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“Take time to look around and maybe the hideous things turn out to be
the most beautiful things in the world at that moment like this snail." –age 12.
About Us: Lydia Place provides a six-month transitional housing program featuring an eight-bedroom house
with a large kitchen, living room, laundry room, and four bathrooms. The house is located close to the bus line,
community pool, civic field and elementary school. We can serve up to eight families (18 people at a time) Each family has their own private bedroom
and shares the rest of the house. There is a large fenced yard with outdoor play equipment.
Lydia Place serves women and their children by offering shelter, individual and group parenting training,
case management, and a program that assists them in moving from poverty to self-support and independence.
There are two components to the program: Women's Residential Program:
Lydia Place is designed to provide each family the opportunity to both reorganize and restructure
their lives or to "begin again". As the woman meets with the Case Manager, one of her opportunities
will be to explore her situation in a safe, nonjudgmental environment and set goals for her future.
The goals that each woman sets will vary according to her needs. She will monitor these goals
with the support and assistance of the Case Manager. Any of all of the goals may be modified or
changed as needed. Each woman will meet a minimum of one hour per week with the Case Manager.
In addition, she will also meet weekly with the Family Services Coordinator to discuss parenting and
other concerns about her children.
The Lydia Place program includes two two-hour evening sessions per week.
These sessions will focus on life skills training such as:
- Parenting
- Communication skills
- Problem solving skills
- Health/safety issues
- Budgeting/finance
- Domestic violence awareness
- Community resources
- Follow-up Program
- Outreach/Prevention Program
Ornaments representing how mothers feel about parenting and what they would like to learn
in the Nurturing Parenting Program. The Children's Therapeutic Program: While the women attend their evening groups and support sessions, their children participate
in the Children's Program, staffed by the Family Services Coordinator, program aides and adult
volunteers. The Children's Therapeutic Program consists of two components - the parenting
component specifically involving the mothers in learning parenting skills and the children's
component which is designed to provide children with a safe and fun environment in which to talk,
play and heal from the trauma they’ve experienced in their lives.
The children’s group meets twice each week. These two-hour sessions consist of activities designed
to foster interpersonal skills, communications skills, self-control, and anger management. Building
self-esteem and trust are the underlying ingredients of every session. This is essential because these
children have experienced fear, abuse, and loss as a result of the circumstances that have left them homeless.
Each month the group focuses on a different objective for the children to talk about and gain more awareness and resiliency factors. 
The Six Objectives Are:
Communicating Feelings~Trust Building~Coping Skills~Self-Empowerment~Safety~Family A child testing out the fire equipment at Fire Station 8 (above) Thank You Fire Station 8 (Marietta) for your continued support and education you give to our children at Lydia Place on fire safety! The Family Services Coordinator conducts regular parent education groups. These groups follow a classroom format and encourage nurturing techniques, basic parenting education, and introduce positive discipline techniques as alternatives to spanking. The Coordinator also meets with each parent individually a minimum of once each week. These meetings result in personal goal setting by the parent, evaluation of parenting skills and help in accessing community resources such as counseling and other children's services. 
"The Monster in Me is named Fred" -age 4
These two components working together help to break the cycle of violence and homelessness that have affected both the children and their mothers.
Bellingham Housing Authority:
Lydia Place and the Bellingham Housing Authority have formed a partnership to address the overwhelming need for housing for the homeless population of Whatcom County. Through this partnership, Lydia Place is able to move formerly homeless families into their own apartments located at at Laurel Village, Meadow Wood Townhomes, The Laube Hotel, Walton Place, Heather Commons, and Varsity Village. These apartments are permanent housing units set aside for Lydia Place families and rent-subsidized by the Bellingham Housing Authority. Lydia Place case managers provide case management support to these families which includes: monthly home visits, resource referrals, advocacy, and connection to services like childcare, education, financial assistance, and much more. Along with case management, Lydia Place staff facilitates monthly community events held at each property which give residents a chance to connect with one another. This partnership is able to provide permanent housing to single parents and their children, whole families, couples, as well as men and women without children.
  
"Back to School BBQ" at Laurel Village "Pumpkin Painting" event at Meadow Wood Face Painting & Ice Cream Social
Lydia Place offers a Life Skills curriculum to the families in Supportive Services. Lydia Place provides twice monthly classes which focus on the following topics: Money Management, Healthy Relationships, Parenting Skills, Empowerment, Health & Safety, Self-care, Job Search, and local resources. Lydia Place partners with local non-profits and community experts to give presentations and share their knowledge and resources. There is a program for adults and a separate program for children.
Whatcom Homeless Service Center The Whatcom Homeless Service Center is a community wide effort to find efficient and innovative ways to end homelessness. The project takes a 'Housing first' approach to homelessness, which means it is designed to help clients find housing and then address any issues that may have previously contributed to being homeless. Lydia Place is one of 5 agencies that have been contracted to provide case management to these clients. Through case management, our staff advocates for and supports families in finding permanent housing on the private rental market. Upon moving into housing, we provide ongoing case management with the overall focus that each family is able to maintain this housing long term and independently. Case management addresses: budgeting, landlord/tenant law education, navigating public systems, resources and referrals, and accomplishing any other goals necessary to improve each client’s housing stability. This partnership is also designed to bridge the gap for populations that are underserved in the community. We are able to not only support single moms with children, but single dads, whole families, and single men, women and couples without children as well.
Interfaith Coalition and Our Saviour's Lutheran Church:
The partnership was formed to provide case management for one single family staying at the Our Saviours Emergency House.
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