Our Place, DC

Our goal is to interrupt the incarceration cycle of women and mothers by connecting them to their families and surrounding them with support to aid their reentry into the community.

Why do we exist?

Our Place is unique because it is the only organization in the DC area that provides gender-specific services to women who are being released from prison. Women present special needs not only because their incarcerations are frequently tied to substance abuse, but many women are mothers and caregivers who all too often are separated from their children by great distances.

Statistics show that the number of women who are being incarcerated is steadily on the rise. We feel the effects of this at Our Place as increasingly more women come to us in need of basic resources including food, clothing, and shelter. As we build relationships with women, we learn of their histories. Their backgrounds are filled with physical and sexual abuse as well as scarce economic and social support. And each woman tries to maintain some semblance of life in the face of poor physical and mental health, poverty, and substance abuse. We have come to believe that their lack of resources is a major cause of their incarceration, and so we become concerned when we see that they frequently continue to lack necessary resources during and after their incarceration. We exist to offer women a viable way to heal from their pasts and access the tools they will need for successful futures.

It may not be surprising to learn that a large number of women who are incarcerated had at least one family member who had been incarcerated prior to their arrest. This is a stark reminder that there is such a thing as a cycle of incarceration. In addition to helping women live productive lives in the community, we hope at least to interrupt the cycles of incarceration that might exist in their families so that their children experience a different reality.

We provide the following programs and services: Emergency transitional housing for women with HIV/AIDS; Clothing Boutique/Drop-In Center; Counseling Services; Employment Services; Family Services; Family Transportation; HIV/AIDS Services; Housing Referral Services; Legal Services; Prison & Jail Outreach; Quarterly Newsletter, Finding Our Place; Referral Services for medical and substance abuse treatment; and Weekly Support Groups.

What have you accomplished?

This past fiscal year, we assisted more than 700 women through our Drop-In Center. This does not include the number of women we assisted who were incarcerated.

Meet some of the women we assisted in the past.

Beverly M was dropped off at the bus station in a prison-issue coat, with a bag of personal possessions in her hand, $65 in her pocket, and nowhere in the world to go. After sleeping all night in the street, she made a collect call to Our Place first thing the next morning. Our staff made arrangements for Beverly to come to our Drop-In Center where she received some food and a change of clothing. Staff worked furiously to find housing for Beverly so she would have a safe place to sleep and immediately increased outreach with prison case managers to lessen the likelihood that another release like this would ever take place.

Natasha contacted Our Place upon learning that we had housing for women who were HIV-positive. She made arrangements to move in upon her release from jail. However, the night she was released, Natasha arrived at Our Place without any medication which severely jeopardized her well-being. Our staff purchased the necessary medications for Natasha and made the necessary provisions for her health insurance application to be expedited so she could continue to receive what she needed.

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