Programs: Safe haven: through comprehensive daytime direct services, otr engages and annually assists approximately 400 - 500 severely disenfranchised women, providing emotional, practical, and professional support that helps the women achieve and sustain extraordinary accomplishments - from improving health, to getting jobs, to finding housing. The goals of the program are to:goal 1: provide a safe space six days a week where women can find practical necessities and a supportive community to begin to explore the steps they need to take to move out of homelessness and increase their quality of life. Goal 2: provide advice, assistance, accompaniment and advocacy for women addressing housing, abuse, trauma, physical/mental health, legal, and other urgent needs and issues. Goal 3: ease women's access to and transition into specialized and single-issue programs and eventually out of homelessness. Otr relies on a collaborative network with approximately fifty other human service providers. This network helps the program facilitate a woman's access and success in programs such as domestic and sexual violence services, detoxification programs, emergency and transitional shelters and housing, legal and healthcare services, and more. Otr does not duplicate other services, but fills in the cracks to make the whole system work better for women who need it the most. Many women at otr must cope with complex physical and mental health conditions. A program participant's struggle often is complicated by the fact that she cannot set a daily routine, she has no sense of place in a family or in a community, and she has little control over when and what she eats, where she can sleep, and other basic survival needs. Wellness activities improve well-being by providing positive care to minds and bodies in the safe haven, as well as facilitating access to emergency, primary and preventative healthcare through referrals, support, accompaniment and advocacy with women at community health centers, hospitals and other services. These and other strengths-based group and individual activities are critical components of otr's success.
keep the keys: otr has helped many homeless women move into housing of their own. Once housed, many women continue to struggle with the challenges that contributed to their homelessness; addiction, mental and physical health issues, domestic and sexual violence, financial struggles, unemployment, legal issues, etc. While facing the new challenges and responsibilities associated with independent living. Participants in the keep the keys program maintain their connections with otr staff and receive a range of services designed to support housing retention and help them build the neighborhood connections and independent living skills they need to sustain and continue to improve their quality of life. Services include home visits, goal-setting, support with life skills, weekly support groups, and gatherings at otr. Ktk participants are also welcome to visit the safe haven during specific hours.
the community outreach and education program: integral to otr's mission is its responsibility to raise awareness and facilitate public discourse about the most vexing social issues that affect the women who participate in otr's programs. Through the community outreach and education program, otr informs the broader community about the interplay of homelessness, trauma, mental illness, addiction, and domestic violence, and helps individuals and groups participate in creating a safe, supportive space for women as they reintegrate back into the community.
