The YWCA Bradford has a mission that involves empowering and educating women, helping them to improve on their life situations and be the strong and successful individuals they deserve to be.
However, women and children are not the only ones who can find help through the YWCA’s offered services. Men who are struggling with various scenarios are also able to find assistance from the various programs.
The Mental Health, Intellectual Disabilities Program (MHIDP) serves 90 to 100 people each year.
Twenty staff members help men and women with mental health issues or intellectual disabilities to cope with life and develop skills to function successfully.
This includes helping with medication and conducting visits to the home to make sure medication is taken properly and participants understand the potential side effects of each medication. It also means help with scheduling appointments, making trips for groceries and sticking to a budget and keeping an orderly household. This program can be joined through a self referral or a court-ordered participation requirement.
The Housing and Employment Services (HES) helps 60 to 70 families in a year. This program provides housing in emergency situations to women, children and families, typically with no other resources available to them. These individuals are encouraged to work toward goals and learn better handling of anything from school attendance to hygiene and stress management. Budgets, finances and finding a new job through resume preparation and applying to trade schools when necessary. This program does assist men as well as women and children. They are assisted in finding housing in separate locations from the shelter location.
The Victims’ Resource Center (VRC) which includes Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Services and a Domestic Violence Emergency Shelter, where 396 people were served last year. This program helps with basics like food, shelter and referrals for other services for those who have suffered domestic or sexual violence. Victims are typically afraid, without financial support and sometimes even physically injured, officials said. This program helps them understand how to move forward, assisting in considering options, attaining legal assistance and making positive steps toward a successful future.
Preventative education programs are presented at schools and to organizations in the area, reaching more than 2,500 people in 2015 alone. This is an effort to help people see a way out of a problematic situation and help the youth of the community who might be exposed to a difficult situation involving violence and/or sexual assault.
Finally, the Food Pantry helps those in the community who are hungry and in need of assistance. These individuals can visit the pantry on Wednesday of each week and receive boxes of food to help them make it through a difficult time.
Meals on Wheels, a program previously handled by the YWCA, is now run by Bradford Regional Medical Center. With the transition of this program to the supervision of another organization and the purchase of a new space for the services, the YWCA is focused on big changes for the better for the organization.
“We hope to expand upon each of our programs and the number of participants we can serve, as more funding becomes available and as we transition into our new space at 2nd Ward School,” said YWCA Development and Marketing Director Angela Erway.
In December of 2016, the YWCA announced the purchase of the Congress Street property and detailed plans of a new administrative center, as well as domestic violence and homeless shelters.
