Park Slope Armory Women's Shelter
Park Slope Women’s Shelter
The Armory on 8th Ave, between 14th and 15th Street
Director: Shawn Young
Church Contacts: Judy Hilkey – and Christy Hayner -
Since the 1980’s, CAMBA, a non-profit organization based in Flatbush, has operated a women’s shelter at the Park Slope Armory. With a 70-bed capacity, the shelter provides temporary housing, meals, and comprehensive services in order to assist women towards permanent and/or supported housing. We have had the privilege of getting to know several of these women. Many of them struggle with various types of illnesses and addictions, each one facing unique challenges. They are a lively, intelligent, and incredibly interesting group of women. We look forward to getting to know them better and helping them and the shelter staff in any way that we can.
The shelter staff has expressed great interest in creating more opportunities for community involvement with the women they serve. They believe that positive interaction with the surrounding community will greatly benefit the women and serve to de-stigmatize the shelter within the neighborhood.
Our church began volunteer work at the shelter in the spring of 2007, working with local merchants to coordinate Easter gifts for all 70 residents, planting in the gardens, and helping staff with events such as their annual Tree Lighting Ceremony. This summer, our church returned to the garden, where many of the women enjoy sitting during the nice weather, to plant more flowers and build a permanent patio for them to use in the north garden. In the first year, over 50 volunteers from the church, neighborhood, staff and residents have worked together to make this garden a reality. Through periodic big work days along with regular weekly maintenance efforts we have improved and expanded flower beds, added over 700 plants and laid over 300 brick paving stones. Furthermore, the shelter residents have created their own volunteer garden committee which meets twice a week. These dedicated and enthusiastic women do a beautiful job nurturing and maintaining the garden as well as joining in on big work days. All of our volunteers deserve a big THANKS!
We will have a team every first Sunday of the month at the Armory working on gardening and other projects, 1:30-4:30PM.
Volunteer Opportunity 1: Anyone interested in gardening or outdoor work can help with continual improvement and maintenance of the gardens. This can even be done on your own time!
Gardening projects provide opportunities to work in one or more of the following areas:
- Design and landscaping including selection/purchase/transport/placement of shrubs, trees, bulbs, flowering plants and other elements.
- Heavy work such as transporting mulch, soil, stones and other materials; soil improvement; structural additions and improvements such as patio and walk ways; new flower beds and borders; planting of trees, shrubs, bulbs and flowering plants.
- Ongoing maintenance such as weeding, watering, fertilizing and dead heading, raking and cleaning.
Volunteer Opportunity 2: The director of the women's shelter has specifically asked for help in teaching and tutoring women in basic computer, word processing, letter-writing, interview skills, and business communication skills. The director is very flexible about scheduling volunteers. Expert skill level not required.
The shelter is also open to people offering “classes” or short seminars on various topics incorporating different activities, such as art, knitting, sewing, etc. We thought that since we’ve been planting so many flowers, it would be great to have someone lead a flower-arranging lesson. However, if you have any skill that could be taught to a small group of women in a fairly short amount of time, they would love it. Some more potential examples are pillow-making, exercise, book-making, etc.
Volunteer Opportunity 3: Other activities, including Bible Study, are possibilities. If you have any interest in leading some sort of Bible Study, or any ideas for the shelter please contact Judy or Christy. Men are welcome!
Volunteer Opportunity 4: Fund raising for gardening supplies, equipment, and other service materials. Correspondence and thank you letters for donors and supporters.
Volunteer Opportunity 5: Coordination, scheduling and event planning. Communication with staff and residents at CAMBA and volunteers.
We are still learning how to best serve this shelter, so please offer your ideas. We believe God is at work in the lives of these women and the staff of the shelter. Please pray for them whenever you think of it, that God would change their lives, that His Name would be glorified through our work here.
None of this would be possible without tools, supplies, and plants. For this we gratefully acknowledge those individuals and institutions who have provided funds and material assistance for the Park Slope Women’s Shelter Gardening Project: CAMBA; Borough of Brooklyn President, Marty Markowitz; David Shannon Florist; Lowes, Green Thumb of the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation; New York Assembly Member, James Brennan; New York State Senator Eric Adams; Park Slope Presbyterian Church.
