{"id":4826,"date":"2014-10-29T09:51:00","date_gmt":"2014-10-29T14:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gnof.org\/?p=4826"},"modified":"2014-10-29T09:51:00","modified_gmt":"2014-10-29T14:51:00","slug":"new-orleans-womens-shelter-gives-families-a-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.communify.me\/gnof\/new-orleans-womens-shelter-gives-families-a-home\/","title":{"rendered":"New Orleans Women&#8217;s Shelter Gives Families A Home"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/174396601&amp;color=ff5500&amp;auto_play=false&amp;hide_related=false&amp;show_comments=true&amp;show_user=true&amp;show_reposts=false\" height=\"166\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The New Orleans Women\u2019s Shelter doesn\u2019t just provide a roof, a warm bed and a meal. They work with clients and residents to address their individual and family needs, equipping them with the tools they need to move into independent living in their own homes.<\/p>\n<p>No one plans on becoming homeless. Siobhan Smith certainly didn\u2019t. But then:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy landlord went up on my rent a couple hundred dollars and I couldn\u2019t afford it with just the income I was getting, and so I had to leave.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>While Smith talks, one of her four kids, her youngest Carter, jumps and runs in the outdoor play area in their new, temporary home \u2014 the New Orleans Women\u2019s Shelter. Her other children are at school. Smith found\u00a0New Orleans Women\u2019s Shelter\u00a0by calling 211, who gave her a list of shelters. But when she walked into the Women\u2019s Shelter, she knew she\u2019d found home.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEverybody was so friendly and non-judgmental, and they seemed like they were really in tune with the plight of the single female.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Smith says it doesn\u2019t even feel like a shelter. It\u2019s more like a big house \u2014 which made moving her family there so much easier.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt first I kinda felt like a bad parent, because we have to go to a shelter, but being here it doesn\u2019t feel like that. Everybody \u2014 they either feel like an aunt or a sister to him, so I don\u2019t even mind. I don\u2019t mind him being here. It doesn\u2019t feel like I did something wrong. I feel like I came into\u2026 a step into the right direction.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey come across the seal of the door and we want a new beginning for them\u201d says Dawn Fletcher, the Executive Director of the New Orleans Women\u2019s Shelter. \u201cWe want them to not think about being homeless because this is your home.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Fletcher leads me past cozy rooms filled with couches and comfortable armchairs \u2014 all decorated for Halloween.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo this is our education wing. We have our parenting classes that are held in here. We have this wonderful area for our kids to play in, and we separated it by age groups. So we have the infants over here, the toddlers there. And the older kids here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The room would make Goldilocks so happy. The games, toys and \u2014 of course \u2014 the furniture: they\u2019re all the perfect size, no matter what size you are.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are a woman\u2019s shelter,\u201d explains Fletcher, \u201cbut we focus on the children because they\u2019re innocent in this. It\u2019s about families. Keeping families together, making sure that the moms are safe and secure. And the kids are not suffering through this transition period for the moms. So we do focus a lot on the kids, and making sure that they\u2019re comfortable and they\u2019re with mom, and she\u2019s happy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Down the hallway, shelter manager Deidre Braneon, known to everyone as Ms. D., has her arms loaded with costumes.<\/p>\n<p>Four year old Ciara, who lives at the shelter with her mom and brothers, explains, \u201cThey\u2019re pulling out dresses for us for Halloween.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ciara tells me she wants to be a witch, but when she spies a pink princess gown, her costume plan changes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI want this one!\u201d she declares, pointing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy hat calls for everything,\u201d explains Braneon. \u201cMaintenance, cooking all kids of stuff, grocery shopping, keeping order, like watching children, baby sitting. So today is costume issue.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This is what\u00a0New Orleans Women\u2019s Shelter<a href=\"http:\/\/nolawomenshelter.org\/\">\u00a0<\/a>does. They provide whatever their residents need \u2014 from finding the perfect Halloween costume to finding a job, a school, or a doctor. It\u2019s not about giving handouts, they tell me. It\u2019s about giving a hand up.<\/p>\n<p><em>Written by Eve Abrams for the Community IMPACT Series and produced by WWNO in partnership with the Greater New Orleans Foundation. To learn more about the New Orleans Women&#8217;s Shelter, click <a title=\"New Orleans Women's Shelter\" href=\"http:\/\/nolawomenshelter.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The New Orleans Women\u2019s Shelter doesn\u2019t just provide a roof, a warm bed and a meal. They work with clients and residents to address their individual and family needs, equipping them with the tools they need to move into independent living in their own homes. No one plans on becoming homeless. Siobhan Smith certainly didn\u2019t&#8230;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":4827,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[677,30],"tags":[350,666,732,683,100],"class_list":["post-4826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-front-page-small-feature","category-our-community","tag-community-impact","tag-eve-abrams","tag-new-orleans-womens-shelter","tag-radio-segment","tag-wwno"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>New Orleans Women&#039;s Shelter Gives Families A Home | Greater New Orleans Foundation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.communify.me\/gnof\/new-orleans-womens-shelter-gives-families-a-home\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"New Orleans Women&#039;s Shelter Gives Families A Home | Greater New Orleans Foundation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The New Orleans Women\u2019s Shelter doesn\u2019t just provide a roof, a warm bed and a meal. 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