Habitat for Humanity Collaborates with Hope Women’s Center to Help Maricopa Women and Families in Need

Habitat for Humanity to Begin Renovations on New Hope Women’s Center in Maricopa, Giving Women and Teen Girls a Safe Place to Learn, Heal, and Build Relationships.

Thanks to Governor Ducey’s initiatives, trauma-informed care is becoming the standard for supporting Arizona families, and Hope Women’s Center has joined the movement by providing free trauma-informed services to underserved communities across Arizona. An exciting collaboration with Habitat for Humanity Central Arizona (Habitat) will hasten the opening of Hope Women’s Center’s fifth location in Maricopa.  

 

Hope Women’s Center is a faith based non-profit organization with 35 years experience encouraging, engaging, and equipping women and teen girls in crisis. “Women come to us in trauma or during incredibly difficult circumstances, and our services address a broad range of needs. We offer support groups, life skills classes, mentoring, pregnancy testing, parenting classes, educational programs, and material assistance,” says Tammy Abernethy, CEO of Hope Women’s Center, “all at no cost to the client.”

 

Programs and services without cost or restriction are often what underserved communities need most. When the Family Advocacy and Resource Center collaborated with Hope Women’s Center on a grant several years ago, they ranked mental and behavioral health as the most important health problems impacting the community, with significant gaps between community need and community care. By providing care and services for free, Hope Women’s Center is able to bridge those gaps. 

 

“Hope responds to crisis and substance abuse issues, we provide family resources and education, we offer holistic care for women and safe support for families, and when women have access to the services they need, it transforms their lives and the lives of their families. We look forward to serving Maricopa women, and with the gracious help and expertise of Habitat for Humanity, our Maricopa location can open before the year ends,” says Abernethy.

 

Habitat for Humanity has a long-standing reputation for bringing people together to build homes, community and hope.  Partnering with other non-profits allows Habitat to extend their reach to additional Arizona families and communities. It’s a new venture and the collaboration with Hope Women’s Center is one of Habitat’s first.  Lisa Weide, Habitat’s Chief Program Officer says, “The affordable housing crisis is bigger than any one organization. Although we (Habitat) were able to serve more than 3,000 people last year, we are excited to collaborate with Hope Women’s Center to work together and expand our reach here in Arizona.”

 

The new Maricopa Hope Women’s Center will be managed by Vanessa Behrens, the former director of Maricopa’s A Heart for You Pregnancy Center, which merged with Hope in 2017. Says Behrens, “We were seeing significant needs we weren’t equipped to meet. Having Hope Women’s Center in Maricopa means women who have experienced trauma will have a safe place to be heard, supported, and understood.”

 

Hope Women’s Center thanks Habitat for Humanity Central Arizona and the many community volunteers, partners, and churches who are assisting in the renovations of the new Maricopa center located at 45978 W. McDavid Road, Maricopa, 85139. As a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, Hope relies on volunteers and the support of civic groups, grants, schools, businesses, small foundations, churches, and individuals in order to provide mentoring, educational programs, support groups, and material assistance. To find out more, visit www.hopewomenscenter.org.

 

About:
Hope Women’s Center is a faith based non-profit organization that has served vulnerable women and teen girls in Arizona for over 35 years. Thousands of women, teens, and their families have received free services and care through Hope’s life skills classes, one on one mentoring, pregnancy and parenting classes and support groups, and material assistance. Hope Women’s Center’s mission is to engage, encourage, and equip women and girls facing crisis by addressing their physical, emotional, and spiritual needs. For more information, visit www.hopewomenscenter.org