Description
When the Alcoholism Center for Women (ACW) opened its doors in 1974 we were the first and only residential program on the West Coast to offer services specifically for women. Over thirty years later, we remain the only agency providing comprehensive substance abuse programs exclusively for women in our L.A. County Service Planning Area, SPA 4, covering Hollywood, West Hollywood, Silver Lake, Echo Park, Northeast Los Angeles, Boyle Heights and Central City.
The women and girls we serve are recovering from or at risk for alcohol or substance abuse and include: 46% African American, 52% Latina, 2% Caucasian, 2% Other (Asian and Native American). Over 90% are living at or below the Federal Poverty Level; more than 28% of the women have been diagnosed with mental illness; 38% have experienced domestic violence and abuse; and 30%, and sometimes more, are homeless at some point during the 12 months prior to enrolling at ACW.
ACW offers a continuum of programs with the goal that each woman or girl we serve will maintain abstinence, recognize relapse factors, build self-esteem and a sense of responsibility, and restructure their lifestyle to include recovery support systems. ACW's residential program includes 32-beds and four distinct programs that correlate with specific client needs, methods of entry, treatment stage, and funding availability. Similarly, our Prevention services include three distinct programs that provide a holistic approach to prevention matters. Specific ACW programs include:
Residential Services
o Residential - a 6 month program that can be extended to 12 months if needed. In this program, women receive intensive treatment and therapy designed to stabilize, treat, educate and prepare them for reintegrate into their families and community.
o Court Ordered Treatment through Proposition 36 - a 90 day treatment model that focuses on drug/alcohol education, relapse prevention, legal compliance and transition into outpatient counseling services under the supervision of the criminal court system.
o Serenity House - a 6-month sober living component that is attached to our Outpatient program, Serenity House provides support to women who might not need the intense full residential substance abuse programming, but whose success is dependent upon sober-living housing support and an outpatient level of substance abuse programming.
o Specialized Homeless Shelter Bed Program - a program designed to assist homeless women suffering with mental health and substance abuse issues. The goal is to help the woman achieve emotional stability, decrease risk factors for substance abuse, increase independent living skills and to obtain permanent housing accommodations.
· Outpatient Services
This 12 month program offers extensive recovery assistance for women while they pursue education and employment opportunities, develop skills and receive support to assume family obligations.
· Prevention Services
o New Choices - a behavior modification program targeting at-risk, low-income girls 12-19 and providing a 10 week prevention education and support as well as ongoing education and experiential opportunities for girls to apply newly acquired skills and tools;
o L'BOC (Love Being a Woman of Consciousness) - provides drug-free social activities and interactive prevention education to women age 18 and over who are seeking substance abuse prevention support activities or who are currently residing in shelters or other residential programs that do not offer such programming; and,
o RADAR (Reducing Alcohol Distribution to Adolescents by Retailers) - trains youth in community organizing and how to educate retailers about laws prohibiting the sale of alcohol to minors, mobilizes communities to prevent licensing of liquor stores in low-income areas, and conducts sting operations with law enforcement and ACW staff.
