For those who are in between jobs, we want to provide a safe and inviting place to go during the day so the lies of the Enemy might be drowned out. This year Scarlet Hope launched a weekly life skill development/discipleship time on Wednesdays at the Hope House. The purpose of this time is to offer a safe place where women can meet with our counselor, make goals with our life coach, or just deepen friendships that are started at our weekly Bible study.
Here is a schedule of a typical Wednesday at our “Day of Hope”:
11am-1pm
This is a time for women to relax, meet with our counselor and/or our life skill therapist. It is also a time for working toward goals such as resume writing, job searching and enjoying mutual encouragement from others who have ‘been there.’ Often during lunchtime we each share a ‘high’ and a ‘low’ from the past week in order to facilitate community and vulnerability. Trusting others with this type of transparency can be scary for many of us. It is especially terrifying for those who have had trauma in their past. It has been beautiful to see women love each other with God’s word when previously these same women might have knocked each other’s teeth out in the clubs. God is so faithful to draw us to Himself and to others in love.
1pm-3pm
This is our ‘class time’ as many of the participants like to call it. We have had many gospel-saturated life skill classes on topics such as: Discovering Strengths, Distress Tolerance Skills, Mindfulness, Domestic Violence, Anger Management, etc. There are also skills in which our ladies are the experts such as cooking, computers, and using public transportation. We hope to empower them to teach us during class as well. We want to promote a strengths-based program rather than only focusing on skills that need improvement. Please pray for all of us as we navigate how to create a space during this time that is peaceful, empowering and full of the love of God.
3pm-5pm
This is what we call our “fun activity.” Because many of those who had traumatic pasts didn’t get to participate in extracurricular activities as children and adolescents, they truly don’t know what to say when asked what they do for fun. We have had many leisure exploration activities over the past few months to help with development of healthier recreation and relaxation. We have gone to the zoo, an art museum, gone on a nature walk, and much more. Next month we are having volunteer teachers come to teach us about Holy Yoga, couponing, finances, and pottery.
When we first launched this day program, we didn’t know if anyone would jump on board. But now it is just a normal part of the Scarlet Hope culture. Please pray that God will guide us on how to expand this experience to more than just one day per week. And we’d love to have you volunteer for a meal or to teach a special skill that you have. Please call the office or email me at lindsay@scarlethope.org to be a part of this amazing program!
