Volunteer at Sheffield Place in Kansas City for the Holidays

Looking for holiday volunteering opportunities in Kansas City? Look no further than Sheffield Place.

Sheffield Place, located at 12th and Bennington Avenue in Northeast Kansas City, provides long-term shelter for women and their children for up to 24 months. Sheffield Place is a transitional living program for homeless women and children a well as a safe place for women to start again. Many times, the mothers living in Sheffield Place are victims of domestic violence, drug abusers, or on welfare.

In addition to a safe living environment, the staff provides case management, which is an assessment of goals and how the women will reach those goals. The organization provides individual and group treatment of mental health and substance abuse issues. Project HOPE is aimed specifically at the children of Sheffield Place. The program meets three times per week and organizes activities geared toward self-esteem, learning about others, understanding how drugs impact their families and dealing with bullies.

"We now have a person on staff who is qualified to give therapy to the children, so we are healing both the mother and child," said Karen Streeter, executive director of Sheffield Place. "We want to prevent the children from repeating the steps into poverty and domestic abuse."

The services and support don't stop once a woman graduates from Sheffield Place. The staff also provides support after the women leave, most intensely for the first year.

"We've realized it's the first six months out of here," said Streeter. "During those six months, they either make it or break it.

"What's one of a kind about Sheffield Place is that women live where they receive services, unlike getting on a bus and going to a 50-minute therapy session. The women have access to the staff all day. We are able to observe the mothers and children. That's the practical part - we can give the tools, but unless a woman believes she can do it, it won't work. We spend a lot of time dealing with her crisis, her pain. What's hurting her?

"Then we tackle the practical things. How are you going to live? Are you going to get a job? Do you have debt? How will you get rid of that debt?"

What's exciting to Streeter is when mothers start to seek leadership positions within Sheffield Place. They can train to become resident monitors and help manage things.

"We also have a client government consisting of four captains," said Streeter. "They meet with the monitors to explore the programs and the policies of Sheffield Place and how they can make things better. That's when we know we're successful, when the women bring written proposals about what they want to do differently. They call them 'petitions for change.'"

Streeter, who was hired in 1990 to develop the program, said Sheffield Place aims to replicate what things will be like in the real world, after the women graduate and leave.

"In the real world, women have a budget to pay rent, utilities, etc.," she said. "Here, the women pay a program fee, and when they ask why, we say it's because they will have to pay rent in the real world. The mothers also put so much money in savings and work to reduce their debt. Everything we do, I believe, has an opportunity to learn something they can do in the real world."

Up to 15 families call Sheffield Place home at any given time. Each family has their own two-room unit with a private bath, and up to five families share a kitchen, dining room and laundry room on the three residential floors. In addition to paying a program fee, the families share cleaning and maintenance responsibilities. Since Sheffield Place opened its doors in 1991, over 450 families have lived there, an average of 30 to 40 families each year.

Sheffield Place receives its funding from a mix of government contracts, private foundations and corporations, special events (such as the October wine tasting event or the September golf tournament this year) and contributions from area churches and families.

"We're a neighborhood association constantly seeking our neighborhood to be involved," said Streeter. "Sheffield Place provides a volunteer opportunity in the Northeast and we welcome anyone to visit and get a tour of our facilities. When you're part of a community like we are, you seek that community and make friends."

For more information about Sheffield Place and volunteering opportunities, visit www.sheffieldplace.org. Current volunteer opportunities include working at the Holiday Store, a place where resident mothers can "shop" for Christmas presents for their kids. You can also donate items to the store, like one area family who decided to only buy presents for the children in their family. Money reserved for presents for the adult family members went to Sheffield Place.

"It's hard to get them to write down what they want," said Streeter of the mothers. "They are more concerned with their children."

"They're beginning to prepare themselves for moving out," Tallman said. Suggestions typically are for things like vacuum cleaners, toasters, or other practical items. While some women would find a household tool to be an uninspired Christmas present, she said, "these women need it. They don't look for frivolous things."