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Off the Streets



APRIL 2009
proclaimed by Mayor Mallory and City Council,
"Cincinnati Union Bethel "Off the Streets" Month!



A Chase OTS 2009.jpg

April Chase, who is completing Off the Streets, a program that helps women leave prostitution, enjoys a spring day in downtown Cincinnati.


Escaping prostitution's

'path of dreadfulness'

 

For the 21 years that April Chase worked the streets of Avondale as a prostitute, she worked for many things. Most nights - and days and afternoons - she worked for crack cocaine. Some nights she traded sex for a place to sleep, a pair of second-hand shoes, a plate of hot food.

She thought her body was the only commodity she had to sell to keep herself in drugs, to keep herself in that space where she didn't feel the frustration of motherhood too young, the boredom of a life that was going nowhere. The space where, in fact, she didn't feel a thing.

But she was wrong. What she actually put out on the streets every night, what she left in the possession of men who didn't care to know her name, what she traded for crack and the tawdriest of objects was her soul.

By the time April came to the point where she believed she was worth more than a battered pair of shoes, she had 28 criminal convictions and had spent more than 1,600 days in jail and prison. She had been beaten, threatened with guns and knives, stung by bedbugs and the disgusted looks of passersby. The police were very familiar with April and the other women who racked up 653 prostitution charges in the city last year, and 510 more in the county, clogging the criminal justice system.

The officers watched them first appear on the streets, young and scared and vulnerable. They watched them work their trade over time and lose their youth, and then their fear and finally, if not their lives, at least their aliveness.

It became a game, except there was no winner. Officers gathered up the women. Judges got them into drug treatment programs, sometimes put them in jail or on probation but then like a revolving door that leads nowhere, they were inevitably back on the streets.

Until three years ago, when a collaborative program began offering women a way out of prostitution. Run by Cincinnati Union Bethel, it's called Off the Streets.

Friday, April and nine other women will graduate from the program, joining the sisterhood of 36 women who have turned their backs on prostitution and their faces to education and jobs, who have let go of their fear and grabbed hold of their talents, who have lost their addictions and in the process found, once again, their souls.

Last month, Off the Streets was one of three national programs to win the Mutual of America Community Partnership Award, as well as proclamations from the City of Cincinnati and Hamilton County. It offers women housing, refers them to substance abuse and mental health counseling, connects them to clinics, sometimes college and ultimately to themselves.

For April, completing the program is an intensely personal victory. She has a job now as a cook, gets a regular paycheck, isn't threatened or beaten, and is working her way back to having custody of her sons, who were taken from her seven years ago.

But April's success is a success for the city as well. Prostitution is a crime that breeds more crime, as the women who practice it become victims and sometimes perpetrators, as the degradation of the acts they perform leads them to more substance abuse and addiction. "The path of dreadfulness," April calls it.

She is on a different path now, a path she believes God has laid open before her. She is healthy. She is humbled. She is healing. And she is happy, although "I need to not get too overly happy because I might rock the boat a little," she says cautiously.

After 21 years of struggle, she smiles at the thought that her soul is her own again, and happiness her biggest fear.

Krista Ramsey is a member of the Enquirer Editorial Board; e-mail her at kramsey@enquirer.com


http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20090406/COL01/904060322

(link above) Krista Ramsey article,

CINCINNATI ENQUIRER, April 6, 2009




The mission of Off the Streets is to assist women involved in prostitution move towards safety, recovery, empowerment, and community reintegration.

 

Off the Streets a program specifically for women who are involved in prostitution.  It is a program to help women explore positive changes.

 

  • We provide a safe, welcoming, and nonjudgmental environment.  Each woman is treated with dignity and respect regardless of her individual circumstances.  The program will honor what women have done to survive and will help each woman create a healthier and safer future for herself.

 

  • We are a peer-driven program.  By peer-driven, we mean that our staff have similar life experiences to the clients we serve.  They too have experienced prostitution, trauma, substance abuse, mental illness, homelessness, and/or other related problems

 

What services are offered?

We work with clients to coordinate the many services needed to work on their recovery.  All services are coordinated on an individual basis to fit each woman’s unique needs.  Clients participate in some services at our location, which help foster a sense of community and self esteem.  These may include:

  • Creative writing class
  • Knitting circle
  • Journaling
  • Employment and life coaching

Our staff also makes referrals to other community-based programs such as:

  • Housing
  • Emergency needs
  • Trauma recovery
  • Mental health services
  • Substance abuse treatment
  • Healthcare
  • Education
  • Employment
  • Family Services

 

How can I participate in the program?

We will work with any woman who has experienced prostitution and wants to make life changes.  The program accepts referrals from many sources including:

  • Self-referrals
  • The criminal justice system
  • Other treatment programs

 

How long is the program?

There is no set time for the program.  Each woman makes progress in her recovery at her own pace.  If a woman is referred by the Court or Probation, she may be required to participate in a specified amount of services.  However, the program will work with women as log as is needed.  Most women participate for about one year.

 

Where is the program located?

Off the Streets is located in downtown Cincinnati and is near Metro bus lines.

 

When is the program?

The program occurs Monday through Friday from 8:00 am to 6:00 pm.

 

Want more information?
For referral information, contact an Outreach and Intake Coordinator    513-378-2534

For general information, contact:

            Mary Carol Melton, Program director                                       513-768-6905

            Kari Kester, Program Manager                                                 513-768-6924



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Off the Streets has also been recognized...
with the 2007 Ohio Association of Nonprofit Organizations' Nonprofit Excellence Award
with the 2007 Outstandig Community Efforts in CPOP Award
in the book "Last Look" by Mariah Stewart
    
with the 2008 "Non-Profit of the Year" awarded by Over-The-Rhine Chamber
with the 2008 Mutual of America Foundation's Community Partnership Award (Honorable Mention)       

 OANO Excellence Award logo.jpg

 

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