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Since opening in Overtown 10 years ago, Lotus House has welcomed thousands of women and children, including 128 newborns. Still, more than 2,000 homeless women and children are turned away annually due to lack of space. The construction of Lotus Village kicked off Sept. 16 with a groundbreaking ceremony at the project site in Overtown. Once completed, the location will increase its total capacity from 250 to 490 homeless women, youth and children. Lotus House — one of the largest homeless shelters for women in the country located in Overtown, Miami — enlisted the help of several FIU psychologists to take part in a community-based research collaboration. The goal was to better understand how Lotus House alumni, who successfully transitioned from the shelter to stable housing, perceive and describe the shelter culture.
Overtown’s Lotus House begins new construction
The pandemic has exacerbated so many inequities, gaps, and needs in our community, particularly for the children and youth we shelter. With our community’s generous support, The Children’s Village will make many more dreams come true here in the heart of Overtown,” she added. While there have been several studies on shelter services — such as child care, mental health counseling, health care and employment services — there has been very little work done surrounding overall shelter culture.
Our Partners in Ending Homelessness
Lotus Village currently serves up to 500 women and children nightly through an evidence-based model that has set a national standard for the delivery of wrap-around services to women and children experiencing homelessness, many of whom are victims of domestic violence. The new building will comprise five floors housing classrooms, supportive services and resources for children and youth of all ages from within Lotus Village and the surrounding community. Sheltering 1,550+ women, youth and children annually, Lotus House is the largest women’s homeless shelter in the country. So much more than a meal, a bed and a shower, Lotus House provides sanctuary, resources, and multi-faceted, comprehensive supportive services to help our guests successfully exit the shelter system and lead lives of greater opportunity. “When it comes to ending homelessness among our youth, ensuring access to education and the socialization that comes with it is just as essential as providing food, healthcare, and shelter. Play is how children learn, express themselves creatively, develop strong social and emotional skills, explore and discover the world around them.
Holistic Programming
“For the first time with my family I was able to feel what a support system was,” said Resper, who 13 months after arriving at Lotus, in 2008, she managed to move into another apartment and land a full-time job. Research and innovation are crucial for advancing the field of homeless services, allowing us to continuously improve and tailor interventions to meet the unique and evolving needs of our guests. Sign up to receive PROFILEmiami’s Bi-Weekly Newsletter to stay up to date with the latest in South Florida residential and commercial real estate news and content. Last month, Lotus Endowment Fund, Inc., the sponsor of the Children’s Village, and its nonprofit subsidiary, Lotus Village II, LLC, closed on $32 million in New Market Tax Credit Financing that will enable the ground-up development of The Children’s Village.
VOLUNTEERS CALLED TO HELP IMMIGRANT FAMILIES IN SOUTH FLORIDA
We are an essential partner with Lotus House Women's Shelter located in Overtown-Miami, Fl. When you donate gently-used items and shop with us, you help uplift the lives of women, youth and children experiencing homelessness, improving the quality of their lives on every level. According to new research, what they need to begin to heal and build a better future is an act that is basic, yet fundamental to all people — to be cared about and to be cared for. On Friday, Lotus House staff, women and children who live or have lived in the shelter and Miami-Dade officials gathered on the site where the building will stand to celebrate the start of construction. The shelter currently serves nearly 190 people, but demand is much higher and each year more than 2,000 people who knock on the shelter’s doors asking for help cannot be helped. Your support is essential to our work to empower women and children most in need to become whole again.
Safe Haven – For Women Only
All clear given at Lotus House Women’s Shelter in Miami after bomb threat - WSVN 7News Miami News, Weather, Sports Fort Lauderdale
All clear given at Lotus House Women’s Shelter in Miami after bomb threat.
Posted: Tue, 28 May 2019 07:00:00 GMT [source]
The bond created between mother and child during play, is one that allows for healing and strengthened relationships. Our programming rooms were created with mom and child in mind, offering them spaces and activities that will help them heal, grown and learn together. Since opening its doors with 34 shelter beds in 2006, Lotus House has grown to serve more than 10,000 women, children, and youth.
The Children’s Village will offer therapeutic services, educational support, diverse programming, and a creative environment for the children and youth of Overtown, including those sheltered at Lotus House, equipping them to succeed in school and life,” says Constance Collins, Executive Director of Lotus House. Our mission at Lotus House is to improve the lives of women, youth and children experiencing homelessness by providing sanctuary, support, education, tools and resources that empower them to improve the quality of their lives on every level, achieve greater self sufficiency, and build safe, secure lives. If their dreams come true, we enrich our community with the fruit of their potential realized.
