Nina's Place to provide a safe home for women coming out of foster care

By Lara Mossa
From © The Flint Journal

FLINT, Michigan — Some of the rooms are decorated in bright pink, while others have blue and green hues. Stencils on the wall give inspirational messages such as "When you choose hope, anything is possible."

Dignitaries took a tour of Nina's Place after a ribbon-cutting ceremony today. The transitional living center at YWCA of Greater Flint will provide a safe home for women who have aged out of foster care.

"Nina's Place here at the YWCA is going to fill a critical gap in our community and provide a much-needed resource for some of our most vulnerable citizens — young adult women who have aged out of the foster care system and have nowhere else to turn," said Flint Mayor Dayne Walling at the press conference.

  State Sen. Debbie Stabenow and U.S. Rep. Dale Kildee also were in attendance. They, along with U.S. Sen. Carl Levin, were instrumental in securing the $850,000 grant to pay for the program for two years, said Harmony Langford, director of operations at YWCA of Greater Flint.

  Danielle Young is hoping to be the first resident in the center — somewhere she can feel safe and concentrate on her studies. For Young, 20, of Flint, it's been a long road. She grew up with her great-grandparents, moved in with her grandmother after they died and tried living with her sister a couple of years.
 
  "I'm staying here or there," she said. "You want to have your own place, so you can feel safe and secure about your surroundings and focus on your goals."

  YWCA, which also provides services for sexual assault and domestic violence victims, renovated the fourth floor of the facility on Third Street to accommodate 11 young women. The center was named after Nina Mills, who founded YWCA of Greater Flint 102 years ago.

  "The YWCA of Great Flint has a long history of supporting young women and providing them with the resources to change their lives," said Tim Herman, chief executive officer of the Genesee Regional Chamber of Commerce. "Nina's Place will offer young women a support system that will help them become independent, productive citizens. And, importantly, they will be prepared to enter the workforce."
 
  The YWCA of Greater Flint had been looking for a new program for two years.
 
  "We discovered there was a huge gap for young women who were aging out of the foster care system," Langford said. "Our mission is empowering women, so we thought this was a natural fit."

  Once girls in foster care turn 18, they are usually on their own, she explained.

  "Kids who are 18 are not ready to be sent off into the world," she said. "They don't have the skills. They're not ready."

  The YWCA facility was originally built for women who needed a place to stay, so renovating the floor into a dorm was not too hard. It just needed some paint, carpet and upgrading.

  The young women will each have their own bedroom and share common areas such as the living room and dining room. YWCA hired a coordinator and will hire five more people to serve as Life Coaches and Residential Advisors.

  The center will be staffed 24 hours a day, and the women will be counseled in life skills such as finding a job, getting health care, enrolling in school and personal finance. They will be referred to Genesys Regional Medical Center West Flint Campus for doctors' appointments.

   "It's really life changing," she said. "We're talking about young women who are literally homeless. They're sleeping on couches and don't have transportation, don't have resources."

   The Michigan Department of Human Services will help refer and identify women for the program. While Langford did not have figures on Genesee County, she said many of the 550 children a year in Michigan who age out of foster care are in Genesee and Wayne counties.

  "This is a program that's going to make a huge difference to a good number of women and turn them into independent, successful adults," Langford said.

  For Young, who graduated from Flint Northern High School in 2008, it will give her the chance to go to school without juggling work. She is studying social work at Baker College.

  "I don't want to worry about bills or living on my own," she said. "I'm not stable enough to do it. I want to focus on school right now."