City Mission celebrates first anniversary of Women with Children Shelter
Courtesy of Washington City Mission
Katherine Patton, a resident at the Washington City Mission’s Women with Children Shelter, sits with her two daughters Jaden, 9, and Olivia, 13, in the lounge of the facility.
Katie Anderson/Observer-Reporter
Katherine Patton, a resident at the Washington City Mission’s Women with Children Shelter, sits in the lounge of the facility. She and her children plan to move into their own rental home next week.
Katie Anderson/ Observer-Reporter
Tonya Aldridge and her daughter, Jariyah, 4, stand in front of the Washington City Mission’s Women with Children Shelter, where they’ve been living for nearly a year. They plan to move into their own place next month.
The Washington City Mission is celebrating the first anniversary of its Women with Children Shelter.
The grand opening of the West Wheeling Street facility was held a year ago today, and it’s been full ever since.
“We have over 60 families on the waiting list,” said Amber Miller, manager of the Women with Children Program. “I knew the need was out there, but I didn’t anticipate the need would grow as much as it has. There’s never been a time when we weren’t full.”
The program is one year to 18 months long, depending on the needs of the families. So far, they’ve helped 33 families, though not all stayed the full length of the program, Miller said.
“Usually within nine to 10 months their housing comes through,” Miller said.
Katherine Patton, a resident, is excited to be getting keys to her own place next week. She and her two daughters, Jaden, 9, and Olivia, 13, have lived at the shelter for about a year. She had gone through inpatient treatment for addiction and moved into the Turning Point halfway house on North Main Street. But that program was only six months, and she didn’t want to return home to Mercer County.
“I knew that if I went back home I would have ended up the same way I was when I left,” she said.
Patton decided to move into the Women with Children Shelter so she could have her daughters with her, since she had been without them for more than six months.
“It was really scary because I didn’t know what this place provided or what my journey would look like,” she said.
In the year she spent there, Patton said both the mission staff and the other residents provided a safe environment and accountability.
“You always have somebody to talk to about the good, the bad and the ugly,” she said. “It makes you feel like you’re not alone in the world.”
According to the mission’s news release, Patton is now studying to be a certified recovery specialist and a family recovery specialist. She hopes to work in the Mission’s Women with Children Program after she moves out.
“I want to build a career helping addicts, trauma victims, and people with mental health issues,” she said in the release. “Helping people gives me purpose.”
Another resident, Tonya Aldridge, plans to move out by next month. She and 4-year-old daughter Jariyah moved into the shelter in December, after living at Turning Point for six months. Before that, she spent 21 days in an inpatient treatment program for addiction.
“I set my pride aside and asked for help,” Aldridge said.
After finishing the halfway house program, she didn’t have anywhere to live, and the mission was the only place that would allow women with children.
“Having kids with you makes you push harder to do the right thing,” Aldridge said. “They’re my motivation to stay clean and to get a house.”
Aldridge also has two sons, ages 13 and 11, who live in Brownsville. She plans for them to move into her new rental home with her in Washington next month. Aldridge currently works for Arc Human Services and plans to go back to school to become a licensed practical nurse, as she is already a certified nursing assistant.
“I’ve been wanting to go back to school, but I don’t think I would have pursued it on my own,” Aldridge said.
If not for the mission or the other women staying there, she said she probably wouldn’t be where she is today or as far along in her recovery.
“We’re all struggling with the same things and working toward the same goals,” Aldridge said about the community in the shelter. “If we see somebody slipping, we say something. You can be open with these people. Most people that come here don’t have family, but you build these relationships and they become your family.”
The program also assisted Aldridge with transportation and child care. Leah Dietrich, the mission’s director of residential programs, said in the news release that the children who stay there also spend time playing together.
“There are best friends in the making all the time,” Dietrich said in the release. “There is a lot of love in that building.”
Anyone interested in donating or volunteering with the mission’s Women with Children Program can visit its website at www.citymission.org.