How Client Needs Are Changing

This year, Ruth Harbor will begin expanding our services to address the needs of women calling for help.

This year, Ruth Harbor will celebrate 23 years as a ministry. Our home opened in 2001, and the culture has changed a lot since we accepted our first resident.

The best way to describe early residents to Ruth Harbor would be as rebellious teenagers. They often came from a solid home and family, but through poor choices and teenage recklessness, ended up pregnant. In the early 2000s, teenage pregnancy still carried a degree of cultural shame and many times the girls who came to Ruth Harbor needed a refuge away from angry parents, unhealthy friendships, and an opportunity to start fresh in life. After giving birth to their baby, most of Ruth Harbor’s residents still had a family and a community to return to where they would find the support they needed.

The clients coming to Ruth Harbor today are different in so many ways. To start, most women are older. Initially, Ruth Harbor accepted women from 15 to 22-years of age. Today, it is not uncommon for women to be in their 20s and early 30s.

The women who came to Ruth Harbor in the 2000s were often experiencing their first pregnancy. Today, many women already have one or more children when they come to Ruth Harbor.

Twenty years ago, women needed help resetting their life while pregnant, perhaps finishing their GED, or being successful in a new job. Today, women come to Ruth Harbor with deep childhood trauma, mental health issues, criminal backgrounds, and a myriad of life difficulties that often keep them in bondage to their addictions, toxic relationships, and lack of employment opportunities.

This year, Ruth Harbor will begin expanding our services to address the needs of women calling for help. Too often, we are unable to help women with their immediate needs, and when housing is our first and only step, it leaves us in the unenviable position of simply referring a desperate woman on to an already overtaxed social care system. We want to expand our opportunities to help beyond housing.

Moreover, we want to assist our current and former residents overcome some of the challenges they face on a daily basis. With your help and generosity in 2023, we have created a partnership with Bright Light Counseling in Johnston to provide one-on-one counseling for our residents and parenting classes for both current and former residents. We are also working on additional partnerships to help provide counseling and care for women with trauma.

This will be an exciting year at Ruth Harbor. We are working hard behind the scenes to create partnerships and relationships with area churches and nonprofits to address the needs of women and families in 2024. Stay tuned to our eNewsletters and to our social media to stay informed and up to date on the changes happening at Ruth Harbor.