Hope Women’s Center is a trauma-informed organization that helps meet the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of women and teen girls facing difficult life situations. Their six centers and new mobile sites are situated in vulnerable communities around the valley and offer free services including educational classes, life skills programs, mentoring, and pregnancy resources. Participation accrues points, helping clients obtain needed material resources. Their holistic approach engages women in thinking differently about themselves, encourages them to discover their true worth and value, and equips them with tools for making positive choices, breaking unhealthy patterns, and restoring broken relationships. For more information, visit hopewomenscenter.org
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00 - Hope Women's Center is a special place here in the Valley
00:04 and we've been honored to have them on the show in the past.
00:07 Well, this year they're celebrating 40 years
00:10 and we are so excited to have CEO Tammy Abernathy here
00:13 to tell us what they are up to.
00:15 Welcome, Tammy.
00:16 - Thank you, so good to be on here.
00:17 We are so grateful for you guys
00:19 and love to come on and talk about
00:20 what we do at Hope Women's Center.
00:22 - And we love having you on.
00:23 So we were just kind of chatting
00:25 about everything you have going on.
00:27 So before we get into all the kind of topical things
00:30 that are happening, tell everybody at home
00:32 who maybe doesn't know about you guys
00:33 who you are and what you do.
00:34 - So we are a resource and referral center
00:36 for women and teen girls.
00:37 We have six day locations across the state.
00:40 Our mission is to engage, encourage, and equip
00:42 any woman or teen girl in any difficult life situation.
00:45 So whether that's a single mom that's struggling,
00:47 a teen that's struggling, somebody that's just lost
00:49 their job, whatever her struggle is,
00:52 we wanna wrap around her with support.
00:54 - That's so cool.
00:55 And I know you guys do so many amazing things
00:57 like training, like making sure that these women
00:59 have what they need. - Life skills, job training.
01:00 - Life skills, job, yes, all of those things
01:02 so that they can go from struggling to thriving.
01:07 - Exactly, we love to say trauma to transformation.
01:09 We wanna wrap her with support physically,
01:11 emotionally, spiritually.
01:12 How do we give her practical tools
01:14 to break long-time cycles of poverty and abuse.
01:16 - That's really, really cool.
01:18 What you're doing is so needed and it's so great.
01:21 And you're celebrating 40 years.
01:22 - We are, we're really excited.
01:24 This is our 40th year as an organization
01:26 and just the expansion that we've seen.
01:28 Last year we served over 1,700 women
01:31 and just really expanding now statewide.
01:33 We're excited about some new programs we're launching.
01:35 - So tell me really quickly what you're doing
01:37 for the 40th anniversary 'cause I'm sure
01:40 you're celebrating all year. - We're celebrating all year.
01:42 Delivering celebration boxes all this month
01:44 to some of our partners.
01:45 But we are celebrating all year.
01:46 Every center will have a big open house
01:48 where we'll have special speakers
01:50 and just a lot of fun at those.
01:51 We have our gala that will be obviously
01:53 a big celebration for 40 years.
01:55 That's in September and just different events
01:58 all year long to highlight what we're doing
01:59 and highlight the families we've been able to serve.
02:02 - That's so cool and definitely something to be celebrated.
02:04 Congratulations on those 40 years.
02:06 That's really beautiful.
02:07 And in those 40 years I'm sure you have helped
02:10 so many, many, many women.
02:12 - Powerful stories of women.
02:13 - I'm sure, I'm sure.
02:14 I wish we could get into all of them.
02:16 We don't have enough time today.
02:17 But what I do wanna focus on is a new cool thing
02:20 that you're doing which is your mobile outreach program.
02:22 So tell me a little bit about that.
02:24 - We're excited about that.
02:24 I feel like for the last 40 years we've gone,
02:26 we've had women coming to us in our day centers.
02:28 This year we wanna go to them to be able to help more women
02:31 who might not necessarily be able to get to a day center.
02:34 So we're partnering with other non-profits
02:36 and doing a little Hope pop-ups in this mobile,
02:38 we're calling it Hope on the Road.
02:40 So we'll go into a food bank,
02:41 into a domestic violence shelter,
02:43 into these partnerships we built over the last 40 years
02:46 and provide Hope services directly to women there.
02:49 So we're excited.
02:50 - Beautiful.
02:51 But when women are meeting you guys there,
02:54 when you're kind of meeting them there,
02:55 how many services are you gonna offer?
02:57 What are they gonna find in these mobile services?
02:58 - So we have a lot of our life skills services
02:59 are now available on Zoom.
03:01 So they can do virtual classes.
03:02 We can do one-on-one mentoring, crisis support right there.
03:05 We've expanded our Hope Heals counseling
03:07 so we can do telehealth and do counseling.
03:09 And then all of our material resources.
03:11 So we can bring her, do you need shampoo?
03:13 Do you need diapers?
03:14 What do you materially need?
03:15 We're gonna be able to bring that to you.
03:17 And then we're gonna get you connected
03:18 to all of our services.
03:19 - Oh man, Tammy, that is so cool.
03:21 And tell me really quickly some of those partners
03:24 that people can go to.
03:25 So like if they happen to be at,
03:27 I don't know, you said like Harvest.
03:28 - Harvest Compassion Center is one of our partners.
03:30 So we have Hope pop-ups at their Maryville
03:32 and West Phoenix location.
03:34 We've been talking to several different
03:36 domestic violence shelters.
03:37 So we have partnerships right now with a new lead.
03:39 We'll be in the city of Surprise starting in April
03:42 at their resource center.
03:43 And then we're looking Northern and Southern Arizona
03:45 to start expanding into some of those communities
03:48 where we can't have a full center yet,
03:49 but where we can bring services to women in crisis.
03:51 - That's great.
03:52 And so for those of us at home watching,
03:55 and this is something that's on your heart,
03:56 you wanna help.
03:57 How do we get involved?
03:59 - Hopewomencenter.org.
04:00 We are 90% volunteers.
04:01 So we need the local community to step up.
04:04 They teach classes, they can help with material resources,
04:06 so many different ways to get connected,
04:08 families and individuals to support these moms
04:11 and women in crisis.
04:12 - That's really cool.
04:12 - Go to our website.
04:13 We'd love to connect with you.
04:15 - And I love that you said moms first,
04:17 but also just any woman.
04:19 Any woman who's struggling.
04:20 She can be a young woman, she can be someone who's--
04:22 - Teenager, she can be a woman in her 70s and 80s.
04:24 A lot of times at that point in life,
04:26 they don't have family, they don't have support.
04:28 So an older woman too, we wanna be able to support.
04:30 - And then tell me about the tax credit,
04:32 'cause I know that's big for you guys too.
04:33 - Yes, thank you for bringing that up.
04:34 (laughing)
04:35 Tax season is upon us.
04:36 We qualify for the Arizona Charitable Tax Credit.
04:38 So you can get $421 or 800 and something.
04:43 - Yes, somewhere in the 800 range.
04:45 - Somewhere in the 800 range.
04:46 - We're not known for our math, that's okay.
04:46 - To give dollar for dollar state tax credits.
04:50 So it's a great way to save for your tax dollars.
04:52 I want them to support women and teen girls.
04:55 - Definitely, that is so great, Tammy.
04:57 Well, thank you again for being here
04:58 and congratulations on 40 years.
05:00 We're so excited to celebrate with you.
05:03 Thank you.
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