Volunteers Needed - Drop-In Program for Women in North Philly!

A year ago, the Community Center at Visitation (CCV) established a Drop-In Program for women actively engaged in prostitution in the Kensington Neighborhood of Philadelphia. The Drop-In Program provides an opportunity to reach out to, connect, and build relationships with women in this vulnerable situation of prostitution, poverty, and, usually, homelessness in order to invite each woman to look toward a next positive. The program is a front-line service, enabling women to address immediate needs while offering them connections to other services. The Drop-In is open Thursday and Friday evenings from 9:30pm-12:00am. As its second year begins, the center is committed to strengthening and expanding the program, particularly in adding Street Outreach on Thursday and Friday evenings around 6:00pm.

The Drop-In Program is foremost a venue where women, who are typically socially isolated, are welcomed into a judgment free community. From the Program, women have been placed in hospitals, shelters, and with families or friends. Women are able to receive a healthy meal and a warm greeting two nights per week. Women currently prostituting are on the periphery of society and work in a neighborhood that is, itself, an outcast from the rest of Philadelphia. In the sharing of food and stories in the center’s kitchen women know they belong and are heard, this societal belonging will bear an impact on women who are everyday isolated and used. The impact of the Drop-In is also on those who choose to serve. It is an opportunity, as one volunteer shared, to “be present with another in her humanity.”

The Drop-In Program is staffed primarily by committed volunteers and Social Work Interns and its basic supplies (a meal, hygiene products, and coats) are donated by other volunteers and center partners. We would like to invite you and your organization to take part in this developing and essential ministry. We provide training and policies meant to increase the safety of the women and the Program’s Volunteers. Please consider committing yourself to one night per month for either the Drop-In or Street Outreach and know that I am happy to meet with you to answer any questions. We look forward to working with you in this important endeavor.

Please contact me with any questions: kowens@visitationbvm.com or 215-426-9422 ext. 34203.

Blessings,

Sr. Karen Owens SSJ

Director

Community Center at Visitation

So I Had a Baby, Can I Get a Job Too?

Image from www.tanyabrown.org

Domestic Goddess

Domestic Diva

Mommy on Duty

Or the boring title Stay-At-Home-Mom

Whatever you choose to describe the incredible work we do, either of those titles listed on a resume or cover letter is a sure fire way to get your application tossed into the wastebasket (or recycle bin).  So what do you do when you are a Domestic Diva seeking to re-enter the work place? 

Like many first-time parents, it was important for my partner and I to have one of us remain at home and provide full time care for our daughter during her first year of life.  The reason I was solicited to serve as the Domestic Goddess was due to my stunning post-natal figure and the fact I made a series of poor employment choices and at that time had a totally crap job.  

Things were going splendid for us and I began to re-think that whole Women’s Liberation thing, and then one day I glanced at our bank account and determined it was time to go back to work – STAT!  After all, we reside in the heart of one the of the Nation’s most expensive cities and Domestic Diva’s are only for the brilliantly rich (not moderately poor).   

Time to find a job!  No sweat, I have an MBA and years of work experience, this should be a piece of cake.  I’ll just go back to work… during the worst economy or country has known in over a generation. 

Great!

Now what to do about that year gap on my resume?  Should I just state that I have been home with my beautiful baby? NO! NO! and NO!

Here is why I learned never tell a potential employer you were home with a baby:

1) It literally translates to: You care more about your personal choices than you would our company.  

2) You will take time off from work to tend to a sick child, losing site of your bottom line.

3) If you are able to land an interview, employers may inquire about your child care and how it may affect your availability

So what should you do?

1) Volunteer:  If you are able to volunteer one evening or weekend, this could aid in explaining your work hiatus, while retaining your skills

2) Virtual Assistant:  This is the best fit for a domestic goddess, allows you to retain work experience at your own pace and keeps your resume current with employment

3) Add Mom on duty to your resume:  If you have been an at home parent for several years, consider adding those skills to your resume, i.e.: managing home budget, planning events, etc.

I hope this help all those Mommies on Duties facing the daunting task of finding employment during this economic crisis, when many employers are not considering reviewing the skills of the unemployed.

Guest blogger, Chanda is a 30-something former community organizer, turned free-lancer and part-time blogger (causereaction.blogspot.com). I am a true east-coaster, meaning; I have lived in six states between North Carolina and Maine. Currently, I reside in the Washington, DC metropolitan area with my partner and amazing daughter.

Project SAFE Volunteers Needed

Hey Ladies, do you care about women's sexual health? Then Project SAFE needs your help!

