Frances Warde House
In Her Presence (IHP) manages Frances Warde House, currently a home for pregnant immigrant women who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. IHP employees provide critical multicultural social-emotional support for residents and connect them to essential services and manage all daily operations of the facility. This transitional house shelters up to 15 adults, 15 infants and 10 children.
On-site services include language acquisition and technology classes, leadership training, workforce development opportunities, access to food and clothing, cultural integration programming, transportation to medical appointments, and much more. Each resident has supported access to medical care. Patient navigation is often provided by Northern Light Mercy Hospital’s community health worker.
Walking the building halls, you will see children enjoying the play area, babies eating in highchairs in the dining room, adults attending classes in the common spaces, and staff cooking meals for the whole house in the community kitchen. This lively, hopeful reality was made possible by deep partnerships across multiple organizations that allowed for the property to be put into service at a very accelerated rate.
To address an urgent need for housing homeless pregnant women, the Governor’s Office of Policy Innovation and the Future and Maine Housing provided funding for the building and grounds, and the John T. Gorman Foundation provided funding for services. Community Housing of Maine (CHOM), Mercy Hospital, and IHP worked closely together to launch this initiative as quickly as possible. IHP began screening and moving tenants into the building in June 2023.
Residents come from many different parts of the world and via many means. With 6 countries of origin and 6 different preferred languages represented, cultural diversity in the home is simultaneously rich and challenging. The families are learning about each other and about U.S. customs and systems at the same time. IHP staff and volunteers have prioritized establishing a positive, cooperative atmosphere as not only the foundation for health and well-being but as the essential platform for learning. The women have come to the home directly from stressful, often traumatic, circumstances. Most arrived with few possessions–only the clothes on their back.
For any questions about the Frances Warde Program, please email contact@inherpresence.org.
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