Of the many faces at Catherine Place, each has a story. These faces aren’t alike or identical in feature and cover many phases and stages of womanhood. Yet, with all the differences, one may wonder what brings them here and what keeps them coming back? One perspective is found between the lines of Catherine Place’s mission, which states:
Catherine Place seeks to improve the quality of life for women. By creating a gentle and sacred space, we encourage each woman to claim her dignity and worth, we welcome and honor her, and we provide opportunities for learning and spiritual growth.”
We each have a Catherine Place story. A message received from the vision and values that implements the “highly relational methods that are central to women’s learning, healing and growth.” These tales of trauma to triumph, sadness to success, and hopeless to hopeful are the byproducts of the experience that Catherine Place offers.
The impact of Catherine Place can be felt as soon as you step through the front door. A “gentle and sacred” space is created through the “loving compassion” that is mentioned in the vision following the mission. Most often, it’s boisterously quiet, even serene. The perfume of tea permeates throughout the house. Then bursts a joyful, spirited woman from the kitchen and makes an appeal to your other senses giving an immense show of the values that Catherine Place was built upon.
Whether you are coming for ongoing individual support, advocacy, information, education, resources, groups, circles, mentoring, coaching, volunteering, healing arts, and/or holistic approaches to health, every need is met with compassion, respect, safety, and freedom.
Even as time passes and things evolve, Catherine Place has remained a place where “women empower women.” Through “listening, learning and sharing, dreaming with one another, honoring diversity and all cultures, and building healthy relationships in families, neighborhoods, and communities,” Catherine Place can, will, and does change lives.
Point in case, my experience, participating at Catherine Place through the Inscape Poetry Group facilitated by Kay Mullen. I have been coming to Catherine Place since 2008. I was 21 years old at the time. The group remained my stability through off and on battles with life circumstances. As a result, I grew up in the dining room. Recently, I was offered an opportunity to give back to Catherine Place, to reciprocate the “loving compassion” that Catherine Place has shown me, as a volunteer for this newsletter.
This is my first article.
–Jessica Bloodsaw