Two Charlotte Non-profits Nurture and Support Young Women By Rosanny Crumpton
Healing Vine Harbor
Home4Me teens learn entrepreneurship by making and selling tote bags.
After sharing their testimonies, women from Healing Vine support each other.
ith personal experience in the foster care system, Donna Lee Reed, founder and executive director of Home4Me, is on a mission. Together with the Home4Me team, they equip teenagers who are aging out of the foster care system and entering adulthood for success. Teenagers in foster care who have not been adopted are hit with the weight of the world as their 18th birthday draws near, Reed said. By the time they turn 17, the countdown to the end of their already-limited resources begins. Some teens find themselves without a family, without a home and no connections. Reed emphasizes that Home4Me is trying to prevent these teens from becoming homeless and hopeless. “We don’t consider ourselves a program, we consider ourselves an experience for the teens and an opportunity for them to have family,” said Reed. Home4Me’s core values of connection, consistency, collaboration and commitment are the cornerstone of their impact. “People always say, ‘it takes a village.’” Reed added. “My question is, ‘where is the village when it comes to our teens in foster care? ’” Home4Me partners with historically Black colleges and universities, corporations, health organizations, churches and community organizations to build collaborations and support for teens in foster care. Home4Me is always looking for more individuals and corporate partners to help carry out its mission. The organization provides resources, programming, mentorships, family-style events, such as annual birthday celebrations, and necessary supplies for teens. Often teenagers in foster care transport their donated and used belongings in trash bags. Home4Me provides teens in need with gift cards and new personal belongings, such as bed-in-a-bag sets, suitcases, or Home4Me college kits. Supplies provided are new and practical items. Home4Me also offers year-round, structured, life skills development programming called LEG Up On LIFE which helps guide teens in foster care to successful futures, focusing on their specific goals in life. For more information, visit www.home4me.org.
ealing Vine Harbor (HVH) is transforming lives one woman at a time by serving at-risk women (ages 18 and older) who have aged out of the foster care system. These young women often find themselves homeless, unstable or in potentially dangerous circumstances. When teens age out of the foster care system, they are “out there with no parents, trying to fend for themselves,” explained Alicia Verdun, an HVH board of directors member. Women sometimes have more challenges than men, often falling to different things like sex trafficking, she said. Healing Vine Harbor’s mission is to reduce the number of single women living in shelters or unsafe situations, providing a pathway out of poverty to ensure they are self-sufficient. Tracey Questell, HVH’s executive director and founder, has supported youth, men, and women throughout her 30-year career in human services. The HVH Board of Directors is working on obtaining a residential facility to house women in emergency situations. This facility would also serve as a space to hold their monthly TEACH (Transforming, Empowering, And Creating Hope) workshops, one of the four programs offered through HVH. Workshops are led by volunteers who have backgrounds in subject matters that vary from housing stability, employment readiness, healthy nutrition and more. Currently, HVH serves more than 300 women annually through its four programs. Healing Vine Harbor provides one-time emergency financial resources through its Heal & Eradicate Lingering Poverty (HELP) program. Donors have helped with back-rent payments, provided furniture, gift cards, boxes of food and more. HVH’s program, the “Healing Closet” allows participants in need to shop for clothing, housewares, accessories and other necessities from a closet of donated items at no cost to them. Also “Healing Bags” are donated to homeless girls and women. They include various necessary toiletries to help lighten the financial load. The organization is sustained through volunteers, donors and corporate sponsors. HVH is seeking additional funding and volunteers. “We’re doing some great things,” Questell said. “We just need a little more help so we can do more.” For more information, visit healingvineharbor.org. P
Photo by Michael Maxwell
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