Charlotte - Site Visit

By Sister Mary Beth Hamm, SSJ

October 7, 2014

When one dines at Friendly’s, a restaurant chain on the East Coast, one of the items on the menu is called a “happy ending dessert”. Today, our final day of Nuns on the Bus in North Carolina, we feasted on a “happy ending” treat as we visited the YWCA Central Carolinas and met the passionate, caring staff and the courageous residents who live there.

For 112 years, the YWCA in Charlotte, North Carolina, has been dedicated to eliminating racism, empowering women and promoting peace, justice, freedom and dignity for all. The beautiful four-floor facility we toured today includes residential housing for 66 women, a community kitchen on each floor, a resource room, fitness center, chapel and corporate offices.

A few steps away from the main building we toured townhouse-like facilities for women with minor children. Two programs provide transitional housing and support services for homeless women and for women with children at the YWCA. The Women in Transition Program (WIT) serves more than 100 at-risk women annually by providing single-room housing for the residents and a menu of resources to assist them in becoming economically stable and permanently housed.

A second program, Families Together, offers a ten-home neighborhood for families with children and on-site support to transition out of homelessness and into permanent housing. These women and their children have access to a myriad of services including: case management; computer instruction; education and job training programs; career counseling; financial planning services; and volunteer facilitated social activities. Each family can remain in the program for up to 18 months.

While we were wowed by the beauty of these buildings and the many services and programs the YWCA offers to formerly homeless women, we were wowed even more by the women we met and whose stories we heard: Henrietta, Lorenza, Abigail, Bonita and Carolyn to name a few.

Henrietta shared that her whole life has changed since she has participated in the WIT Program and spoke of the stresses she experienced being homeless – stresses that affected her physically. With a huge smile, Henrietta told us that at her most recent visit for a check-up, the doctor told her that she doesn’t have to come back for a year. Henrietta attributes this good news to the fact that she no longer lives in fear and is surrounded by nice people whom she considers as family.

Another woman, Bonita, and her two children ages 14 and 17 are residents of the Families Together Program. Bonita shared that December 17, 2013, was the happiest day of her life. This was the day she was interviewed and accepted into one of the townhouses and this experience has positively impacted her life. She described her life now as full of hope, joy and peace.

Then there is Lorenza who shared with pride that she is studying for her GED – at age 63! She told us that her whole life has turned around since becoming a resident at the YWCA. There is even an activist among the women we met and her name is Abigail. Abigail’s mission is to see to it that our government provides a YWCA in every city possible. She is adamant in her belief that everyone in America should have a room to call their own – a private space where one feels safe – and she is writing to elected officials with great frequency in the hopes that her dream will become a reality. Abigail also talked about the great concern the staff has for the residents. She said she rarely smiled in the past because she was self-conscious of her teeth but thanks to the staff she got her Christmas wish -- her two front teeth!

Hearing the stories of these women was such an inspiration to all of us, and their stories illustrate so graphically how important it is that big money does not drown out the voices and needs of We the People. The women eagerly filled out the Nuns on the Bus cards, pledging to vote on November 4 and were filled with pride as they signed their names on the bus. In Carolyn’s words, “God has put us here in a good place. There is no ‘down’ – it’s only ‘up’ from here!”