 

Project SAFE, an all volunteer public health organization for women participating in street based sex work in Philadelphia, is looking for new volunteers to help distribute safer sex and harm reduction supplies on the streets of Kensington.  This is a great way to help women stay safe and really make a difference.  For more information, please visit our website at www.safephila.org or email us at safe.phila@gmail.com. 

 

If you are not able to volunteer but would like to help out, donations are much appreciated. Click here to donate now!  Thank you for your support!

Upcoming Volunteer Opportunities!

Project SAFE needs your help!Project SAFE is an all volunteer organization that provides harm reduction materials to women working in street prostitution in the Kensington section of town in order to help reduce the spread of STI's and promote public health.  We work to build community among the women we serve and provide information and referrals so that they can make informed decisions about their safety and wellbeing.  We could use your help in the following ways:
Outreach Volunteer - Do street outreach in Kensington in pairs from about 10pm-12 on weeknights. 2 x a month committment in order to be trained.
Delivery Volunteer - Drive bulk amounts of supplies to consumers homes with a buddy.  Times are flexible.
Exchange Volunteer - Drive to prevention point to do exchanges for us.
Bagging Volunteer - Prepare supply bags for outreach.
Hotline Case Manager Volunteer - Have the case management line inquiries forwarded to your phone for an agreed upon amount of time and respond to calls with appropriate referals.
Donate or Host a Fundraiser - Write us a check (made out to NASEN, Project SAFE in memo) or have a house party, a silent auction, or any kind of fundraising event to benefit the work we do.
 
***Call for Volunteers for the Kensington Avenue Sex Worker Drop In Center***
As many know too well, no nighttime safe location exists for women on Kensington Avenue, a location renown for its open drug market and trade in sex.
 
A coalition of organizations and individuals, including Project SAFE, Catholic Charities, Prevention Point Philadelphia, Center for the Empowerment of Women, Belivacqua Community Center and Covenant House is starting a pilot Drop-In center to be available specifically for women and female identified individuals who engage in the sex trade on Kensington Avenue.
 
Drop-In Program Goals: The main goal of the Drop-In Program is to connect with and build relationships with women actively engaging in sex work in the Kensington neighborhood. We do this by providing a clean, safe, and welcoming environment staffed by committed volunteers. The space will be a place where women can address immediate needs to help them feel healthy, human and connected as they are invited to look toward their next positive step.
 
If you would like to volunteer, Please contact Samantha Sitrin and RSVP for the Volunteer training December 9th, 9pm at Belivacqua Community Center@ Kensington & Lehigh
 
The holidays are fast approaching, and support for individuals who are underserved and largely alienated from any kind of support network becomes critical to the mental health of the population we seek to serve.

Beginning December 16th the Drop-In will be open
Thursday and Friday nights
9pm-12 midnight
@ Belivacqua Community Center
On Kensington & Lehigh Ave.
 
To take a shift:
Call 215.630.0774
Email samantha@preventionpointphilly.org
We are in the process of setting up a doodle calendar so you can also sign up that way
Please call to talk over how you can participate & services we hope to offer.

Speaking Their Voices - Rehabilitation Through the Arts

From guest contributor Anne Twomey Lloyd:

I work in an arts program with women who are incarcerated in the only maximum security prison in New York state. I feel free when I’m behind bars with the women. Our classes are a combination of profound and sometimes heartbreaking moments and absolutely hilarious silliness. It’s three hours each week when nobody is judged on past actions, and all of us are witness to the innocent, radiant creativity that binds us together.

We open each session with meditation and yoga stretches, which can help provide tools for living in an environment as highly stressed as the facility in which our students live.

Currently, we’re exploring myths. We frequently discuss how these stories can be recognized in our own lives.

Just this morning, one of our students wrote a monologue from Ariadne’s point of view at being abandoned by Theseus on the island of Naxos after he promised to marry her. She wrote about Ariadne’s shock and anger at being left there as Theseus sailed off. When she read her work to us in class, Ariadne became a sorrowful, heartbroken woman sitting right in front of us. Talk about bringing a myth to life.

We meet in a huge gym inside the prison, and my workshop partner, Kim, is choreographing a dance piece telling the story of a Hawaiian myth. We work to CD recordings of beautiful, evocative, modern music that refreshes the cavernous gym’s humid, stale air.

We are beginning to create a performance piece on myths, collecting and polishing the best of our weekly work. We’ll present it using the stage in our gym to fellow inmates and prison teachers and administrators. 

Kim and I say good bye to our students and exchange wishes with all to have a good week. We come out of class energized, exclaiming about the acting of one very shy woman, or the writing and surprising wit of another. We move on to the rest of our lives, keenly aware that we get to come out of the prison. As we pass through endless heavy gates slowly sliding open and then closed behind us, past fences of barbed wire, we know that some of the closeness and commonality we share with our students is left behind the walls.

