OUR MISSION

	On The Rise, 341 Broadway, Cambridge.
	For the first time in a long time, I felt a part of a community. [On The Rise] works with each of us women as a “whole” from inside to out.
	-- A Woman at On The Rise

n The Rise is a day program for homeless women. We create a community where women have the relationships safety and resources they need to move out of homelessness.  We engage with those most in need and support their initiative and strength as they move beyond crisis and discover new possibilities. 

On The Rise was founded on the ideal that dependable relationships catalyze healing and transformation.  We commit to relationships with chronically homeless women that are long-term and relevant to their entire life experience.  Our programmatic model is effective at truly reaching and helping homeless women because it offers a long-term relational approach that focuses on the whole life context.

OUR CORE VALUES

Inclusion

No one is beyond help.  On The Rise seeks out and welcomes those who have the fewest alternatives.

Safety

Safety is a prerequisite to meaningful self-determination.

Self determination

Each woman has the right to privacy, the right to decide if and when to share her story, the right to define her own needs and goals, and the right to decide how to relate to On The Rise and its community.

Diversity

On The Rise is responsible for creating an environment where people of very different backgrounds feel respected and valued.

Relationships

An essential outcome of the day program is caring, constructive, competent relationships.  On The Rise builds relationships upon a foundation of nonjudgmental engagement, respect, dignity, honesty and accountability.

Wholeness

Each woman is more than the sum of her "problems" or "diagnoses"; On The Rise expects to go beyond single-issue or short-term interventions to achieve sustainable solutions for whole persons.

Community

Creating community is a powerful approach to creating change.

Long-term Relational Approach

Trauma, such as experiences of physical and sexual abuse and violence, has damaging effects on individuals and societies. Many women who repeatedly seek help from our social service system for issues such as mental health, addiction, and homelessness have experienced trauma, often since childhood. While every person responds to traumatic events in different ways, survivors of traumatic experiences can feel overwhelmed by feelings of vulnerability, fear, shame, guilt, numbness, and alienation. These feelings can alter her sense of safety and trust and make it difficult to form relationships. Without professional and personal supports to help them recover, survivors of trauma can become isolated in a cycle of pathologies where the only constant relationships she has in her life are with an abusive person, a drug, or the voices in her head. Often these women are at high risk of further victimization because of their vulnerable living situations.

Short-term interventions are unlikely to provide sustainable solutions for survivors of trauma who lack the supportive community and non-judgmental relationships that they need to heal and recover. Within the Safe Haven community at On The Rise, each woman is given time, space, dignity, respect, and choices to develop her own personal agency and to build relationships with staff that are not predicated on pre-determined program outcomes, but on meeting her needs and goals as she expresses them.

Whole Life Context

Many homeless women face complex issues that are both internal and external and may overwhelmingly complicate her attempts to move out of homelessness. Yet, most social services specialize in helping people with one specific issue (such as domestic violence, addiction, mental health). While necessary, this fragmentation in the human service system can lead to conflicting requirements for a woman facing multiple challenges which can make it difficult for her to access services. Participating within a fragmented social service system, a homeless woman may come to see herself as a conglomeration of problems to be solved because her interactions with others are all about how and why (or why not) she addresses these issues.

On The Rise helps women who have fallen through the cracks of our social system navigate the next stage of her life. Based on individual relationships, we support her as she recognizes, accepts, challenges, and balances the realities and opportunities of her internal, societal, and cultural contexts. Our work with women crosses over specific issues and extends out into our community to guide and support her as she accesses services for specific challenges. By being an active partner with women on her journey, On The Rise strives to increase her self-efficacy and improve the effectiveness of our social service system for the most highly marginalized people.