Downtown Women's Center
Every Woman Housed
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
The 2019 Los Angeles Homeless Count shows that there are approximately 18,331 women experiencing homelessness daily. Although Los Angeles County doubled the number of people moving from homelessness into housing, the homelessness crisis is a part of a broader economic and housing affordability crisis. The 2019 Homeless Count also revealed that 23% of people surveyed were experiencing homelessness for the first time last year, further indicating that the economic and housing affordability crisis far outpaces the number of housing placements that can be achieved through public investments. Furthermore, services and housing in Skid Row have historically been designed to meet the needs of adult men, leaving a gap in services targeted to meet the unique needs of women experiencing homelessness. Therefore, DWC’s gender-specific lens and strengths-based approach is essential to the effective delivery of services for this population.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Permanent Supportive Housing
DWC's two on-site residences provide permanent housing, without time limits, to 119 women. We help residents maintain their housing through a wide variety of supportive services--the most fundamental being case management. Our case managers regularly assess our residents' needs and connect them to services that support their long-term housing and personal stability. We are proud to share that through these efforts in 2019, 99% of our residents remained in their housing one year after placement. In addition, we offer participants in our residence who are ready to move on with the opportunity to transfer to independent housing.
DWC is a Coordinated Entry System (CES) Entry Point, allowing participants to complete a universal intake and housing application to expedite the process of securing housing in the community.
Day Center
DWC offers a wide array of services to women experiencing homelessness on a drop-in basis through our Day Center - including three nutritious meals daily, clean bathrooms and showers, laundry facilities, a secure mailing address, a fresh change of clothing, and other vital services. Through our Day Center, DWC also provides one-on-one case management services for women to connect them to housing, healthcare, legal aid, transportation, government benefits, education, job training opportunities, work placements, and other resources.
Health and Wellness
DWC’s Health and Wellness program provides primary healthcare for women experiencing homelessness or extreme poverty through our on-site Women’s Health Center, Los Angeles’ first and only health center exclusively for women. This includes women's health services, HIV screenings, physical assessments, and preventative care to reduce diabetes, obesity, hypertension and other chronic diseases prevalent in this population. DWC also offers robust mental health services and enrichment activities focused on overall health and social connectedness, including psychiatric sessions, mental health counseling, group therapy, self-care workshops, fitness classes, and cultural outings provided by volunteers and donors.
Workforce Development and Social Enterprise
DWC’s Workforce Development and Social Enterprise programs provide a comprehensive and individualized approach to learn skills that lead to employment and income, as well as increased self-esteem. Internally and through our partners, DWC offers a range of education and workforce development resources including skills-training, vocational workshops, transitional employment, individualized support, and job placements. DWC’s social enterprise, MADE by DWC, is designed to help prepare participants for future bridge and/or traditional employment opportunities, while providing them with the income, support, and skills necessary to enhance their stability and well-being.
Community-Based Housing
DWC’s Community-Based Housing program provides roughly 500 women with linkages to case management, employment training, and other supportive services. DWC is the only homeless service agency in Los Angeles that has three different rapid re-housing funding streams, thus demonstrating our ability to provide effective services to women from different backgrounds who are facing multiple co-occurring challenges to finding and sustaining their housing. Recognizing the majority of DWC’s served population has experienced domestic violence (DV), DWC leverages evidence-based practices in our housing programs that are proven to be impactful for DV survivors, including survivor-driven advocacy and trauma-informed care.
Advocates Program
DWC provides a leading voice for systemic change on behalf of all women who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. We believe the most effective way to advocate for systems change is to ensure the voices and lived experiences of DWC residents and participants are at the forefront of our work. With this in mind, we launched an Advocates Program in 2016 to bring the voice of women experiencing homelessness to the policy table, focusing on community-based solutions that meet their specific needs.
Interim Housing
In 2022, DWC expanded our Housing & Supportive Services program, and we now maintain a 68-bed Interim Housing program for participants awaiting permanent housing placement.
Where we work
External reviews

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Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Number of homeless participants engaged in mental health services
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Women and girls, Homeless people
Related Program
Health and Wellness
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
This metric includes the amount of women who received robust mental heath services including individual and group therapy, crisis intervention, and more.
Number of direct care staff who received training in trauma informed care
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
All staff, both direct-service and operational staff, have received traum- informed training.
Number of volunteers
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
DWC hosts about 5,000 volunteers a year, including over 350 group volunteers. In 2022, we resumed in-person volunteer opportunities including Cooking Clubs.
Number of clients served
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
This includes women served in our day center, residences, off-site housing placements, and supportive services programs.
Number of participants who gain employment
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Women and girls, Homeless people
Related Program
Workforce Development and Social Enterprise
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
This includes women placed into bridge and permanent employment.
