Therapeutic and Supportive Services
The overwhelming majority of the women and youth we serve at Lotus House are victims of physical or sexual abuse, domestic violence, trafficking or other severe traumas, often starting in childhood. Unaddressed trauma can lead to life-long struggles with depression, anxiety, PTSD and other mental health conditions. Without access to the support and resources needed to heal broken bodies, minds and spirits, this can spiral into an endless cycle. We offer life changing, evidence-based counseling and therapy via three specialized clinical programs: singles, youth and families. Licensed counselors offer individual therapy including Motivational Interviewing or Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and Seeking Safety group counseling. Counselors provide individualized mental health assessments and links to psychiatric services where needed. They work with other staff teams to ensure that each guest has access to all the services and programs needed to successfully move to independence and permanent housing. Our clinical programs afford women and youth a unique window of opportunity to help resolve trauma and create nurturing, healthy attachments so critical to healing, developing resilience and building the foundation for long term stability.
Our Impact in 2023
1,900+
Individual Therapy Sessions
2,200+
Primary Care Appointments
2,200+
Housing Counseling Sessions
1,100+
Psychiatric Evaluations
600+
Group Counseling Sessions
100+
Health Education Workshops
For Women Only
While families with children are recognized as a distinct population with discrete needs, unaccompanied women have remained the most invisible subgroup, only recently receiving formal recognition in the hope that their special needs will translate into specific and sorely needed programming and funding.
Understanding the Needs of Women and Our Research-Driven, Evidence-Informed Program Design
● Domestic violence
● Racism
● Poverty
● Gender inequalities
● Employment discrimination
● Housing and food insecurity
● Lack of Access to Health and Mental Health Care and Substance Use Treatment
COVID-19 related job losses are impacting women disproportionately and domestic violence rates are reported to have increased during the pandemic. The health related vulnerabilities of women experiencing homelessness puts them at greater risk for COVID, as well as more serious morbidity and mortality from the virus.
- Gender Specific Program
- Individually Designed for each Guest
- Counseling (Individual and Group)
- Supportive Services
- Health and Wellness
- Each guest is assigned a Resource Coordinator for weekly meetings
- Stable Housing Plan at Exit
- Yoga
- Meditation
- Education
- Employment Services
- Budgeting and Financial Literacy
- Life Skills Coaching
Youth Program
Homeless youth are highly vulnerable due to their experiences of trauma, family breakdown, and lack of critical support. They face a range of tragic consequences, including physical and sexual assault or abuse, physical illness, mental health disorders, substance abuse, and other forms of trauma.
About Youth Experiencing Homelessness
Two of the primary causes of youth homelessness are family breakdown, including being locked/kicked out, abused, and neglected/abandoned; and “systems failure” through which those aging out of foster care, for example, lack critical support and become homeless.
Homeless youth are particularly vulnerable and face tragic consequences if they do not receive the services and interventions they need. They are at a higher risk for further physical and sexual assault or abuse, physical illness including HIV/AIDS, anxiety disorders, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, drug abuse, suicide, and becoming involved in prostitution. Homeless female youth are at a high risk for early pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, and HIV due to poor access to health care, survival sex (trading sex for basic needs such as housing and food), substance abuse and other challenges.
Guided by the Framework to End Youth Homelessness and Preventing and Ending Homelessness – A Coordinated Community Response, the Lotus House Youth Program provides safe, stable housing to youth for the duration of their high school and/or vocational training within the framework of a trauma-informed, comprehensive and coordinated support system that promotes positive youth development. To address basic needs, youth are provided with clothing, nourishing meals, access to health care, assistance with benefits and other social services, and have the opportunity to participate in a wide range of enrichment activities.
For young mothers with children ages 0 to 5 and women who are homeless and pregnant, our Children and Families Program is designed to provide a nurturing wrap around support system for both mothers and mothers-to-be and their children, together with the added support of evidence based and informed child therapy, child-parent therapy and parenting education, to ensure these fragile families can look forward to a happy and healthy fresh start to their new lives together.
According to the data in this study, youth at greater risk of experiencing homelessness include:
Families Program
In America, 2.5 million children lack a home and most are under 6 years old, leaving them vulnerable to food insecurity, depression, anxiety, and other threats to their wellbeing. This nationwide epidemic of homelessness is caused by systemic, economic, and global forces that have created an inadequate safety net for their basic needs.needs will translate into specific and sorely needed programming and funding.
Families Experiencing Homelessness
- Children experiencing homelessness are sick at twice the rate of other children
- Go hungry twice as often as non-homeless children
- Experience twice the rate of learning disabilities and are twice as likely to repeat a grade
- Have three times the rate of emotional and behavioral problems of non-homeless children
- Most homeless mothers have a history of trauma themselves, often dating back to their childhoods.
Lotus House is committed to providing child and family centered services that promote trauma resolution in both children and mothers.[8] [9] Families benefit from evidence-based child therapy, dyadic parent/child therapy and parenting education to build the foundation for a safe, secure and better way of life.
The “children first” principle is evident throughout Lotus Village with child-friendly furnishings in community rooms, the intake sanctuary, art and activities lab, a children’s playroom, and gardens that all lead into a central pavilion buzzing with activities. We are committed that these children have resources that allow them to not only feel normal, but to thrive — at school, in social settings, and in their family environment. In the Micky and Madeleine Arison Family Foundation Children’s Wellness Center, United Way Center for Excellence in Early Education is our childcare service provider for infants and toddlers from newborns to 3 years of age, and Lotus House provides the therapeutic overlay in beautiful play therapy rooms designed for children. Every aspect of Lotus Village was designed with the needs and wellbeing of children in mind, best practices for a trauma informed healing environment with strong protective factors for children to learn, grow, thrive and succeed. An onsite, state of the art health clinic is operated by Jessie Trice Community Health System, ensuring easy access to health services.
Homelessness itself is another layer of trauma for mothers and children, and yet, there is hope.[3] The latest research indicates that it is possible to break the cycle of childhood abuse, domestic violence and homelessness with life changing support, tools, education and resources that heal broken bodies, minds and spirits. [4] [5] [6] Mothers provided with evidence-based trauma-resolution therapy and strong supportive parenting skills can positively impact everything from their child’s chances of high school graduation to their success in the workforce as adults.[7]