Transition Services

The Transition Services department provides long-term supportive services, connection with community resources and skill-based educational opportunities to help participants develop external resources and supports once crisis situations are stabilized. Programs focus on the development of greater emotional and economic independence, long-term stability and strengthened family units. Our Transition Services Department consists of two separate components: The Andrea Lee Transitional Program and the HUD Horizons Program.

Andrea Lee TRANSITIONAL HOUSING COMMUNITY

The Andrea Lee provides transitional housing for up to 22 women and children in private apartments. We serve single women and families in the program. While residents can stay in the program for up to a year, most participants graduate from the program within nine months.

While living at the Andrea Lee residents receive:

• Domestic Violence & Life Skills support groups
• Parenting Support through our Youth in Transition Program
• On-site children's activities
• Resource advocacy
• Case management

Referrals to the Andrea are limited to those receiving services through any domestic violence emergency shelter in the Tri-County Area.

Andrea Lee YOUTH IN TRANSITION PROGRAM

The Youth in Transition Program provides a place where it is safe for youth to tell their story, so that self-blame and other misconceptions about physical/sexual abuse and domestic violence can be minimized. Major goals of the program are to:

• Prevent future violence to or by these young people.
• Assess the type and extent of victimization and intervene in any physical, sexual or emotional abuse that the youth have suffered.
• Refer children and mothers to other needed services.
• Teach non-violent conflict resolution; complete safety planning with each child who is verbal.
• To help re-establish the mother-child bond that has been damaged by domestic violence.

The program works closely with other community partner by collaborating services with The Morrison Center's Hand in Hand Program and the Portland Children's Intervention Project.

HUD Horizons

The Horizons Program addresses the population of women and children who are fleeing domestic violence but do not fit into emergency shelters for a variety of reasons. These are the families that are too large, have cultural barriers, or possibly have male members that are above the age that is acceptable for traditional shelter placement. The Horizons Program offers these families the opportunity to make changes in their lives by placing them in their own subsidized homes and providing them with all the services and support they would receive in shelter. At any given time we typically serve 10 families with about 30 youth total in the program. While participants can stay in the program for up to two years, most participants graduate in less time.