| Women of Power
Under the leadership of the Detroit Community Justice Partnership and through the support of the Public Housing Safety Initiative, the residents of the Smith Homes, a public housing site in Detroit, MI, created and planned “Women of Power.” Upon DCJP’s involvement with Smith Homes, there emerged a core group or female adults and youth who eagerly stepped forward to become involved. These women saw empowerment for themselves as the most important factor in their contributing to the stability of their housing community, thus naming themselves “Smith Women of Power.”
The Public Housing Safety Initiative (PHSI) is an initiative established by the Department of Justice to ensure that programming and resources are made available to Public Housing residents. The overall goals of the Public Housing Safety Initiative are:
- To positively impact parents and residents residing in the designated public housing properties through directed workshops and parent/community empowerment sessions conducted on site at each housing complex.
- To positively impact youth of all ages residing in the designated public housing properties with messages and lessons of gun and violence prevention utilizing various presentations.
“Women of Power” is a program designed to foster self-motivation, parenting skills, and inner strength. Sessions are held bi-weekly, every first and third Thursday on site at the Smith Homes Community Center. The sessions serve as a means of the adult and young female residents of the Smith Homes to issues and concerns they face, while finding solutions and resources for these concerns and building a sense of empowerment in the participants.
The Women of Power (WOP) have remained the most active component in the PHSI program at Smith including developing a strategic plan that can be sustained by residents. WOP meets bi-weekly on Thursdays to discuss ways to strengthen their skills, opportunities and knowledge ranging from employability skills to interpersonal relationships. They have attended on-site programming that addresses a wide range of quality of life concerns including: Personal Appearance & Dressing for Success, Red Cross Home Hazard Prevention Training; Teen Abstinence and Preventing Sexually Transmitted Diseases.
Smith WOP believe that in making themselves better, the entire community is made better. Both youth and adult members support each other when challenges arise and hold “rap sessions” where they freely and honestly discuss personal concerns and possible solutions. Discussions between the youth and mature adults have including what age dating is appropriate, frank conversations regarding sexuality but also the nurturing of goals and hopes for personal success. Smith WOP are shining examples of how striving for self-betterment and having mentorship and a strong support system is an important ingredient to building better communities.
We at DCJP are very hopeful that through “Women of Power” sustainability of the project beyond the PHSI grant funding period will be realized because the female residents at the Smith Homes will have been empowered to take control of their own destiny with newly attained life skills acquired through the support of the PHSI.
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