Lotus House, the nation’s largest women’s shelter, has broken ground on their new Children’s Village that will advance the nonprofit’s mission of ending, and preventing, homelessness. Centered on the educational, wellness, and special needs of children and youth, the five-story facility will expand Lotus House’s reach into the surrounding community, complementing the organization’s 500-bed shelter, Lotus Village, located directly across the street. Features of the new building will include a preschool for children ages three to five, afterschool and summer programs, child and family therapeutic services, access to healthcare and social services, a playground, and a vast array of community resources and programming. The Lotus House is a unique resource center and residential facility serving homeless women and infants in the heart of the historic African American district of Overtown, Miami, an area suffering from extreme poverty.
Help Us Change Lives,
The participants were given the power to guide the conversation, deciding what they wanted to talk about. They were co-researchers — and were even given notepads to write down their observations during the conversation. There in that place there was an old pink building, which we used as a kitchen, ”she said, pointing to a corner of the land. In 2013 I came because my daughter wanted to see the place where she was born, at that time she was out of work, it occurred to me to ask Constance [Collins] if she had a job and she hired me”.
Creation of The Children’s Village will be made possible by the support of Lotus Endowment Fund, Inc, a non-profit foundation that supports Lotus House and its initiatives. Research revealed that Lotus House has a strong “culture of care” — where the women are treated with dignity and respect, as individuals and not numbers. From focus groups with Lotus House alumni, different themes tied to shelter culture emerged and became the central elements that define and describe what a culture of care looks like in action. Therapy and supportive services can play a critical role in helping in our guests heal and regain a sense of stability and hope for the future. The start of construction marks the launch of Lotus Endowment Fund’s campaign to raise $25 million for the shelter’s long-term sustainability. Bank of America, a long-time supporter of Lotus House, announced a $250,000 pledge for operational and programmatic support at the new shelter.
Crystal Resper was seven months pregnant when she arrived at the Lotus House women’s shelter in Overtown. Engaging in artistic expression can serve as a powerful tool for guests who have experienced trauma, providing a therapeutic outlet for self-expression, emotional processing, and healing. Around 99 percent of the women at Lotus House have histories of domestic and intimate partner violence, are victims of other gender-based violence or have other significant trauma. That’s why the research team took a trauma-informed approach when hosting the focus groups with Lotus House alumni.
Rather than designing programs on a ‘one size fits all basis’ with research based on studies of the male homeless population, a more gender specific focus is now being recognized as appropriate to address the special needs of women. Lotus House staff and board members are all dedicated to giving the fragile families we shelter the time and tools needed to heal, improve the quality of their lives and help them achieve greater self sufficiency. Access to employment and education services can help break the cycle of poverty and homelessness, providing opportunities for greater economic stability and improved quality of life. Programs, like ours, that adopt a non-institutional approach to homeless services have been found to be the most successful in reaching, engaging and changing the lives of homeless women. They focus on the importance of a warm, casual, non-institutional environment to engage the homeless into services. Transitional housing program for single homeless women, pregnant women, or homeless women with child/children under one year old.
Homeless LGBTQIA+ individuals of all ages need trauma informed shelter and support services sensitive to their special needs. Based on principles of education and empowerment, Lotus House is committed to providing a trauma-informed, LGBTQIA+-sensitive sanctuary honoring the divine nature of all individuals, including adults, youth and children, with unconditional love. Lotus House is dedicated to the support, education advancement, and social inclusion of women and youth by providing the tools and resources needed for our sheltered guests to achieve greater self-sufficiency through basic life skills, education programs and job-readiness programs. Basic medical, dental and eye care, as well as mental health treatment, are an urgent priority for every woman and child who enters Lotus House. Lack of affordable mental health care and medical services are among the most critical issues to be addressed in truly breaking the cycle of homelessness. Virtually all of the women accepted into Lotus House suffer from untreated medical conditions, mental health issues, or both upon entry.
For many, it is a shelter of last resort, as temporary shelters do not afford them an opportunity to address untreated medical and mental illnesses, obtain work or benefits, and save the funds needed to truly break the cycle of homelessness. Our vision is that every woman, youth and child experiencing homelessness will have the opportunity to heal, learn and grow, build the foundation for a brighter future, and blossom into who they are truly meant to be. The Children’s Village will serve as a community hub for nonprofit providers equipped to support children sheltered at Lotus Village along with those from the surrounding community.
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