Volunteers of America - Women's Residential Center

The Women’s Residential Center (WRC) provides trauma-informed integrated chemical dependency and mental health services in a residential setting to women.  The WRC helps women and their families overcome a variety of challenges, rebuild their lives, and re-enter their communities as healthy, productive individuals. 

Community Resources and Contact Information:

We provide on-site SMART Recovery, Narcotics Anonymous and Parents Anonymous meetings that are open to the community.  Call 503-235-0131 for meeting times.

The community of the Women’s Residential Center (WRC) welcomes you. We are truly glad to meet you and are excited about the opportunity we have to get to know you and work with you. We are already proud of you for managing to make it here. We know that the road you have traveled to get here has not been easy. You may be feeling scared, confused, angry, hopeless, or just plain exhausted. You may also be feeling curious, relieved, excited or hopeful. All of these feelings are natural considering what you have been through and what you may now be facing in your life. We encourage you to lean on staff and your peers for support as you get used to being here.

Change

We realize you might not be sure if you are ready to make a change in your life right now. When you first get here, it’s really normal to feel unsure and confused about whether you want to be in recovery. You may feel one way today, and the opposite way tomorrow; one way this minute, and the opposite the next minute. We also know that you may be receiving all sorts of outside pressure to get into recovery-maybe from your probation officer, your family, your significant other, child protective services, etc. This sort of pressure from the outside, no matter how well-intentioned, might make it difficult for you to know what’s going on inside you and connect with what you really want for yourself.

Choice

The staff at the WRC wants to make sure you understand that we are not here to tell you what to do, or even to try and convince you to be in recovery. We have deep respect for your right to make your own choices about your own life. The staff’s job is not to pressure you to change; it’s to work with you in partnership to help you figure out if you want to change. If you do decide to make changes in your life, it is also staff’s job to provide you with emotional support, honest feedback, and to teach you some useful skills that will help you be successful.

Community

Staff and peers at the WRC are all trying their very best to work and live together in a safe community that is based on mutual respect, love, acceptance, and non-judgment. While we are here, we create a safe community by agreeing to not use drugs or alcohol, agreeing to resolve our conflicts in a pro-social manner, agreeing to respect each others’ right to confidentiality, and agreeing to value each other’s process. We respect that each peer is struggling with her own set of challenges. Knowing that we are all struggling, we strive to interact with each other in a loving, non-violent and patient way. We see that we are all different in many ways-different colors, sexual orientations, spirituality, abilities, and backgrounds and we not only accept these differences, we celebrate them. Knowing that we are all trying our best, we work daily to let go of judging ourselves and others for our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.

Collaboration

Peers and staff work together in an ongoing collaboration. This means that we are equal participants in creating rules that will help our community function in a safe and healthy way. We also work together to design a program that will help and support peers in being successful with meeting their life and recovery goals. You are invited to attend a weekly Advisory Committee in which these issues are discussed and changes are made. You will also have an opportunity to elect peers to and possibly serve on Client Council. Client Council supports the WRC community through assisting in monitoring house safety and cleanliness, assisting peers with using the pro-social model, and assisting in recreation and special events planning.

Individually, you will have the opportunity to work in collaboration with your counselor to design a plan for change that is right for you.

Family

Whether or not you complete this program, you will always be considered a member of the WRC family. This means that whether or not you have chosen recovery, (as long as you are not actively under the influence) you will be welcome to visit, to just hang out, to get some support, or to join us for a meal. You will also be invited to come back and celebrate the holidays with us, join us for our summer picnic, and let us celebrate you at our annual alumni celebration. Once you get some clean time under your belt, we encourage you to continue to contribute to the WRC community by providing support to new peers.