| “Take time to look around and maybe the hideous things turn out to be the most beautiful things in the world at that moment like this snail." –age 12. About Us: Lydia Place provides a six-month transitional housing program featuring an eight-bedroom house with a large kitchen, living room, laundry room, and four bathrooms. The house is located close to the bus line, community pool, civic field and elementary school. We can serve up to eight families (18 people at a time) Each family has their own private bedroom and shares the rest of the house. There is a large fenced yard with outdoor play equipment. Lydia Place serves women and their children by offering shelter, individual and group parenting training, case management, and a program that assists them in moving from poverty to self-support and independence. There are two components to the program: Women's Residential Program: Lydia Place is designed to provide each family the opportunity to both reorganize and restructure their lives or to "begin again". As the woman meets with the Case Manager, one of her opportunities will be to explore her situation in a safe, nonjudgmental environment and set goals for her future. The goals that each woman sets will vary according to her needs. She will monitor these goals with the support and assistance of the Case Manager. Any of all of the goals may be modified or changed as needed. Each woman will meet a minimum of one hour per week with the Case Manager. In addition, she will also meet weekly with the Family Services Coordinator to discuss parenting and other concerns about her children.  The Lydia Place program includes two two-hour evening sessions per week. These sessions will focus on life skills training such as: - Parenting
- Communication skills
- Problem solving skills
- Health/safety issues
- Budgeting/finance
- Domestic violence awareness
- Community resources
- Follow-up Program
- Outreach/Prevention Program
Ornaments representing how mothers feel about parenting and what they would like to learn in the Nurturing Parenting Program. The Children's Therapeutic Program: While the women attend their evening groups and support sessions, their children participate in the Children's Program, staffed by the Family Services Coordinator, program aides and adult volunteers. The Children's Therapeutic Program consists of two components - the parenting component specifically involving the mothers in learning parenting skills and the children's component which is designed to provide children with a safe and fun environment in which to talk, play and heal from the trauma they’ve experienced in their lives. The children’s group meets twice each week. These two-hour sessions consist of activities designed to foster interpersonal skills, communications skills, self-control, and anger management. Building self-esteem and trust are the underlying ingredients of every session. This is essential because these children have experienced fear, abuse, and loss as a result of the circumstances that have left them homeless.
Each month the group focuses on a different objective for the children to talk about and gain more awareness and resiliency factors. 
The Six Objectives Are:
Communicating Feelings~Trust Building~Coping Skills~Self-Empowerment~Safety~Family A child testing out the fire equipment at Fire Station 8 (above) Thank You Fire Station 8 (Marietta) for your continued support and education you give to our children at Lydia Place on fire safety! The Family Services Coordinator conducts regular parent education groups. These groups follow a classroom format and encourage nurturing techniques, basic parenting education, and introduce positive discipline techniques as alternatives to spanking. The Coordinator also meets with each parent individually a minimum of once each week. These meetings result in personal goal setting by the parent, evaluation of parenting skills and help in accessing community resources such as counseling and other children's services. 
"The Monster in Me is named Fred" -age 4
These two components working together help to break the cycle of violence and homelessness that have affected both the children and their mothers.
Interfaith Coalition and Our Saviour's Lutheran Church:
The partnership was formed to provide case management for one single family staying at the Our Saviours Emergency House. Bellingham Housing Authority:
Lydia Place and the Bellingham Housing Authority have formed a partnership to address the overwhelming need for housing for the homeless population of Whatcom County. Lydia Place provides support services to families for 1-2 years in the Bellingham/ Whatcom County Housing Authority homeless housing units located at Laurel Village, Meadow Wood Townhomes, The Laube Hotel, and Walton Place.
Whatcom Homeless Service Center The Whatcom Homeless Service Center is a community wide effort to find efficient and innovative ways to end homelessness. The project takes a 'Housing first' approach to homelessness, which means it is designed to help clients find housing and then address any issues that may have previously contributed to being homeless. |