Our Center

The mission of the Downtown Women’s Center is to provide permanent supportive housing and a safe and healthy community fostering dignity, respect, and personal stability, and to advocate ending homelessness for women.

Founded in 1978, the Downtown Women’s Center (DWC) is a nationally recognized nonprofit organization that provides over 50,000 meals, 71 permanent supportive housing apartments, and a wide array of health, education, and other supportive services to more than 2500 homeless and very low-income women each year. The Center meets our mission by offering a warm, friendly atmosphere that encourages homeless women to commit to their own betterment and healing process. Our supportive community and much-needed resources allow homeless women to reconnect with their sense of self, reclaim goals lost in the day-to-day struggle for survival on the streets, and move toward self-sufficiency. In the local Skid Row community, the Downtown Women’s Center is the only resource that is exclusively for and singularly dedicated to serving the unique needs of this population.  

DWC is committed to providing every individual woman with the personal support she needs in order to acknowledge her self-worth and dignity.  Each woman is cared for and treated with a high level of respect.  The Center is nationally recognized as a prototype for unique and effective programs serving homeless women.

The main services we provide are:

The Day Center - meals and a wide array of resources for homeless women on a drop-in basis

The Residence - 71 single unit apartments providing permanent, affordable, supportive housing to formerly homeless women.

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The Day Center

The majority of the women who drop in to the DWC Day Center live on the streets, in encampments, or in night-to-night shelters.  The Day Center provides a respite from the rigors of street life in a nurturing and safe community environment.  On average, 140 women a day drop in to the Day Center where three meals -- breakfast, lunch and a hearty afternoon snack -- are served seven days a week.  Women come to use clean, private bathrooms and showers.  They rest in day beds, use laundry facilities, make phone calls, secure a mailing address, or get a fresh change of clothes. 

Most participants of our Day Center endure the extreme stress and difficulty of life on the streets. Mental illness, substance abuse, physical disability, and victimization are their most prevalent and persistent issues.  Their individual stories, however, vary widely.  Some are second-generation homeless, having never experienced the stability of a home life.  Some gravitated to the Skid Row community after aging out of the foster care system, escaping violence, or as a consequence of drug addictions developed in their youth.  In contrast to our Residents, many Day Center participants are young – below the age of 30.  They have a wide variety of educational backgrounds.   Many have low levels of literacy; some can neither read nor write, while many others are prolific writers of poetry, nonfiction reporting, creative writing, and dramatic self-expression.  Some are alienated from their families in far-away states, some are without family, while other women have family members that also reside in Skid Row and endure similar difficulties of survival.  The cultural range is vast, reflecting the multi-ethnic diversity of the city of Los Angeles.

The Day Center hours of operation were recently expanded to provide an additional safe haven.  Current Day Center hours are:

Monday thru Friday, 6am to 4pm

Saturday and Sunday, 7am to 3pm

Our staff is committed to providing the best possible services to the women we serve.  The problems of homelessness, mental and physical health, poverty, violence, and substance abuse are complex and inextricably linked. They need to be addressed from many angles. Collaborations are essential to DWC's success in offering compassionate, effective services, and DWC staff actively network with other agencies to improve our capacity to provide the most comprehensive range of resources to the growing population of homeless women in the downtown community. 

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The Residence

Since 1986, DWC’s Residence has provided a stable community environment with supportive services assisting elderly, chronically mentally ill, and/or physically disabled formerly homeless women to live in safety and dignity.  Having a permanent home — not living night-to-night, shelter-to-shelter — is a life-altering experience for residents. Stability achieved by living in the Residence is a success! In 2006, two women - Angel and Rosa - celebrated their 20-year anniversary of living in the DWC Residence. They were among the first once-homeless women to move into the Residence when it opened.

The DWC Residence contains 71 apartments, offering permanent supportive housing and a community environment.  Residents typically share certain characteristics – a mental illness, physical or emotional disability, and circumstances of aging and misfortune that have led to homelessness.  Even so, in important ways, they are a richly diverse population.  Differing socio-economic backgrounds account for a wide range of educational levels and life experience.  Some of the women have never held a job, as a result of mental and/or physical illness or having relied on husbands or other family members  for support.  Others have advanced degrees and progressed in professional careers before the misfortunes such as mental illness or domestic violence which led to their homelessness intervened. 

