A Day In the Life: Women's Advocate

Our guest blogger today is Lori, a Hope House Women's Advocate.

As a Women’s Advocate here at Hope House, I have many different roles.  No day—or hour for that matter—is ever the same. 

Today when I came into work, I spent the first few hours providing general support to the women and children who reside in shelter: 

• helped a client her medications
• helped a client take her child’s temperature
• put new sheets on the beds for an incoming family
• assisted a group of clients in working out a laundry schedule

Advocate answers the hotline.
Photo by nota @ sxc.hu

In the midst of all of that, I answered the 24-hour hotline, which is where most women first access Hope House services.  The woman on the hotline told me that her husband is verbally and physically abusive towards her. Her husband has been drinking tonight and she knows that she and her children are not safe staying at home. We make arrangements to bring them in to shelter.

When this woman and her children arrived in shelter, I made sure they had something to eat, and that they had no immediate medical needs. Then, I completed an intake process with her where I gathered general information about her situation and needs.

Tomorrow, I will meet with her again to provide her with information about power and control, red flags, the cycle of domestic violence, and safety planning.

I spend the next couple of hours of my shift meeting individually with the women who are assigned to my caseload.  During these individual meetings, I assist the women in recognizing their personal strengths and in setting goals. I provide a variety of resources and information to empower the women to make progress towards their personal goals.

No two days are ever the same in shelter, so I have learned to be very flexible. Although working as a Women’s Advocate can at times be a busy job, being able to provide support and assistance to the women in shelter is my passion. It’s most definitely a rewarding job!

Back to School

Photo by gugacurado @ sxc.hu

It seems like just yesterday I was writing about how kids spend their summer days in shelter and now it’s back to school time. As we say goodbye to summer, we welcome the fall and the new schedules that it brings to shelter.

When a family comes to shelter, one of the first tasks is to enroll the children in school. When deciding on where her children will go to school, Mom has to weigh the risks of the children attending their home school versus the challenges that come with starting in a new school.

It is so important to get the children into a routine and get their schedules in order. This structure can help the children feel “normal” and feel like they have some control. Living in a home where there is domestic violence can create chaos and a feeling of being out of control. It’s amazing how normalcy, routine and structure can really help a child to feel calm and more relaxed in their environment. 

Photo by hvaldez1 @ sxc.hu

When kids are dealing with trauma and violence at home, they often struggle in school, finding it hard to focus and stay on top of things. Once in shelter, there is a focus on helping to make school a priority and addressing any educational issues that children are facing.

We always have a need for volunteer tutors to help the children get caught up and to work with those who are struggling and facing challenges. If you can spare some time to help a child with their schoolwork, please contact Gretchen at 816-257-9342 or gschmitz@hopehouse.net.

3rd Party Events

What is a 3rd party event? Rather than being hosted by Hope House staff, a 3rd party event is hosted by someone in the community for the benefit of Hope House.

Events are varied and have included: 

• % of sales for a given time period
• golf tournaments
• music events
• donation for Hope House in exchange for admission to event 

The great part of it is that the sky is the limit! We are so excited when we hear a new creative idea that will help us.

We have several 3rd party events are coming up. Participating in them is a fun and easy way of showing your support for Hope House.

• August 1 through August 8 - Brio Tuscan Grille at 500 Nichols Rd in the Plaza will donate 20% of your purchase when you mention Hope House.
• Macy’s is having their Shop for a Cause event on August 27. Tickets are $5 and you receive 25% off all your purchases either in store or online. Hope House is able to keep all of the money from the sale of the tickets. You can purchase tickets by calling Libby at 816-257-9334 or visiting the Shop For A Cause page on our website.  
• Birdies Fore Hope is a women’s golf tournament on October 3 at Oakwood Country Club. For tickets or sponsorships, call Libby at 816-257-9334 or visit the Birdies page on our website. 

If you are interested in hosting a 3rd party event, please feel free to email us.  We would love to hear from you.

Community Partnership Building

We are excited to have our new Community Partnership Building ready to begin offering services to our clients. We renovated the old Therapy building to make space for a medical/dental room and a new salon room.

We have been truly blessed to have so many people offer to help in the past. But it’s been a struggle finding a way to get the clients to the clinic or salon that is offering their services. Transportation and child care are on-going issues that we have had to overcome in order to utilize these donated services.

