Women's Lunch Place Inc.
Dignity is Everything
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Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Within our community, women are often living on the margins of society. They are struggling with poverty, rising food prices, and one of the highest rental markets in the country. One in three Massachusetts households must choose between paying for nutrition or utilities, rent, and medical care. Those receiving SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) benefits and utilizing food pantries are twice as likely to report anxiety and depression. Food costs remain higher than ever, with a 6.7% annual increase over last year’s record numbers as of May 2023. Since 2015, the number of homeless women in the U.S. has grown by 40%, rising significantly faster than the number of homeless men. Research has shown that women have higher rates of diagnosed mental health issues, suicidal thoughts and attempts, and adverse childhood trauma than their male counterparts––yet past and existing solutions often ignore gender-specific criteria in favor of a one-size-fits-all approach.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Healthy Meals Program
Women’s Lunch Place believes that access to healthy nutrition is a human right, and our Healthy Meals program reflects this core value. Food insecurity in our population continues to grow, and most guests rely on WLP as their primary source of hunger relief. We provide three meals per day. Breakfast and lunch are served restaurant-style, brought to guests seated at tables. We provide a third meal through our Takeaway Dinner program.
When a guest is hungry, it is nearly impossible for her to take a clear look at the obstacles in front of her. Even simple tasks can be difficult to accomplish, and complicated issues can seem impossible. Our nutritious meals are consistent, satisfying, delicious, and culturally diverse. Vegetarian alternatives, fresh fruits and vegetables, healthy grains, and lean proteins are incorporated into each day’s menu. WLP is a “scratch” kitchen, preparing every meal with fresh ingredients, including herbs from our garden.
Direct Care and Services
As new guests arrive, WLP’s Direct Care staff build trusting relationships and collaborate with Advocacy and Wellness teams to meet their urgent needs and facilitate goal-oriented involvement in our programming. Direct Care team members also provide women with feminine hygiene products, emergency clothing, toiletries, and other items essential for their physical health, comfort, dignity, and overall quality of life. Each day, they coordinate on-site services like laundry, showers, and mail distribution.
Our community area––already a hub of Healthy Meals action––is surrounded by rooms filled with Wellness initiatives (e.g., SNAP workshops, Meditation, Smoking Cessation Group meetings). Skilled Direct Care staff oversee this plethora of activities and connect guests to opportunities, avoiding long waits and increasing optimism with each small success. The recent implementation of a Direct Care Navigator, who manages triage, ensures that guests’ immediate needs are met.
Advocacy
At Women’s Lunch Place, vulnerable guests are matched with an Advocate who is trained in trauma-informed care and skilled at breaking through the bureaucracies that obscure affordable and supportive housing. Together, they work on solving long-term, complex issues with the goal of finding stable housing. With systemic and racial barriers embedded in the housing system, and limited personal resources, we are able to find success for women in urgent need of help.
Material assistance, connections to a new community, individualized care management, and medical access all increase the probability that women will remain safe and anchored in their new homes. In a newly created role this year, our Housing and Stabilization Manager provides expertise and oversight to Advocates that determine the type and amount of support each guest needs at any given point in her journey to stability.
Wellness
Our suite of Wellness services proactively engages the women we serve, catalyzing their self-sufficiency. It is critically important that these services are available in a safe, gender-specific environment, as domestic violence is a leading cause of homelessness for women. By participating in our Wellness programming, guests begin to regain their emotional regulation and life skills, which have largely been eroded through their experiences of trauma. These services are otherwise unavailable for our guests, yet integral to advancing their lives and achieving stability.
Peer-led dual recovery programming at WLP, offered in partnership with Boston Medical Center (Metro Boston Recovery Learning Community), provides women with the tools required to understand and recover from their addiction. An additional group, “Eight Dimensions of Wellness for Recovery,” centers on physical, spiritual, and emotional well-being, as well as environmental and occupational conditions.
Resource Center + Library
The State Street Resource Center has computers, phones, paper, and other basic office supplies available for guests searching for employment and/or housing.
Many guests use 67 Newbury Street as their home address to receive mail; this is especially important when applying for jobs and housing. Guests can also use computers to stay in touch with their family and friends, as well as to tap into resource guides created specifically for Women’s Lunch Place.
Classes are offered on a variety of topics, including:
-literacy
-computer skills
-housing and legal issues
-employment
-financial literacy
-nutrition
-stress reduction
The Susannah Waldo Wood Reading Room, located adjacent to the State Street Resource Center, is a quiet space for guests to sit and read or browse for books to take with them.
Medical Care
Nurses and doctors from our partners at Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program (BHCHP) offer our guests free on-site health care services for urgent and chronic health conditions, Monday through Friday. A psychiatrist and psychologist offer counseling, and community health centers and agencies present informational workshops on relevant topics. We train and partner with LGBTQ groups to educate and offer services to a diverse community of women.
WLP advocates and nurses assist women in obtaining health insurance through MassHealth. They schedule appointments with specialists and arrange for transportation to and from the treatment centers.
