YWCA Helena

Wings - women initiating new growth and sustainability is a licensed substance use disorder recovery program that offers holistic wrap-around care for women who experience homelessness, co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders, poverty, justice system involvement, and if women have children, are involved with child protective services. The 24-room shelter is on the national register of historic places and houses women and their children. Wings consistently operates at capacity, housing an average of 24 women and 20 children at any given time. Openings occur when women can safely transition to the community after the typical 12-24 month wait for community subsidized housing. A stubborn waitlist for services is often 20 names long for wings. Wings continues to be the only program in our community that serves women of any age, of any family status, and houses children of any age and any gender with their mothers. In 2023, wings housed 28 women and 24 children. 74% of the women who participated in wings were justice system involved and 100% were homeless and living at or below the federal poverty level. Of the women served, 75% were mothers, 32% were women of color, and 5 women were pregnant or postpartum. In 2023 3 women graduated the wings program and transitioned into community housing.

Ywca Helena provides safe, affordable, and wrap-around supportive housing for women and their children. We actively prevent homelessness and seek to disrupt generational cycles of poverty, abuse, and substance use.

The caterpillars program offers three distinct services for children and parents who both live at Ywca Helena and those who live in the community: (1) caterpillars parenting center, (2) caterpillars counseling center, and (3) caterpillars early learning. The caterpillars parenting center offers supervised parenting, safe exchange, evidence-based parenting classes, and one-on-one parenting coaching. In addition to offering support to the mothers of wings, all services are open to the community and often referred from partners in the community such as the district courts, our local domestic violence shelter, and child protective services. In 2023, 42 adults completed parenting classes and 23 children were reunified with their parents. 76 supervised parenting sessions occurred. Caterpillars counseling center provides critical interventions and therapeutic services for children and supportive services for parents. The program now offers parent-child interactive therapy, family therapy, play therapy, and other therapeutic interventions for wings participants and community members utilizing the services of caterpillars. Additionally, a therapist from the caterpillars counseling center offers infant and early childhood mental health consultation to the caterpillars learning centers, supporting childcare workers as they work with children who have experienced trauma. In 2023 28 children were served by caterthe caterpillars clubhouse and learning center, are trauma responsive and therapeutic childcare centers that are licensed with the state of Montana. Licensed for up to 44 children, the centers host an onsite room for speech, physical, occupational, play, and other therapies. The clubhouse utilizes infant and early childhood mental health consultation, coaching, and supporting childcare staff to work with children who have experienced trauma. The program accepts children who have experienced trauma, out-of-home placement in the foster care system, and who live(d) at or below 185% of the federal poverty line. The clubhouse serves children ages 0 to 6 years old and offers critical developmental and social emotional interventions. In 2023, 54 children were served in caterpillars child care services.