This new building will allow us to offer these services on-site, thereby eliminating transportation and childcare issues.

So far we have received:

• a dental chair
• an medical exam table
• a grant from KC Impact to purchase the necessary supplies for the medical room
• an X-ray machine
• dental tools
• blood pressure cuffs, stethoscopes, thermometers 
• shampoo sink and chair
• salon chairs
• dryer chair

We are still looking for supplies for our salon room. We are in need of curling irons, hair straighteners, blow dryers, scissors, and products for perms, coloring, etc.

We are interested in working with anyone that is a dentist, doctor, nurse, nurse practitioner, or hair stylist that is interested in coming to our Independence campus to offer services to our clients.

If you know of anyone that might be willing to donate their time and services, please encourage them to contact Gretchen at gschmitz@hopehouse.net or 816-257-9342.

Kids and Philanthropy

Chandler

One of the best parts of my job is getting to meet our donors and connecting with those who care about our work as much as I do. I really love to meet the young people who are learning about philanthropy in a very real way.

Kids learn about us through their schools, many which are now requiring a certain number of community service hours for graduation.  For some, it’s a family tradition. Others just want to give back and choose us as their recipient. We work to accommodate the interests of each of these kids. Most often, they come up with something really special on their own.

One such young person is Chandler, whose grandmother gives him $10 for every “A” he receives in the school year. Last year he saved all the “A” money he received, $300 to be exact, and he went out and bought items from our Urgent Needs List to donate to us. We were thrilled when he brought in mountains of toilet paper, diapers and paper towels, among other items.

We have had several kids who asked their birthday party guests for a donation to Hope House in lieu of gifts. How special to be able to put others’ needs before your own, especially on your birthday. I know that is so difficult to do at any age.

Playground built by Justin

We’ve had boys working on their Eagle Scout projects that choose wonderful projects at Hope House. Most recently we had Justin, 15, who completely renovated our playground on the Independence campus. He turned a blank space into a wonderful play space for the kids in shelter.

Young people are able to connect with others in need in ways that are so uplifting and truly inspirational to me. I’ve realized that you’re never too young to want to help others, and it’s our job to help these kids attain their goals to help those in need.

Hope Takes Flight Celebrity Golf Classic

We are looking forward to our upcoming Hope Takes Flight Celebrity Golf Tournament. The tournament is on Monday, May 23rd and we are still seeking sponsors and signing up teams.

The tournament is one of our annual fundraisers with the proceeds supporting our daily operations. Proceeds from our special events support a large portion of our annual budget.

This tournament is an opportunity for people to help Hope House but have fun at the same time. In my opinion, that is the best of all worlds: to help while having fun.

We start the day with brunch and then golfing on a wonderful course. Each team has a local celebrity join them in the festivities.

When they are finished on the course, they head in to the club house for more food and an opportunity to bid on items in our silent auction. Of course, it wouldn’t be a tournament without prizes for the top three winning teams!

If you haven’t joined us at this event, now is the time. It was a sell out last year, so don’t wait too long or you might miss out.

Teams and sponsorships can be purchased on our website. If you have questions, feel free to contact Libby at 816-257-9334 or lconnor@hopehouse.net.

Grand Opening Celebration

Our grand opening celebration is almost here. On Friday we will celebrate the transformation of our Independence campus, and the hard work and accomplishments of so many.

Our campaign included constructing a new Therapy building and renovating the four existing buildings on our campus. What an incredible change. The campus is absolutely beautiful and we are so excited about all of the services we will be able to provide our clients.

The therapy building includes three group rooms that are large enough to accommodate the growing number of clients seeking our therapy services. It includes three observation rooms to monitor students and interns in their work with our clients.

The building also includes a workout room and large space for kids to play when they are not able to be outdoors. We are so excited to be able to focus on the physical health of our clients and allow for opportunities that we have not been able to provide previously.

Our shelter was completely remodeled. It’s an absolutely beautiful space for the clients to live in as they recover from the trauma that they have experienced.

The old therapy building has a completely new function - it now houses our Community Partnership Building, which includes a medical/dental room, as well as a salon. We can now provide a well-equipped space for our community partners to offer their services to our clients, helping them to address their many needs.

We are thrilled to be at this juncture of our journey and are so grateful to everyone who has helped us to get here.