Harboring Hope

Harbour Community received raves when it opened in late 1997 as the largest transitional housing shelter for battered women in Southern California.

So it was encouraging to drop into the 36-unit apartment building last week and find it living up to expectations.

The occasion was a reception honoring City Attorney James Hahn and his staff for their work on domestic violence laws. But the real star, as Hahn was the first to acknowledge, was Harbour Community itself and the women who are making new lives there.

The facility is the brainchild of Women Advancing the Valley through Education, Economics and Empowerment, or WAVE, a group of San Fernando Valley women who were determined to do something for abused women and children.

The group formed a partnership with another nonprofit organization to buy and renovate a debilitated apartment building. WAVE operates the shelter through private donations, a city grant and a just-received $750,000 federal grant.

WAVE members were particularly eager to find a place large enough to accommodate women with their children, many of whom have witnessed their mother’s abuse or been a victim themselves. The building’s exact location is kept secret to protect the women and children there.

Transitional housing fills a gap, whether the problem is domestic violence, homelessness or addiction. Emergency shelters provide a much-needed haven, but they are temporary, and those staying there all too often return to the streets or the bottle or their abusive partners. They may have no other place to go or they have not learned the skills needed to break old patterns.

Harbour Community allows women and their children to stay for as long as 18 months and provides a range of services, from counseling to classes on finances and parenting. To be admitted to an apartment, each woman must promise to pursue education or a job.

The program’s success is best told in the women’s own words to City Attorney Hahn last week:

“Before I came here I had a hard time saying no. I’ve started saying my opinion. I’ve even started making enemies!”

Or this:

“Before I left him, I didn’t think I could do anything. Now I’m going to school, I’m working on my AA [Associate of Arts] degree.”

Or, simply, this:

“I don’t think I’d be alive if I weren’t here.”

Anyone who feels helpless when confronting social problems or skeptical that anything can be done to solve them need only look at Harbour Community.

By offering a broad spectrum of services, by providing both emotional support and concrete help, by employing professionals who care about and respect the women they work with, the world can be changed, one life at a time.