User:Kquest1

From Journalism80

Proposal: I am researching Bethany House which is a home for homeless mothers and pregnant women.

A Place to Call Home

  The Healthy Mothers, Healthy Children Project is designed to respond to the unmet needs of women who are experiencing a high risk or difficult pregnancy, as well as women who have just given birth and whose lives are further complicated by the crisis of homelessness. 
  Bethany House was founded in 1978 in response for a need for shelter for homeless women and children. They provide residential options for women and children who are caught in the crisis of homelessness. Bethany believes that each person deserves adequate food, clothing and shelter, provided in a nurturing and sustaining environment. 
  Prior to the implementation of The Healthy Mothers, Healthy Children Project, Bethany House realized that there was a tremendous need for services for homeless pregnant and post-partum women and their infants. The need was even more critical since these families were not only without shelter, but they were also without resources and the skills to care for themselves and their newborn children. 
  Nassau County, New York provides services for many at-risk populations, but there is no other program in the county other than the Healthy Mothers, Healthy Children Project for homeless women who are faced with high-risk pregnancies or for women that come directly from the hospital with their homeless newborn children. Emergency and transitional housing programs for families with special needs are minimal in Nassau County, and residential programs that are enhanced by quality and comprehensive support services such as Bethany House are elsewhere nonexistent. 
  The Healthy Mothers, Healthy Children Project represents a design for bridging the service gap from the streets to permanent housing for pregnant and post-partum women who are experiencing the situational crisis of homelessness. The Project provides the services needed for these mothers and children in Bethany's residential and home-like settings. These services include: safe, clean housing and nutritious meals, pre-natal care and monitoring; post-partum and infant care and monitoring; parenting skills training and resources and referral services. 
  Bethany House was the first emergency shelter to open on Long Island, New York and has been singled out as a model program because it has always provided safe, supportive emergency housing combined with a component of services and resources. It was only logically for Bethany House to create a program to assist homeless women who were faced with a high-risk pregnancy. Women come to Bethany House directly from the hospital with their newborn children.