Headquarters Rhode Island, United States | ||
Mission and History
Women's Center of Rhode Island (WCRI) is a domestic violence organization and safe house serving women and children in Providence and East Providence, Rhode Island. Founded in 1974, WCRI is a nationally recognized agency for promoting a violence-free America. The mission of Women's Center of Rhode Island is to end interpersonal violence. WCRI is a member of the Rhode Island Coalition Against Domestic Violence.
Contents
The mission of Women's Center of Rhode Island is to end interpersonal violence. We seek to empower all we serve thorough culturally competent programs that provide safety, shelter and court advocacy to victims of domestic violence. We work collaboratively to prevent the occurrence of violence and to educate the community about the dynamics of violence.
WCRI services include a shelter, residential advocacy and case management, child advocacy, and court advocacy. The community outreach and education provides education to schools, community groups, local businesses, and service agencies. It operates Providence DELTA and the Men's Initiative.
Women's Center of Rhode Island was founded in 1974, and is a nationally recognized agency for promoting a violence-free America. It is the only center in the Providence/East Providence area serving individual women as well as mothers and their children who are victims of domestic violence. Since 1995, it has been received 28 prestigious awards and citations for its service to the community.
Operation
WCRI is open seven days a week, 365 days a year and it provides victim of domestic violence with services that include shelter, residential advocacy and case management, child advocacy, and court advocacy. Clients also receive the basic necessities of home cooked meals, clothing, shelter, showers, telephones, mail, medial care, and emergency assistance.
WCRI is accessible by public transportation and is in close proximity to schools, healthcare centers, a recreation center, parks and a library. The shelter is wheelchair accessible, with elevator access to all four floors. It has 13 bedrooms accommodating 40 beds, 14 bathrooms, a common-use lounge per floor, two licensed kitchens, a patio/courtyard, a childcare center and playground.
WCRI encourages women to carry on normal activities as long as immediate safety is not compromised.
Children's Enrichment The goal of the Children's Enrichment Program is to create a safe, supportive learning environment for residential children to enhance their social, emotional, cognitive, physical, and linguistic development. During their shelter stay, a child advocate meets with each mother to set goals and develop an individual plan for her children regarding emotional, medical, educational and social needs. The child advocate facilitates the individual plans by coordinating the efficient use of resources and partnerships while providing support, validation, and active listening. Residential
Women's Center of Rhode Island's Residential Services Program provides shelter to over 100 women and children that are victims of domestic violence. When woman and children enter the program, they receive basic needs including shelter, food and clothing. After an adjustment period residents, work with case managers to develop individual goals to work on during her stay. The goals typically include housing, legal, and medical needs as well as literacy and education, job training and employment needs and child/parenting education if applicable. The goal is to help the resident define her own plan in becoming self-sufficient including planning and budgeting for the future. As part of our support services, each woman is encouraged to attend the group sessions offered including expressive arts therapy, domestic violence support and education, financial empowerment, parenting education and the weekly house meeting. In addition, the client meets weekly with their residential advocate to review and refine their plan for independence.
Providence DELTA Program
Providence DELTA (Domestic Violence Prevention Enhancement and Leadership through Alliances) [DELTA] [1] is a CDC-grant funded program.
Men’s Initiative
The Providence Men's Project
Volunteer
WCRI has over 100 volunteers providing vital services to victims of domestic violence! The Women's Center of Rhode Island welcomes interns/volunteers who want to help break the cycle of violence in our community. Interns/volunteers receive specialized training by professional staff in order to provide critical hotline, residential, and administrative support services. Volunteers can work in the following departments: Hotline/Front Desk Volunteer, Children's Enrichment Program, Court Advocacy Program, Administrative Volunteer, Community Outreach and Education, The Men's Initiative, and Maintenance/House Keeping.
Statistics
2009
291 women and children lived at the shelter
14,000+ meals were provided to shelter residents
1000+ Providence residents received court advocacy
2500+ people received prevention education
1 in 4 adolescents report verbal, physical, emotional, or sexual abuse from a dating partner each year
Each year, women experience about 4.8 million intimate partner related physical assaults and rapes. Men are the victims of about 2.9 million intimate partner related physical assaults.
IPV resulted in 1,510 deaths in 2005. Of these deaths, 78% were females and 22% were males.