You might be wondering who “HER” is

HER utilizes a person centered and trauma informed approach. We know healing as an individualized process. We understand that treatment and recovery is a process unique to each woman, and it is deeper than any physical wounds. More importantly, we know the journey is possible.

At HER, we try not to use labels. We have felt the stigmatizing impact on our lives with labels such as “at-risk,” and “victim”. Every woman is an individual who is worthy of her place in the world and being identified by her name. Not a label.

The reality is….
She is often hidden in plain sight. Considered to be a “problem” or “disturbance” to our world. Not (yet) embraced for her resilience.

She has experienced complex trauma, which are every day, small-“t” traumas since childhood.

Little “t” traumas are experiences that leave someone feeling hopeless. They are distressing events that can be beyond a person’s ability to cope, but they do not necessarily cause life-threatening or bodily-threatening outcomes.

This “HER” has been:

• Ignored and disregarded by society due to choices that she had to make because of the institutionalized systems in which she has had to function.
• Economically and educationally disenfranchised – preventing her from gaining her true independence which is often rooted in economic empowerment.

Both statistics and our first-hand experience at HER tell us that she is experiencing one or more of: homelessness; early unplanned pregnancies; cohabitating with a violent partner; substance use; less access to medical care; exchanging sex for money, a place to sleep, or food – and with little access to healthy outlets, groomed by sex traffickers; or more startling, death.

Have you seen “HER”

The “HER” we first meet is voiceless and disregarded.

Larger society has not seen and experienced what we have at HER. They have not seen the resilience and strength of a woman who has the tools to access her own power, with a community of other women just like her ready to support.