Womens Resource Center

Reaching out to women and families in need

The Bon Secours Women’s Resource Center, located across the street from the hospital in a neighborhood row house, was open in 1997 by Sr. Pat Dowling. Explains Natasha Ramberg, Associate Director of Family and Women’s Services for the Bon Secours of Maryland Foundation, “Sr. Pat had been working in Ecuador. When she returned to Baltimore, she wanted to offer the women in the community a place where they could feel safe and nurtured and not be judged. She asked women who live here what kind of place would allow them to do that and the Women’s Resource Center was born.”

The center is a day drop-in resource where women can eat breakfast, do laundry, take a shower, and simply rest in a protected environment. “Many of the women who come here are homeless, so they’re on the move and on guard all the time,” says Natasha. “Here is a place where they can sit down and rest, a breathing space.”

They can also use the center as a mailing address and phone number so they can apply for jobs and receive social services. The grant-funded program also offers domestic violence counseling and therapy for women who are being abused and for their children who witness the violence.

In addition to the Women’s Resource Center, the Bon Secours of Maryland Foundation also supports the community by building and managing safe affordable housing for families and seniors, offering in partnership with other community members banking and financial education services including mortgages and emergency loans, and providing GED study programs. Through the Bon Secours Family Support Center, families with young children learn parenting and child development skills, connect with the health and social services they need, improve their literacy, and receive family therapy.

“This community has been ignored for a long time,” adds Natasha. “There was an open air drug market, debris in the streets, a lot of crime. No one thought it was an important enough neighborhood to care. But the wonderful thing about the sisters is they see the good in all people and not only care, but take action. They meet people where they are, accompany them on their journey, and nurture them spiritually, physically, and psychologically to help them move to the next phase in their lives, to get to where they can be whole.”