Percent of households that retain permanent housing for at least 6 months.
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Permanent Supportive Housing
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
This metric includes all permanent supportive and community-based housing placements.
Number of homeless participants engaged in housing services
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Women and girls, Adults, Homeless people
Related Program
Permanent Supportive Housing
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
This metric includes the amount of women who secured housing through DWC's onsite Permanent Supportive Housing.
Our Sustainable Development Goals
Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.
Goals & Strategy
Reports and documents
Download strategic planLearn 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?
DWC has a long history of growth and excellence, guided by the vision to lead the implementation of innovating solutions and to create committed communities that work collaboratively. Our mission is to end women's homelessness in greater Los Angeles through housing, wellness, and advocacy.
Goals:
• Increase direct access to basic services as well as permanent supportive housing, health, education, and other supportive services;
• Ensure immediate stabilization of our participants, assist them in learning coping skills, enhancing their self-determination, and contributing to their personal recovery;
• Help reduce use of and dependence on high cost emergency services currently used by many; and
• Improve the overall socio-economic, health, and education outcomes for the Skid Row community, while contributing to the national efforts to end chronic homelessness
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
1. Continue to increase housing options for women experiencing homelessness
2. Maintain a culture of shared leadership and consistently collect and incorporate feedback from participants, volunteers, and staff
3. Continue to cultivate a high-performing and engaged workforce
4. Build opportunities for women to voice their needs in the community
5. Continue to fortify infrastructure for effective operations
6. Engage volunteers and business leaders to fuel organizational growth
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
Despite being founded over forty years ago, DWC remains the first and only organization in Los Angeles exclusively dedicated to addressing the immediate and long-term needs of women overcoming homelessness and extreme poverty. Our innovative, individualized, and trauma-informed approach to ending homelessness for women addresses all dimensions of participants’ needs.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
In 2022, DWC impacted over 5,700 unduplicated women throughout Los Angeles County through our four streams of programming. DWC’s drop-in Day Center provided services to a total of 2,954 unduplicated women, including providing over 108,000 meals. We also provided 1,309 women with 1,994 case management sessions through our Day Center. Additionally, 289 women accessed physical health services in the Women’s Health Center in 2022, including 1,417 health screenings. DWC’s clinical staff also provide onsite robust mental health services. In 2022, DWC provided 700 women with 1,723 individual and group mental health therapy sessions. In 2022, DWC also provided 119 units of on-site permanent supportive housing at our San Pedro and Los Angeles Street residences. Of the women in our residences, an impressive 99% have remained housed. Through our community based housing program, we placed 32 women and their families into housing throughout Los Angeles in 2022, and provided supportive services to 430 women to ensure they are able to retain their housing in the long-term; 99% of women housed through our community based housing program maintained their housing in the last year. DWC also opened an Interim Housing site in 2022, providing 88 women with interim housing as they awaited permanent housing placements. DWC also engaged 516 unduplicated women in our employment services and held 278 vocational workshops. Finally, through our services, 112 women secured employment in 2022 – a vital step towards long-term housing and personal stability.
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 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 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 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
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
We don't have any major challenges to collecting feedback
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
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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.
Downtown Women's Center
Board of directorsas of 03/16/2023
Elizabeth Faraut
LA LOOP
Term: 2023 - 2020
Elyse Klein
The Capital Group Companies
Heather Rim
Aecom
Rachel Cappocia
Jeffer Mangels Butler & Mitchell LLP
Catherine Collins
Accenture
Alma Graham
Anthem, Inc.
Josefina Leon
The Walt Disney Company
Scott Weingarten, MD, MPH
Cedars-Sinai and Stanson Health
Vicki Curry
Fox Corporation
Jessica Monge Coria
Corporation for Supportive Housing
Alisa Do
Edison International
Elizabeth Faraut
LA LOOP
Libby Jacobson
360 Impact Advisory
Robyn Bacon
Munger, Tolles & Olson, LLP
La Shawn Denise Witt
Derrick Coleman
Creative Financial Staffing
Shelly Schembre
Unibail-Rodamco Westfield
Brendan Ranson-Walsh
AECOM
Ruth Z. Edwards
Bank of America
Justine Gonzalez
Wells Fargo
Sara Sugarman
Lulu & Georgia
Cindy Starett
Latham & Watkins
Kara Hollis
Leonard Green & Partners
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
Sexual orientation
No data
Disability
No data
Equity strategies
Last updated: 10/26/2021GuideStar 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 ask team members to identify racial disparities in their programs and / or portfolios.
- 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 seek individuals from various race backgrounds for board and executive director/CEO positions within our organization.
- We have community representation at the board level, either on the board itself or through a community advisory board.
- We help senior leadership understand how to be inclusive leaders with learning approaches that emphasize reflection, iteration, and adaptability.
- 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.