Today we’d like to introduce you to Alexis Geller.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
Lotus House opened in 2006 in Overtown to shelter women experiencing homelessness by addressing their special needs and those of their children. After a decade of growth and still not being able to serve all those in need in our neighborhood, we put our research and resources together to build one of the largest shelters in the country exclusively serving women, youth, and children. Lotus Village opened its doors on December 31, 2017.
Designed as a prototype for the future, this comprehensive mixed-use “village” combines state of the art shelter facilities and holistic, trauma-informed, supportive services for mothers and their children experiencing homelessness. In addition to doubling the capacity to 500+ daily, Lotus Village contains a state-of-the-art-health clinic, children’s wellness center, gathering pavilion with a kid’s corner, outdoor gardens and play areas, an art & activities lab, computer library, healing hands salon, yoga/exercise/meditation room, specialized services within residential programs, working classroom kitchen, and intake sanctuary. We put children first, encourage learning through play, and provide healing therapies, resource coordination, skill building, childcare, and above all – dignity.
Has it been a smooth road?
Everyone is very close being homeless themselves if you think about it. You can’t leave the hospital without having a place for your baby to come. You can’t apply for a job if you don’t have an address or a phone. At Lotus House, we wondered how we were going to find the resources to solve this challenge and how do we take this process and really make it uplifting and respectful and empowering? Imagine for the first time in your life, you have someone cares about you and doesn’t care about what happened in the past. You have the opportunity to begin again, and this is what Lotus House is all about.
A lot of people look down on homeless people. What we’re trying to do is to change the perception of homelessness. The conversation should not be how little can we spend on our children who are homeless, but instead how can we wrap our children and families with services and provide the kind of support that is so needed and deserved. We want to show that they can have a chance at life and can build a brighter, safer future for themselves and their little ones. That’s what Lotus Village is all about.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Lotus House story. Tell us more about the business.
Lotus House specializes in serving women and children with high special needs. The common thread among those we serve is a history of trauma and the need to heal. More than 95% of the women at Lotus House have experienced trauma, often beginning in childhood, and more than 60% of the children do as well, even in their young lives. We know that violence is the leading cause of homelessness for women. Here at Lotus House we focus a lot on addressing the root causes of homelessness that lead someone to our shelter, with practices of intensive counseling, parent-child therapies that rebuild the bonds of attachment and help break the cycle of homelessness that is intergenerational, group therapy, employment and life skills training, education, and alternative pathways to healing such as yoga, acupuncture, meditation, art classes, and more. We know that intensive supports — and lots of love for every person who comes through our doors — truly makes a difference. More than 90% of those who leave our program exit outside of the shelter system. It is truly life changing.
Lotus House at Lotus Village is a brand new 100,000+ square-foot, five-story residential facility built to be a national model in helping to end and prevent homelessness, especially in urban neighborhoods wrought with poverty. With Lotus Village, we have doubled our capacity to shelter women and children nightly (500 now), and have added a therapeutic children’s wellness center and a neighborhood health clinic. Lotus Village is the first of its kind, helping to set a new standard nationally with service driven research and evidence-based, best practices that put children first. We now have 155+ children will someday call Lotus House their first home.
Lotus Village includes an in-take sanctuary, computer library that offers adult education and after-school programming in collaboration with Miami-Dade County Public Schools, yoga and meditation room, a working classroom kitchen, healing hands salon, family-friendly community rooms on every residential level, an enriched children’s playroom, and soothing gardens for healing and reflection. Enriched educational programming, supportive family services, and child-friendly spaces throughout the Village, along with pint-size furnishings, all support healing, growth, and learning on every level.
Jessie Trice Community Health Systems, Inc. will operate the health clinic at Lotus Village, serving both the shelter and surrounding Overtown neighborhood and providing women’s and pediatric health, eye and dental care, along with a special men’s health initiative.
So much more than shelter, Lotus Village promises to be a template for the future, a center for research, innovation, best practices, shared learning, community dialogue, and the development of enlightened public and social policies to advance the status of women and children to prevent and end homelessness. Women and children come into Lotus House as guests, they and leave as alumni. We care deeply about our alumni, many of whom make up our dedicated and passionate team of employees. They also run the Lotus House Thrift Chic Boutique, and the Lotus Wellness Center. Lotus Village itself has provided for more employment through its expanded capacity. The healing hands salon and the working classroom kitchen build valuable job skills for employment.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
Unfortunately, Miami-Dade County has more than 4,000 children and youth living in shelters, on the street, in hotels, or on friends’ couches. They don’t have basic needs that we all take for granted, and they live in the shadows of our community, silently suffering from poverty, abuse, or mental illness.
Here at Lotus House, we will maintain our principles and continue our focus on three Cs – community, collaboration, and putting children first. If you look around the lobby at Lotus Village, you will see a whole village of support – from our Founders who care deeply about Miami, to our partners in service without whom we could not begin to provide the services and resources needed to end and prevent homelessness for women and their children, to the Dream Team that helped build Lotus Village, and to the thousands of residents in Miami and beyond who have poured their heart and soul into their volunteer and/or charitable acts of kindness and love for these women and their children. Everyday we welcome new supporters who want to want to give back through their time, talent, and/or treasure. As deputy director of clinical programs, I see the difference this makes for. We are grateful for the support we receive from the Miami community and will continue to receive during the next 5-10 years.
Contact Info:
- Address: 217 NW 15th Street, Miami, FL
- Website: www.lotushouse.org
- Phone: 305-438-0556
- Email: info@lotushouse.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lotushouse1/
- Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/LotusHouseShelter/
- Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/lotushouse1/
Image Credit:
Lotus House at Lotus Village
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