Where we work
External reviews
Photos
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Number of meals served
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Women and girls, Economically disadvantaged people
Related Program
Healthy Meals Program
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Number of advocacy visits to provide individual supportive services
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Women and girls, Economically disadvantaged people
Related Program
Advocacy
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Our Sustainable Development Goals
Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
Women's Lunch Place is a safe, welcoming day shelter community, providing nutritious food and individualized services for women who are experiencing homelessness or poverty. We meet our guests where they are and treat them with dignity and respect. Our maxim is “Dignity is Everything.” Our belief that every woman is worthy of being treated with dignity and humanity encompasses every aspect of how we provide services. From the moment a guest first enters our door, we recognize her value and strive to help her feel worthy. We are prepared to respond to her critical immediate needs and after those are met we collaborate with the guest in reaching longer-term goals. First we feed the body then we feed the spirit. We support her desire to find a home, a job, or to seek treatment for a mental illness or substance abuse. Staff and volunteers are trained to offer and provide care in a trauma-informed manner. We are always open to building a trusting relationship with each woman and offering personal attention to assure she is supported in the decisions she makes to recover and thrive. Since 1982, WLP has been a refuge for women seeking a respite from the streets or in search of a welcoming community. We have remained true to our mission and continue to provide opportunities for women to restore their dignity and belief in themselves. We understand that poverty and homelessness happen to women for reasons often out of their control. We strive to give them back control of their lives, working with each woman to become whole again no matter how long it takes. We do not judge but offer hope, healing, and dignity every step along her journey.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
To accomplish these goals, WLP offers a comprehensive range of services in a supportive community setting. Studies confirm that women are relational and prefer to work collaboratively, and being in stable relationships increases the opportunities for long-term outcomes. Resources and options are there for every woman and we encourage her to make the decisions thereby empowering her for the future. We do this in a supportive and safe community where there are no requirements to receive help. The Healthy Meals program is at the core of our mission, with daily breakfasts and lunches that relieve hunger, improve nutrition, and enhance overall health for women with little or no other access to healthy foods. Meals are often the entry point for many of our guests to begin accepting services to improve their lives over the long term. Our meals are designed to be low in salt, fat, and sugar, yet high in nutrients and flavor. Nutrition education classes provide women with knowledge to eat and prepare healthier meals, and many are experiencing positive changes in their overall health as a result. In addition to the meals, our shelter offers a shower and laundry facilities, emergency clothing, and toiletries.
Free on-site medical care is provided by Boston Healthcare for the Homeless Program. Our Advocacy program provides wraparound services to help women navigate a wide variety of challenges and systems including housing search and stabilization, eviction prevention, employment assistance, benefit enrollment, and resolution of legal issues.Our Housing & Stabilization program provides everything that a newly housed woman may need to smooth the transition into housed life. We ensure that she has appliances, furniture, groceries, and cleaning supplies as soon as she moves in. Her Advocate walks around the neighborhood with her, pointing out transit stops and the local resources including grocery, library, gym, and connecting her with community groups at churches, elder services, and other neighborhood gathering places.
The Therapeutic Expressions program offers classes in painting, photography, sewing, dance movement, and a variety of other creative outlets. WLP advocates offer personalized assistance with housing, substance abuse, mental health, finances, domestic violence, and other critical concerns. The Resource Center offers computing and financial workshops; computers, a phone bank, a library, reference materials, and work areas. Community activities involve group outings, monthly birthday celebrations, yoga, wellness workshops, and holiday parties. Our welcoming community relieves the isolation and stress of living with few resources, and provides the social supports needed for women to maintain positive life changes.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
We are well-known and respected in the social services community as a leading provider of high-quality successful services for women. Our dedicated and experienced staff and volunteers are led by Jennifer Hanlon Wigon, our Executive Director. For nearly a decade Jennifer has held leadership roles in non-profits in the greater Boston community focused on increasing access to services for marginalized populations. Before stepping in as the Executive Director, Jennifer provided key leadership at Women’s Lunch Place in her role as Director or Finance and Human Resources. Our committed and trained volunteers are essential to the caring and warm atmosphere of the shelter and help to lower our overhead expenses. The WLP’s Board of Directors and senior management staff provide expert oversight and leadership of our finances and long-term sustainability.
Our organization is uniquely positioned to do this work, as we have a 40-year history of building trust with extremely vulnerable women and finding success, as well as an extensive network of helpful partners across Greater Boston. Our staff is trained in harm reduction and trauma-informed care, and well-versed in the skills that allow for transparent, productive communication and goal setting with our guests. We consistently receive high guest satisfaction ratings and positive feedback about staff and services. Successful collaboration with other organizations is paramount to meeting the myriad of needs of our guests and to avoid duplication of services. We are proud of and committed to maintaining and building external relationships across all of our program areas. The Greater Boston Food Bank is our largest food supplier, and we have strong ongoing partnerships with Boston Healthcare for the Homeless Program and many other local organizations.
Many in our community suffer from mental illness and/or substance use disorder and lack access to care, treatment, and sobriety supports that can improve their health and quality of life. Homeless women with significant trauma histories benefit from gender-specific programming, which can allow them to achieve sobriety and successful reintegration into society. Research confirms this, yet there are few safe spaces in Boston where women can find recovery services in an environment specifically focused on their unique needs. Our staff is trained to provide programming through a clinical lens that addresses this service gap.
