupational therapy made significant progress toward their developmental level.

• At Kidspace, 76% of the children used coping mechanisms that were taught to them by Kidspace staff in order to deal with stress and anxiety.