Healing Vine Harbor
By Rosanny Crumpton
Healing Vine Harbor (HVH) is transforming lives one woman at a time by serving at-risk women (ages 18 and older) who have aged out of the foster care system. These young women often find themselves homeless, unstable or in potentially dangerous circumstances.
When teens age out of the foster care system, they are “out there with no parents, trying to fend for themselves,” explained Alicia Verdun, an HVH board of directors member. Women sometimes have more challenges than men, often falling to different things like sex trafficking,” she said.
Healing Vine Harbor’s mission is to reduce the number of single women living in shelters or unsafe situations, providing a pathway out of poverty to ensure they are self-sufficient.
Tracey Questell, HVH’s executive director and founder, has supported youth, men, and women throughout her 30-year career in human services.
The HVH Board of Directors is working on obtaining a residential facility to house women in emergency situations. This facility would also serve as a space to hold their monthly TEACH (Transforming, Empowering, And Creating Hope) workshops, one of the four programs offered through HVH. Workshops are led by volunteers who have backgrounds in subject matters that vary from housing stability, employment readiness, healthy nutrition and more. Currently, HVH serves more than 300 women annually through its four programs.
Healing Vine Harbor provides one-time emergency financial resources through its Heal & Eradicate Lingering Poverty (HELP) program. Donors have helped with back-rent payments, provided furniture, gift cards, boxes of food and more. HVH’s program, the “Healing Closet” allows participants in need to shop for clothing, housewares, accessories and other necessities from a closet of donated items at no cost to them. Also “Healing Bags” are donated to homeless girls and women. They include various necessary toiletries to help lighten the financial load.
The organization is sustained through volunteers, donors and corporate sponsors. HVH is seeking additional funding and volunteers. “We’re doing some great things,” Questell said. “We just need a little more help so we can do more.”
For more information, visit healingvineharbor.org.