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Table Of Content

• Overtown’s Lotus House begins new construction
• Our Partners in Ending Homelessness
• Micky and Madeleine Arison Family Foundation Children’s Wellness Center
• Lotus Village: A Hope for Homeless Children and Women in Miami
• Lotus House Plans $20 Million Expansion With New 75,000-Square-Foot ‘Children’s Village’ Facility

Lotus Village currently serves up to 500 women and children nightly through an evidence-based model that has set a national standard for the delivery of wrap-around services to women and children experiencing homelessness, many of whom are victims of domestic violence. The new building will comprise five floors housing classrooms, supportive services and resources for children and youth of all ages from within Lotus Village and the surrounding community. Sheltering 1,550+ women, youth and children annually, Lotus House is the largest women’s homeless shelter in the country. So much more than a meal, a bed and a shower, Lotus House provides sanctuary, resources, and multi-faceted, comprehensive supportive services to help our guests successfully exit the shelter system and lead lives of greater opportunity. “When it comes to ending homelessness among our youth, ensuring access to education and the socialization that comes with it is just as essential as providing food, healthcare, and shelter. Play is how children learn, express themselves creatively, develop strong social and emotional skills, explore and discover the world around them.

Overtown’s Lotus House begins new construction

We are an essential partner with Lotus House Women's Shelter located in Overtown-Miami, Fl. When you donate gently-used items and shop with us, you help uplift the lives of women, youth and children experiencing homelessness, improving the quality of their lives on every level. According to new research, what they need to begin to heal and build a better future is an act that is basic, yet fundamental to all people — to be cared about and to be cared for. On Friday, Lotus House staff, women and children who live or have lived in the shelter and Miami-Dade officials gathered on the site where the building will stand to celebrate the start of construction. The shelter currently serves nearly 190 people, but demand is much higher and each year more than 2,000 people who knock on the shelter’s doors asking for help cannot be helped. Your support is essential to our work to empower women and children most in need to become whole again.

Our Partners in Ending Homelessness

Mothers provided with evidence-based trauma resolution therapy and strong supportive parenting skills can positively impact everything from their child’s chances of high school graduation to their long term health and wellness and success in the work force as adults. Lotus House is committed to providing child and family centered services that promote trauma resolution in both children and mothers. In holistic child and family centered programming and support services, Lotus House helps these special women and their children emerge from the shadows, give voice to their dreams and aspirations, and become who they are meant to be.

Micky and Madeleine Arison Family Foundation Children’s Wellness Center

Understanding what constitutes a specific culture, though, is critical to addressing homelessness. With this study, the collaborative research team developed a blueprint that can be applied to other shelters, regardless of size or financial resources. Lotus House Holistic Programming utilizes the healing arts to create alternative pathways to wholeness for women, youth and children whose lives have been marked by trauma. Our guests benefit from holistic programming classes scheduled daily, engaging all ages in therapeutic activities aimed at creative expression through the arts, exercise, yoga, dance and movement, fieldtrips and a wide range of activities.

Miami's Lotus Endowment Fund Board adds Gisele Bündchen and Javier Aviñó - Miami's Community Newspapers

Miami's Lotus Endowment Fund Board adds Gisele Bündchen and Javier Aviñó.

Posted: Fri, 19 Apr 2024 09:59:14 GMT [source]

Since launching in 2006, Lotus House has sheltered more than 9,000 women, youth and children experiencing homelessness, with more than 80 percent of the shelter’s guests successfully exiting the shelter system and achieving greater financial self-sufficiency. More than providing a sanctuary, Lotus House offers holistic support services including restorative therapies for children and adults, job readiness training, employment assistance, life skills training, early childhood education, medical and mental health services, and more. Together, these tools empower women and children to heal, transform, and achieve greater self-sufficiency. Homelessness itself is another layer of trauma for mothers and children, and yet, there is hope. The latest research indicates that it is possible to break the cycle of childhood abuse, domestic violence and homelessness with life changing support, tools, education and resources that heal broken bodies, minds and spirits.

For many, it is a shelter of last resort, as temporary shelters do not afford them an opportunity to address untreated medical and mental illnesses, obtain work or benefits, and save the funds needed to truly break the cycle of homelessness. Our vision is that every woman, youth and child experiencing homelessness will have the opportunity to heal, learn and grow, build the foundation for a brighter future, and blossom into who they are truly meant to be. The Children’s Village will serve as a community hub for nonprofit providers equipped to support children sheltered at Lotus Village along with those from the surrounding community.

The participants were given the power to guide the conversation, deciding what they wanted to talk about. They were co-researchers — and were even given notepads to write down their observations during the conversation. There in that place there was an old pink building, which we used as a kitchen, ”she said, pointing to a corner of the land. In 2013 I came because my daughter wanted to see the place where she was born, at that time she was out of work, it occurred to me to ask Constance [Collins] if she had a job and she hired me”.

Women's Shelters

“For the first time with my family I was able to feel what a support system was,” said Resper, who 13 months after arriving at Lotus, in 2008, she managed to move into another apartment and land a full-time job. Research and innovation are crucial for advancing the field of homeless services, allowing us to continuously improve and tailor interventions to meet the unique and evolving needs of our guests. Sign up to receive PROFILEmiami’s Bi-Weekly Newsletter to stay up to date with the latest in South Florida residential and commercial real estate news and content. Last month, Lotus Endowment Fund, Inc., the sponsor of the Children’s Village, and its nonprofit subsidiary, Lotus Village II, LLC, closed on $32 million in New Market Tax Credit Financing that will enable the ground-up development of The Children’s Village.

Lotus House Plans $20 Million Expansion With New 75,000-Square-Foot ‘Children’s Village’ Facility

Homeless LGBTQIA+ individuals of all ages need trauma informed shelter and support services sensitive to their special needs. Based on principles of education and empowerment, Lotus House is committed to providing a trauma-informed, LGBTQIA+-sensitive sanctuary honoring the divine nature of all individuals, including adults, youth and children, with unconditional love. Lotus House is dedicated to the support, education advancement, and social inclusion of women and youth by providing the tools and resources needed for our sheltered guests to achieve greater self-sufficiency through basic life skills, education programs and job-readiness programs. Basic medical, dental and eye care, as well as mental health treatment, are an urgent priority for every woman and child who enters Lotus House. Lack of affordable mental health care and medical services are among the most critical issues to be addressed in truly breaking the cycle of homelessness. Virtually all of the women accepted into Lotus House suffer from untreated medical conditions, mental health issues, or both upon entry.

The pandemic has exacerbated so many inequities, gaps, and needs in our community, particularly for the children and youth we shelter. With our community’s generous support, The Children’s Village will make many more dreams come true here in the heart of Overtown,” she added. While there have been several studies on shelter services — such as child care, mental health counseling, health care and employment services — there has been very little work done surrounding overall shelter culture.

Now the organization that helped Resper get ahead has broken ground on Lotus Village, a building that will serve as a shelter and community center and will include a daycare center, a holistic health clinic, a library with computers, and gardens for recreation and the healing The project will cost about $25 million. From helping serve a meal, organizing a supply closet, to hosting a workshop or activity- volunteers make a life changing difference in the lives of the women and children we shelter. Women come to Lotus House through referrals from homeless outreach, shelters, safe houses, rehab centers, prisons, hospitals and courts, as well as the streets.