A Safe and Caring Community

DWC’s  Residence provides service-enriched, permanent housing for women who once lived on the streets.  Each Resident has her own private apartment with a refrigerator, desk, full-size bed, and closet.  Each floor of the Residence features a cozy community room with comfortable seating, a library, and TV, a common bath area, and a kitchen where residents can share in meal preparation and clean-up. On-site Residence Managers - available 24 hours a day - work with residents on an individual basis to assist in meeting each woman's needs and goals, providing community building and other support services.  In addition, for many of our Residents, paying the nominal monthly rent is an important step toward self-sufficiency and regaining and reclaiming life beyond the streets. 

For formerly homeless women, the DWC Residence is home.  They are safe to create a community of friends and be part of a family that accepts and cherishes them.  Our goal is to help the women to break isolation by providing ample opportunities for residents to cultivate a sense of belonging – outings, celebrations and other activities encourage connection with other women.  At DWC, women gain a sense of safety and stability which encourages reconnection with a world that was once lost to them.

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Programs & Services

DWC's services include meals, personalized case management, a weekly on-site medical clinic, health workshops and screenings, computer literacy classes, government benefits advocacy, support groups, and job counseling.  Self-expression classes, art workshops, creative writing workshops, and poetry groups help women communicate feelings that are often difficult to express.  We celebrate every holiday and each woman’s birthday, and conduct outings to cultural venues. These regular social and cultural activities are designed to create a community for the women and our team of over 700 active volunteers. 

Meals  Meals have always been at the heart of the Day Center. We offer over 57,000 meals to over 2500 women per year! Our hearty and nutritious meals are served three times each day and offer a range of healthy options for women with special dietary needs. Those who have visited DWC notice that the kitchen is set up in the middle of the Day Center, to encourage community building and ownership in meals preparation and clean-up.

Case Management  The DWC case management team offers personalized, bi-lingual intensive services and follow-up so that women are able to establish and work towards individual goals. Our services go beyond the basics of sustenance.  In addition to case management provided by two trained fulltime Case Managers and additional student Interns from various local schools, legal and social services advocacy are available through the volunteerism of professional experts.

Health Outreach Initiative  Health clinics, screenings, workshops, peer support groups, and violence prevention programming help address physical problems and contribute to emotional and physical well-being and self-sufficiency.  Please refer to the Calendar for upcoming health-related events. DWC also recently partnered with JWCH Institute to offer weekly on-site clinics.

Literacy Program  The Center launched our Literacy Program in 1999.  Here, women can build their reading and writing skills, develop computer expertise, prepare for the GED, and nourish self-esteem. Our Literacy Program is one of the highlights of DWC's services.  Six days a week the Learning Center Instructor, using computers, offers participants a broad spectrum of opportunities, ranging from beginning literacy training and exploring the internet to GED preparation, job search assistance, and creative self-expression. Since 2007 the Literacy Program has also featured weekly self-expression workshops entitled Express Yourself led by Renowned Playwright Michael Kearns. The program's first performance piece, The World Needs to Know, was put on by seven participants in the Day Center on December 7th, 2006 and was met with resounding success! The spring performance, I AM, WE ARE, was held on April 22nd, 2007, at the Center for the Arts in Eagle Rock. 

Activities & Outings  Because we care for the whole woman, the Downtown Woman’s Center strives to create a warm, supportive environment.  As a community, we enjoy a variety of social activities, including outings to theatre and music events, birthday parties, and holiday celebrations.  Be sure to check the Calendar for details on upcoming events! Many of these activities are possible thanks to DWC's incredible team of over 700 volunteers. Please visit our Volunteer or Donate pages for more on how to become involved.

Arts Workshops  Our art and drama classes offer a safe place for women to communicate feelings that are often difficult to express.  Visit our Photo Gallery for some pictures of singing and theatrical performance.

Volunteer Program  The Downtown Women’s Center is committed to providing a unique range of services to the more than 2500 women who visit us each year.  We depend on the generosity of the 700+ volunteers and 10,000+ supporters who give their time and resources so we can continue in our mission to affirm and support the dignity of every woman.  Please check our Volunteer or Donate pages for opportunities to give your friendship, time, gifts, or monetary support on behalf of homeless women!

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