ABOUT
(S.T.E.P.S)
What is The S.T.E.P.S Program?
The Sisters Transitional Empowerment Placement System
The Sisters Transitional Empowerment Placement System S.T.E.P.S Program is based on the idea that empowering homeless women to build and sustain healthy, stables lives for themselves and their children is the only realistic way of combating chronic and/or cyclic homelessness within that underserved population.
Tamika Coleman, founder and Executive Director of S.T.E.P.S, was driven to create the program based on her intimate understanding of this unique population of homeless D.C. residents, grounded in her own personal experiences. As a child growing up in D.C., she and her family first experienced homelessness when she was just six years old.
S.T.E.P.S will expand on the temporary “crisis” model of homelessness intervention that often stops short of providing sustainable solutions to these families in need. Instead, S.T.E.P.S aims to solve the immediate problem of homelessness for women and their children, as well as the underlying issues that lead to homelessness, by employing a 12-month long systematic, intensive and nurturing approach that promotes the mental, emotional, and financial health needed to remain self-sufficient.
The program will provide of housing and support services for women, ages 18-27, who have children and have aged out of public child welfare and juvenile justice systems and/or youth who find themselves homeless or unstably housed.
S.T.E.P.S meets a serious requirement in the community. Young women transitioning out of government systems are specifically affected by the insecurity that accompanies long periods of unemployment and housing instability. These factors place them at a higher risk for homelessness and having no dependency of resources.
Message From Our
Executive Director
Tamika Coleman, founder and Executive Director of S.T.E.P.S, was driven to create the program based on her personal experiences and intimate understanding of this unique population of homeless D.C. residents. As a child growing up in D.C., Ms. Coleman and her family first experienced homelessness when she was just six years old. Coming home from school and witnessing all of their furniture on the street was the beginning of a years-long cycle of shelter insecurity for herself, her brothers, and her mother.
Ms. Coleman understands the significant impact that a lack of sustainable self-sufficiency can have on a single mother’s ability to provide a safe, nurturing environment for herself and her children. In addition, her first-hand experience watching her mother complete the various steps needed to gain financial stability and reunite their family, gave Ms. Coleman a first-hand view of the services and interventions that work—and the gaps in support and training that remain in current homelessness intervention models.
