OUR FRIENDS PLACE

Our Friends Places mission is to break the generational cycles of abuse, neglect, poverty, and homelessness through empowering self-reliance and independence. Our Friends Place programs emphasize empowerment, not entitlement, and guiding young women along a healthy path by stressing the importance of education, career planning, financial literacy, and self-reliance. Our Friends Place continuum of care serves homeless young women in our Transitional Living Center Program, at-risk youth, and their adult allies in our SOAR to Success homeless prevention program and continues engaging alumni after they graduate from our programs. Our Friends Place serves about 30 young women annually through two apartment-style Transitional Living Centers located in Old East Dallas. One center is in a historic neighborhood and Our Friends Place has been awarded for its care of the building by Preservation Dallas. The second center opened the doors to its first young woman in late 2015. Both homes are fully paid for and debt-free. Both deliver the same Transitional Living Center programwhich received a 2011 Award of Excellence from the Center for Nonprofit Managementwith a life skills curriculum and intensive case management from staff who live on site. Our Friends Places Transitional Living Center model prepares young women for self-sufficient adulthood. Each center has three client apartments with three bedrooms. A young woman who has experienced trauma is more likely to thrive in her studies and at her job when she has a bedroom to call her own. With her two apartment-mates, a young woman shares a kitchen, bathroom, and living room. As an apartment, all three residents are responsible for cleaning and upkeep of the common areas. Weekly life skills lessons are conducted as a group with all residents from all apartments in the Transitional Living Center and then those skills are practiced throughout the programs. Together, residents learn skills for securing and maintaining a stable job, financial literacy, social-emotional health, and other skills for successful self-sufficiency.The SOAR to Success program, Our Friends Places non-residential homeless prevention program, takes these same life skills into the community and served over 500 youth and their adult allies in 2023. This prevention program primarily focuses on serving young women, but young men and adult allies also benefit from this life skill set. SOAR to Success is a three-part program designed to meet specific needs of young women. The SOAR to Success program is delivered by three full-time employees. All have extensive experience working with youth, one has a Master of Education, and one is a Licensed Master Social Worker (LMSW). In the Transitional Living Center (TLC) program, Our Friends Place helped young women with the following achievements in 2023 to build their own futures: (1) 80% attended educational or vocational classes to advance their careers; (2) 65% were employed at least part-time; (3) 65% increased savings average amount $1,317; (4) 56% increased their hourly wage average wage $13.68/hour; (5) 85% successfully completed or remain in the program.For young women participating in the SOAR to Success program, achievements are based on their knowledge and ability to use a range of skills for future stability: (1) 100% of at-risk students gained skills to prevent homelessness. (2) 100% at-risk youth increased skills for social-emotional health. (3) 96% of SOAR Workshop participants reported increased knowledge that would stabilize their lives. (4) 90% increased their financial literacy.After young women transition into their own apartments, graduate, or leave Our Friends Place (OFP) programs, they are engaged as OFP Alumni in many ways. Some assist with the orientation for young women new to the TLC program, some may return to share their lived experiences with clients after graduating our programs, and an alumna serves on our Board or Directors. Our Friends Place continues to provide resources and guidance to alumni who reach out.Providing a continuum of care that includes case management throughout our programs has positively impacted new, existing, and former clients as they learn to break the generational cycles of abuse, neglect, poverty, and homelessness.