We work within four primary areas: housing, food, education and services to women and their children.

Housing

The Living Room, in partnership with multiple organizations, provides transitional housing for up to 35 women and children at a given time. Multiple teams collaborate to support each woman in improving mental and physical health with the goal of enhancing life-skills and increasing long-term stability. Our housing is spread throughout local neighborhoods, and each site has a garden and a sense of community.

Food

Our food program serves numerous at-risk communities by partnering with local organizations who focus on outreach. Our Secret Hope Kitchen prepares over 100 meals a day for low-income seniors, former foster youth, and re-entry program participants (returning citizens previously incarcerated). This program also serves our street outreach partners.

Additionally, we offer supplemental pantry bags that provide food which can be harder to access, such as fresh dairy, meat and produce. The goal of our pantry bags is to increase health and wellness for food insecure families. We also offer educational meal kits with recipes to educate participants on proper food storage and food safety tips.

Education

Learning is woven throughout everything the organization does. The education and training of our staff, volunteers, community and our participants is important to us. We are proud to share that we are an official Sonoma State University “Learning Site” where the university collaborates with the organization as a community partner to deepen learning and outcomes for faculty, staff, and students.

Our service model supports continuous life learning to our participants, as well as the education of hard skills such as interviewing, job search, computer skills, and effective communication. Lastly, we are always learning as an organization with our community members, inviting experts to teach us about advocacy, unconscious bias, diversity, inclusion and belonging.

Services

All of our programs are focused on servicing the numerous day-to-day challenges of women and children who are facing crisis and homelessness in the county. Our Life Center is the hub for our day services, and our Cleveland Campus is the service hub for our food and transitional housing programs. The Life Center’s team of guides and specialists, with the collaboration of local partners, agencies and major health providers, offer individualized assistance to our participants.

Our service model is rooted in promoting stability and self-reliance for women and their children who are experiencing crisis, homelessness, or who are at-risk of homelessness in Sonoma County. We view every woman as an individual deserving of kindness, dignity and respect.