The Center for Wisdom's Women

Do you care about women who have faced difficult lives and want to support them as they heal? Would you also like to make it possible for older, single women to live independently? Do you desire to support a creative, innovative project for those women in an underserved community? Do you believe that LOVE HEALS and that community support can change lives? Then this is the project for you! 

The Center for Wisdom's Women is a unique treasure in downtown Lewiston that supports and empowers women in a very quiet but effective way. Located in a neighborhood with a poverty rate over 40%, it is a place where the healing qualities of compassionate non-judgmental listening are consciously embraced in order to provide a safe and sacred space for the support and empowerment women. The women who come to the Center carry with them a variety of challenges from mental illness to histories of abuse or addiction, as well as the many issues faced by those in low income situations. Any woman is welcomed into a hospitable and respectful place. By building community, women break their isolation and begin to heal and help each other.

But these women deserve more. Every week we meet someone for whom we wish we had safe, affordable housing.

With Sophia's House, we are striving to create an interfaith community house, the primary purpose of which will be to provide two year housing and recovery services for women who are survivors of prostitution, addiction, prison, abuse or other traumas. The program will include wrap-around support services for therapy, addiction recovery, medical care, GED work and job training, etc. via contracted local partner agencies. The project will be an adaptation of the successful 20 year Magdalene Community at Thistle Farms in Nashville, TN, a comprehensive, two year “housing first” community based model and social enterprise.

The house will include a core, permanent resident community that will sustain the basic operating costs of the house and will provide stability in community life. They will be older women with fixed incomes who want to support each other so they can live independently as they age. The permanent residents (some of whom may serve as mentors) and women in the long term program will share the first floor community spaces and regular meals (weekly at least). The house can offer hospitality to neighbors through simple meals or programs held in the shared common spaces. The project will also develop social enterprise/income generating projects for transitional guests to gain experience and earn a small income. 

Once the current women's center operations are fully funded and it is sustainable for the long term, we will be able to confidently launch into the Sophia's House project.  We already have:

• Seed funding for capital, 
• A nearby beautiful old convent available to us to renovate, and
• Community groups interested in patnering with us. 

With the help of the Genesis Community Loan Fund, we have completed a feasibility study that tells us it is possible and that with the rent income Sophia's House will sustain itself once built.

All we need to do first, is to reach our current funding goals...Anything over that then goes to Sophia's House. YOU can help us get there. 

Here is the plan:

The Current Center - 250 SHEROs & $25,000 in smaller and larger gifts in 25 days! The total comes to $60,000. 

SHEROs give $1 a day that we are open. That comes to $240 per year. (Super SHEROs give 2-4 SHERO gifts.) Right now we have 115 SHEROs and about half of the rest.

Sophia's House - The estimates for renovating the old convent is just over one million dollars, of which about 1/3 will come from tax credits and other sources.

YOU can help us reach our dreams in two way: 

1. Donate here.
2. Share the campaign with friends and family.

You will be investing in a better life and future for women in our community! THANK YOU!