Women's Homelessness Initiative

 

On any given night in Denver there are 800 women on the streets, many of whom have no place to sleep at night. They're vulnerable to violence and abuse," said the Rev. Diana Flahive, coordinator of the Women's Homelessness Initiative, a project established by Capitol Hill United Ministries (CHUM) to address the plight of homeless women. "Our purpose is to provide sanctuary for twenty of those women, every night, year round. We offer them dignity, care, compassion, presence, and respect."

Who are these women?

"They could be any one of us if our lives took a different turn," Flahive said. "We've had elderly women with dementia, a woman with Cerebral Palsy in a wheel chair, a 45 year old who's pregnant with twins. We even had one who'd been a teacher for 20 years. She made some bad financial decisions and lost everything."

The homeless issue "just kind of dropped in my lap," she said. In October of 2011, a group of ministers got together at the invitation of Rebecca Crummey, a former priest at St. John's Episcopal Church, to discuss the situation. They established three goals for themselves: to offer sanctuary, to educate others about the issues, and to advocate for better solutions for the homeless.

"Out of that we devised a concept where seven churches would each host 20 homeless women once a week," Flahive said. "We also partnered with St. Francis Center, a day shelter for the homeless. Every morning at 8:30 they conduct a lottery to select the twenty who will get a place for the night."

The Women's Homeless Initiative is run totally by volunteers who take turns setting up the space, cooking a meal, spending the night, and handing out the breakfast bags in the mornings. In their first year they put in 20,000 volunteer hours, providing over $35,000 worth of in-kind services.

At the heart of the program sits Diana Flahive, connecting resources and people, meeting challenges, and solving logistical problems as they arise. "I'm on the phone a lot," she said, "making sure our volunteers have what they need, looking for partner churches, and recruiting volunteers."

For Flahive, though, it's about more than just bricks and mortar. "It's about opening up another part of yourself," she said. "Just like the rest of us, people who are homeless want to be seen, heard, and known. So when I see somebody standing on a corner holding a sign, I don't give them money. I talk to them; 'How are you today? Did you have a place to sleep last night? My name is Diana. What's your name?'"

Is there a solution to the problem of homelessness in Denver?

"Serve. Educate. Advocate," she said. "If we're a civil society, where should our money be going? There are lots of people out there doing good things, but we need resources and a change of heart. Where I'm at right now, I don't understand all the suffering in the world. I hope there is Justice. I used to think I could change the world. Now I know I can only do what's right in front of me. But still it pains me to see so much suffering out there."

Last January, Rev. Diana Flahive and CHUM (Capitol Hill United Ministries) received the Capitol Hill United Neighborhoods "2012 Good Neighbor Award" for their work with Denver's homeless women.

Original article: Examiner.com