Maya's Place- Congregate living site

Maya's Place serves homeless women with co-occuring mental health and substance disorders who are transitioning from jail or prison back into the community.  Released women are expected to comply with conditions of probation or parole, achieve financial stability, access health care, attempt to reunite with their families, obtain employment, find safe and drug free housing, and in many cases, mantain recovery from addiction and mental illness.  However, most women find themselves either homeless or in dangerous environments and without support.  Many of the systems designed to assist individuals get back on their feet exclude those with criminal records.  The women have little education or job experience and now have a criminal record impacting their ability to find work or housing.  Without needed support they are drawn back into a life of criminal activity for survival which then leads back to substance abuse. 

Maya's Place offers an alternative to repeated incarceration. Work begins in the local jail where Crossroads for Women staff provide life skills education classes on the treatment unit of the detention facility. In this way, women on the unit can become familiar with the program and program staff before release, thereby decreasing the anxiety of transitioning from jail to the program.

Women enter Maya's Place directly from jail or prison. Maya's Place also can serve as an alternative to incarceration.

Housing is provided in a congregate living site comprised of two fourplexes located at Grove and Southern in the southeast heights. Clinical staff provides on-site supervision during extended business hours. A resident property manager lives on site for night and weekend oversight.  The property does not permit accomodation of children on site.  However, work begins here on reunification and children are frequently on site for visits. 

Highly structured programming provided on site encompasses life skills, substance abuse treatment, parenting, vocational skills, mental health education, and various therapy groups including trauma based recovery. Comprehensive community support services (case management) assist the women in accessing medical and dental care, psychiatry, and other community resources as needed.

Maya's Place is a six month program. Program structure includes increasing independence as program goals are achieved. After three months focused exclusively on treatment, non-disability eligible participants are expected to obtain employment or enter vocational or educational programming.

Discharge planning begins at the outset of the program with a focus on establishing the supports needed to maintain the progress made while at Maya's Place on into community living.  Discharge planning includes referral to The Crossroads community based program when appropriate, to other programs as needed, or to independent living.