Emergency Shelter Program, Inc. (ESP) is a non-profit agency in Hayward, California, caring for battered and homeless women and children for over 40 years. The mission of Emergency Shelter Program, Inc. is to provide shelter, support and education for women and children who are victims of domestic violence or homelessness. We make this mission a reality through:

Shelter for Women & Children

ESP operates one of Alameda County's most established shelters for victims of domestic violence and homelessness. At our 32-bed shelter, we provide confidential housing, food, counseling, and advocacy for approximately 220-260 women and children each year. Our dedicated staff assists women in developing the skills and resources, both personal and economic, for self-sufficiency. The children's program provides tutoring, activities, and counseling for the youth at our shelter. ESP's 24-hour hotline (888-339-SAFE) provides information and referrals to over 5,000 women and children per year. To learn more about our shelter click here.

Community Center

This project expands the existing services of ESP to include women & children in Hayward who need similar services to those offered in our shelter but are not yet ready to enter a shelter. There are populations in the city of Hayward & surrounding communities that are underserved in regard to access to health insurance & health care, particularly women (and their children) who are experiencing domestic violence (DV) in their homes & other women (and their children) who may be poverty-stricken & on the verge of losing their homes or who are new immigrants. It is difficult to maintain physical & mental health in such circumstances. ESP is targeting this population because the need is there & because we have a history of expertise in serving this population. Eden I & R does not identify any similar center for Hayward . This new site also enables us to provide the homeless shelter's follow-up services at a separate site, thus protecting confidentiality of the shelter's location & making it more convenient for women & children to access follow-up services.

ESP's newest program has the following objectives.

• Program Objective: Provide mental health and substance abuse counseling to shelter residents (after care) and low-income residents of Hayward and surrounding communities, using “best practices” and with sensitivity to the diverse languages/cultures of the clients, and networking and collaborating with other CBOs who serve this population to deliver broader health education that supports the target population's well being.
  1. Improve clients' mental health/psychosocial well being and functioning as close as possible to the level necessary to learning, development, independent living, and self-sufficiency in regard to the client's goals.
  2. Reduce substance abuse and the related consequences (unsafe sex, criminal justice involvement, unemployability)
  3. Reduce poor mental health and substance abuse as barriers to these clients' access to and use of safe and stable housing
• Program Objective: The community niche we serve is the mental health and substance abuse needs of low income residents that are low mental health and substance use risk/complexity/acuity and can probably be resolved in 3-6 months. Medium and High acuity clients will be referred to agencies that specialize and/or are limited by their government contracts to serve that population
• Program Objective: Achieve and maintain cultural/linguistic sensitivity in service delivery:
  1. increasing cultural/linguistic competency in our DV shelter [ methods : bilingual lead case manager, pool of clinicians representing a diversity of cultural/linguistic competencies, orientation and cultural/linguistic standards for clinicians, selected language classes for crucial staff members; DV orientation for translators and debriefing sessions for them] ; and
  2. increasing community outreach to underserved cultural/linguistic populations who need DV services, but are reluctant to leave their homes for a DV shelter [ methods : drop-in community resource center, bilingual staff, community health outreach worker].

In order to achieve this objective ESP is collaborating with Mujeres Unidas Activas (MUA) in providing Spanish-speaking peer counselors who will assist with community outreach to Latinas, DV counseling for women (one on one and in group sessions, when appropriate), and client advocacy work. MUA is also providing access to a bilingual clinician (English/Spanish) to work with our monolingual Latinas.

 

For English: (510) 786.1246 or 1.888.339.safe (7233)
Para Espanol: (510) 303-9953