WLP staff are diverse in language, culture, and lived experience. Our Wellness Program Manager, a trained recovery coach, has lived experience of substance use disorder and leads from experience with successful recovery. Additionally, we have a variety of programs that were built by and for women of color. Our Direct Care and Advocacy teams include personnel with relevant lived experience as well as language capacity for Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, and Haitian Creole-speaking guests.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
On November 15, 1982, Women’s Lunch Place greeted eight women for lunch in a dining room set with cChina plates and silverware on tables with fresh flowers. No questions were asked; guests were offered a warm welcome, a hearty meal, and encouragement to return.
Initially, WLP was only open three days a week, for lunch. As word spread among homeless women, the numbers at WLP grew and the need for additional services became apparent. In response to that need, the program expanded: adding a fourth day in 1983, breakfast in 1985, and a fifth day in 1986. In 1990, the position of Outreach and Support Coordinator was created to identify and meet individual needs. In the fall of 1991, Women's Lunch Place completed a year of renovations and the addition of seven rooms in the basement space: an advocacy room, nap room, children's room, sitting room, clothing room, showers, and laundry facilities. In 1992, a formerly homeless guest was hired as an Advocate; she could share in-depth knowledge due to her lived experience and provide case management services to guests. Three years later, in 1995, a more formal Advocacy program began, bringing support for housing search, access to public benefits, and legal assistance to women. In 1996, Women's Lunch Place added a sixth day of service. In 1998, on-site offices were converted into program space for Advocacy. In 2000, hours were again expanded, giving the women an additional hour and a half each day to find the resources they needed.
WLP has continued to grow in direct response to women’s needs and requests. In 2011, a major capital campaign and renovation of the shelter space was undertaken, expanding laundry and shower capacity, adding a medical suite, a library, offices, and program and meeting space on the 3rd and 4th floors of the church. In September 2022, the Board developed and adopted a Strategic Plan based on a proactive approach to meet the evolving needs in our community and prevent or limit the repercussions of women falling into crisis. The Strategic Plan focused on building new programs and collaborations in four key areas:
Housing – expand access to housing opportunities while increasing critical stabilization services
Wellness – increase guest engagement to address their physical and emotional well-being
Healthy Meals – increase access to high-quality meals and to further incorporate nutritional best practices
Hospitals – increase access to physical and mental health services.
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To identify where we are less inclusive or equitable across demographic groups, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
We collect feedback from the people we serve at least annually, We take steps to get feedback from marginalized or under-represented people, We aim to collect feedback from as many people we serve as possible, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We look for patterns in feedback based on demographics (e.g., race, age, gender, etc.), We look for patterns in feedback based on people’s interactions with us (e.g., site, frequency of service, etc.), We engage the people who provide feedback in looking for ways we can improve in response, We act on the feedback we receive, We tell the people who gave us feedback how we acted on their feedback
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
It is difficult to get the people we serve to respond to requests for feedback, The people we serve tell us they find data collection burdensome
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
Women's Lunch Place Inc.
Board of directorsas of 08/23/2023
Clemia Brittenum
Clemia Brittenum
TJX
Mary Carty
Consultant
Janine Danielson
LitmanGerson Associates, LLP
Eileen Hsu-Balzer
Consultant
Jennifer Culhane
Sanofi Genzyme
Glenn Quirion
Sweet Tooth Bakery
Derri Shtasel
Massachusetts General Hospital
Julie Haase
Liberty Mutual
Kate Gallivan
USAA
Casey Baines
Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce
Melissa Berry-Woods
Northeastern University
Rachel Felix
Boston Medical Center
Elizabeth Burks
TJX
Mariann Youniss
Consultant
Christine Letts
Consultant
Audrey Shelto
Blue Cross Blue Shield of MA Foundaiton
Carolyn Pelzel
Consultant
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? Yes
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Transgender Identity
Sexual orientation
No data
Disability
No data
Equity strategies
Last updated: 08/23/2023GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more
- We review compensation data across the organization (and by staff levels) to identify disparities by race.
- We ask team members to identify racial disparities in their programs and / or portfolios.
- We analyze disaggregated data and root causes of race disparities that impact the organization's programs, portfolios, and the populations served.
- We disaggregate data to adjust programming goals to keep pace with changing needs of the communities we support.
- We employ non-traditional ways of gathering feedback on programs and trainings, which may include interviews, roundtables, and external reviews with/by community stakeholders.
- We have long-term strategic plans and measurable goals for creating a culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.
- We use a vetting process to identify vendors and partners that share our commitment to race equity.
- We have a promotion process that anticipates and mitigates implicit and explicit biases about people of color serving in leadership positions.
- We seek individuals from various race backgrounds for board and executive director/CEO positions within our organization.
- We help senior leadership understand how to be inclusive leaders with learning approaches that emphasize reflection, iteration, and adaptability.
- We measure and then disaggregate job satisfaction and retention data by race, function, level, and/or team.
- We engage everyone, from the board to staff levels of the organization, in race equity work and ensure that individuals understand their roles in creating culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.