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Charleston - Site Visit
YWCA in Charleston, WV
By Sister Rose Ann Hefner, CSJ
October 3, 2014
After breakfast and morning prayer, we were off to visit
some of the programming provided by the YWCA in Charleston, WV.
I can’t imagine having to live out of my car. Where would I
shower; where would I find a bathroom; how would I eat? How do I keep warm or
make a cup of soup? I can’t imagine how I would feel about using make-up to try
to cover large bruises on my face. What will people think if they knew someone
I cared about did this to me? How embarrassing!
And what if I am in one of these positions and blind too? These
were bits of the stories shared with us in our visit the YWCA Shanklin
Center for Senior
Enrichment. The Shanklin
Center provides permanent
independent-living apartments for homeless, disabled women, and elder abuse
victims who became homeless. This is the first facility of its kind in our
state, where women who have been chronically homeless can find a home off the
street.
We also visited the YWCA Sojourner’s Shelter for Homeless
Women and Families. This is a shelter for homeless women and families,
including fathers with children. With one family we met, both parents had a
job, and the father was looking for a second job in hopes of helping his family
to move out of the shelter. Even if they are able to work through the paperwork
for housing assistance, there is often with the rent ads in the paper, “No HUD”,
limiting their housing options even further.
We were inspired by the resilience we experienced in meeting
the residents, and impressed with the caring of the YWCA staff.