Anne Twomey Lloyd works through RTA (Rehabilitation Through the Arts), a program of Prison Communities International.  For more information about RTA and their women's program, visit http://www.rta-arts.com/.

Improving Lives Through Literacy

I definitely take for granted the fact that I can read.  I take for granted every opportunity that literacy affords me and, by extension. my family and community.  In the past several years, I have engaged with women in various parts of my daily life who are working very hard to learn English as either a second or primary language.  Many of them immigrated to this country in search of a "better" life for themselves and their families back home.  Some women are victims of human sex trafficking, others are second, third, or fourth generation Americans who are still struggling to find their way through literacy.

Though I intellectually know that literacy is a critical issue among women in the United States and other developed and developing countries, it was a letter from Stella, the Services Coordinator of the Literacy Volunteers of Union County, Inc program, where my mother volunteered for a short time in 2008, that really brought this issue home for me.  My mother, who died this past August, served as a volunteer working passionately with her students to teach them English as a second language (ESL).  My mother was a very intelligent, smart, passionate, loving, and caring woman, and fully embraced her role as a literacy volunteer.  She never went to college, because that is not what women in her community and family did when she was growing up, and despite being very bright and well-read, she always felt inadequate and inferior to her peers because of this.  Working as a literacy volunteer was a tremendous accomplishment for her.  She spoke to me not only of her great pride in her efforts and accomplishments, but more often of her genuine interest and investment in the lives of the students with whom she worked.  She would bring to life the very personal journey that her students were taking through their reading and writing efforts and how this made a great difference in every aspect of their lives. 

In the letter that I received from Stella, she wrote:

Jane joined our program in March, 2008 when she became a tutor.  She was very interested in helping our students because she loved to read and wanted to share her knowledge with others.  She helped 14 students to learn the language and prepared some of them to become U.S. citizens.  She was very concerned about how difficult it was for a foreigner to survive in this country without English.  She always came prepared with her lessons and activities that her students needed.  Jane was amazing, in that she always agreed to have more students, she never said no to me.  I really appreciated her commitment to this cause.  She was a wonderful and dedicated tutor and will be missed. 



It is in this spirit that I offer the WCC community a look into the need for literacy among women in our greater Philadelphia community and abroad.  As it is well known, when you take action to improve a woman's life, you in turn improve the lives of an entire community.  Dominique Chlup writes for Ms. Blog an article called Gender Equity Begins with Literacy outlining the critical importance of literacy in the effort towards gender equality and, I would argue, for the prosperity of women.  In this article she also provides a great number of resources on the topic, such as WE LEARN (Women Expanding Literacy Education Action Resource Network), and opportunities for social action.  For more information about the topic of women's literacy, check out ProLiteracy.  Here in the Philadelphia area, the Center for Literacy provides community-based literacy services to youth, adults, and families, where you can find opportunities to receive or provide services.

Love to Buy Shoes?

Buy one for you and Toms Shoes will give one to a child in need!

Groovy.

Visit Toms Shoes here for more details.

Change Starts With A Girl

"A revolution led by a 12 year-old girl!"

For more information please visist http://www.girleffect.org/

We at the WCC are thinking how can we get hop on the girl-revolution wagon! How can we inspire, support and lead our future girls - both locally and globally?! Any ideas contact us info@womenscollaborativecircle.org.

Our Sister from Another Mother

I recently discovered the website of The Red Tent Women's Project located in Brooklyn, NY. Their mission statement states that:

The Red Tent Women’s Project is a diverse and dynamic community of women who are catalysts for social change. By creating safe and empowered spaces we facilitate community building, information and resource exchange, and personal growth for women and girls.

As explained on the Red Tent Women's Project website, a red tent [i]n many cultures, such as Chinese, some African cultures, and the Romany culture, red is a symbolic color of strength or female power. The tent itself is rooted in an ancient Judeo-Christian-Islamic history of women’s gathering spaces. Women used to go to the red tent while they were giving birth or menstruating—they had to because the men in their communities feared contamination from these biological processes. Yet in the end, the red tents became community spaces where women went to learn from one another, to be in community, and above all, to celebrate life. We draw upon these numerous rich traditions when we call the project a Red Tent.

The Women's Collaborative Circle is also committed to providing women in our greater Philadelphia community and on the web a space for refuge, information and empowerment. If you are in New York City or on the web, visit the Red Tent Women's Project social networking site and community center for groups. If you are in the Philadelphia area and are interested in seeing events, workshops or groups offered to women in our area, please contact us with suggestions and offer your skills to facilitate them!

Locally and globally we need to come together to create change!