Downtown Women's Center

Mission: The mission of the Downtown Women's Center is to provide permanent supportive housing and a safe and healthy community fostering dignity, respect, and personal stability, and to advocate ending homelessness for women.

Vision: To lead the implementation of innovative solutions by creating committed communities that work together to end homelessness for women.

Description:
The Downtown Women's Center (DWC) is a nonprofit organization that provides supportive services to more than 2000 homeless women each year. The Center is dedicated to providing homeless women with the resources they require in order to reconnect with their sense of self and reclaim goals that have become lost in the day-to-day struggle for survival. In our local Skid Row community, the Downtown Women's Center is the only resource that is exclusively for and singularly dedicated to serving the unique needs of homeless women. Established in 1978, the Center is a nationally recognized model of effective services for homeless women. DWC operates out of two beautifully-renovated, adjoining buildings in the heart of Skid Row.

History:
Before the DWC opened its doors in 1978, homeless women in the heart of Los Angeles had no recourse for services and support. Skid Row and its surrounding streets were in every respect a man's world-its shelters, pantries and social services accessible only to men. The Downtown Women's Center grew out of Founding Director Jill Halverson's deep concern for the well-being of women who found themselves destitute following the closure of mental hospitals in the early 1970's. Her relationship with Rosa, a mentally-ill women, whose home was two shopping carts in a downtown parking lot, initiated and inspired the support of the many individuals who have offered their time and dollars to create a safe place for women facing the harsh realities of homelessness.

Today, the Downtown Women's Center is nationally recognized as a prototype for programs striving to meet the unique needs of homeless women. We serve over 2000 women per year in our Day Center and in 2006, we celebrated the 20-year anniversary of our Residence! Within all aspects of DWC, we are engaged in the relief of poverty and distress, providing women with support in coping with the multiple challenges that have contributed to their homelessness: the effects of aging, mental illness, physical disability, domestic violence, and poverty, among them.

Contact person: Volunteer Department, Volunteer Coordinator, (phone), (email)

Office fax number: (213) 680-0844

Address:

325 S. Los Angeles St. Los Angeles, CA 90013 (See a map)

Web Site: http://www.DWCweb.org

Directions:

For driving directions & parking, go to www.DWCweb.org for information

Last updated on April 22, 2009