Shelter
Women’s Services offers temporary shelter to women and their dependent children who need housing because of domestic violence or other crises such as homelessness or unsuitable living conditions. Click here to read more.
Counseling
Women’s Services, offers supportive counseling services to adult and child victims/ survivors of domestic/sexual violence and their significant others. Services include individual and group supportive counseling, 24-hour hotline, crisis intervention and accompaniment to medical, police, or court proceedings. We also assist victims of domestic or sexual violence to seek legal relief from abuse. Click here to read more.
Advocacy
Advocates from Women’s Services provide assistance and support to survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault as they go through the medical, criminal and/or civil legal system.
Following an incident of violence, victims may need medical attention. Women’s Services staff is available to respond to hospitals as advocates for the victim and their loved ones throughout their experience. Advocates provide information about various medical and legal procedures and help assess the victim’s future needs for services. Click here to read more.
Medical Advocacy Project
Medical Advocacy Project (MAP) – The primary focus of our MAP is to provide trainings for health care providers to improve their response to domestic violence victims seeking medical treatment. A secondary service we provide is assisting companies and organizations with drafting and implementing workplace domestic violence policies and procedures. Click here to read more.
Education & Outreach
One of the most effective forms of prevention is education. Women’s Services is dedicated to educating the adults and children in our community about the dynamics of abuse and interpersonal violence with a special emphasis on personal safety.
Women’s Services presents abuse awareness programs to schools, professional organizations, and other community groups. The school-based abuse awareness programs are designed to reduce abuse through the educating of school age children, their parents, and teachers about the incidence of child abuse as well as strategies to combat it. Click here to read more.
Community Gardens
Although it may not be inherently obvious, there is an intersection between preventing violence and promoting healthy eating and physical activity. In 2013 we started to explore the correlation between food security and violence prevention and planted our first vegetable garden. We believe that by creating activities around healthy food access we are actively engaging all age groups in community stewardship and strengthening community bonds. By fostering a sense of pride and ownership in the gardens we’re not only deterring violence, but also providing increased access to healthy, affordable food, enriching neighborhood aesthetics, cultivating (pun intended) community collaboration and strengthening the fabric of our community by building social capital. There is mounting evidence that promoting social connections and trust among neighbors contributes significantly to a decrease in violence and crime. That’s why we’re encouraging our neighbors to plant a community garden today to squash violence tomorrow! Click here to read more.
HOPE
HOPE, an acronym that stands for health, opportunity, place-making, and engagement, is Women’s Services’ initiative to prevent and heal community-level trauma. We work with local residents in communities that have experienced underinvestment in infrastructure, higher crime rates, lack of economic opportunity, and access to improved health. We strive to build trust, social support, a sense of community ownership, and engagement that will enable individuals and families to become healthy enough to access and sustain opportunities for improved health, safe housing, food security, education, and employment. HOPE is currently working in Meadville’s 5th Ward and looks forward to expanding to other communities in Meadville and Crawford County in the coming months and years. Read more about HOPE in our Year in Review report.
Crawford Clean Slate
Helping to improve access to employment and safe housing. Individuals with criminal records face significant challenges in securing safe and affordable housing, access to funding for education and job training, and securing employment in jobs with opportunities for long term financial security. Women’s Services is the first point of contact for community members who are seeking an opportunity for relief from past criminal charges. We then connect people with the Crawford Clean Slate initiative, which provides a pathway for many individuals with past records of non-violent crimes to seal or expunge their records as provided by Pennsylvania law; and when relevant, to apply for pardons. Applicants must have satisfied criteria for elapsed time without other criminal offenses, paid fines, and otherwise satisfied the terms of convictions. Individuals seeking more information may call the Women’s Services at 888-881-0189 or 814-333-9766 Staff members will ask for some basic contact information and refer callers on to trained Clean Slate volunteers who will follow up, assist with determining eligibility, facilitate access to legal services, and work with individuals throughout the process of removing barriers to greater economic mobility and security.
Prison Outreach Program at Women’s Services, Inc.
Many women in prison are victims of trauma from sexual assault and domestic violence. National data indicates that as many as 86% of women inmates have experienced sexual assault and that 77% have experienced intimate partner violence. Unfortunately, the prison system lacks the expertise and resources to help these women heal from their trauma and abuse and live healthier lives.
Women’s Services has providing counseling services in SCI Cambridge Springs since 2015, and our services have grown to include accompaniment for women who have been sexually assaulted in prison, and individual and group counseling that has been provided to hundreds of women. Programming includes a range of topics that help women understand that they are not alone in their abuse and that healing is possible. Women’s Services is a key partner in a new trauma unit, the House of Healing, a voluntary 6-month program staffed by a prison psychologist, a drug and alcohol specialist and Women’s Services. Women completing this program are demonstrating significant improvement in how they handle stress and trauma.
While we cannot always prevent the crimes and violence that result in imprisonment, Women’s Services is demonstrating that services and support provided during incarceration can help women to become healthy enough to lead safe and productive lives when they are allowed to return to their families and communities.