Fueling Upward Mobility & Self-Sufficiency

YES! (YWCA Embracing Sobriety) provides a highly structured three-phase residential program tailored for homeless women with substance abuse disorder. Our INARR certified program offers a high level of 24-hour living support and structured wrap-around services for residents. Women living at YWCA have the opportunity to learn valuable skills, mend relationships, and begin setting personal and financial goals for their lives based on integrity, dignity, and self-respect.

The typical client entering the YES! program is unemployed and without resources. She has very little contact with her family and, if she is a mother, she likely has no contact with her children due to her history of substance abuse. Our program is designed for single women, women with children who are working towards family reunification, and women who are working with treatment courts.

In order to enter our program, you must fulfill the following application requirements:

• Female, 18 years of age or older with an identifiable drug / alcohol dependency

• Willing to explore learning how to live in recovery

Our recovery advocates immediately begin working with new clients to assess their needs and develop personal goals for them. Clients create an Individual Development Plan and review their progress with their advocates regularly. As clients continue to meet their plan criteria, they advance through the program phases until they achieve successful graduation. The overall goals for YES! clients are to embrace sobriety, maintain employment, move into permanent housing upon completion of the program, and reunify with their children, family and friends. 

During their time with us, clients are required to attend NA/AA meetings, meet with their sponsors, agree to random testing, obtain employment, and adhere to the guidelines of the program. YWCA provides them with essentials such as food, clothing, personal care items, counseling, and recovery educational materials. Clients learn the importance of self-respect and that the are capable of contributing to their community and pursuing recovery. The core of our program is tailored treatment that recognizes each woman’s unique circumstances.

YWCA partners with Counseling for Change to offer dual assessment and group meetings. Clients also attend our weekly “Healthy Relationships” interactive course where they gain knowledge of what green flags to look for when determining if a relationship is healthy or unhealthy. Participants learn to set healthy boundaries within all of their interpersonal relationships and ultimately complete the course feeling empowered to take control of their choices, bodies and lives. In addition, a weekly “Women and Mothers” group offers a flexible curriculum that focuses on the needs of its current participants.

Many of our YES! clients also have a history of domestic violence and choose to participate in our weekly “Choices” classes which are offered in collaboration with Albion Fellows Bacon Center at the YWCA. One-on-one victim advocacy and case management is also available if needed.