1. What is your
mission (goals & objectives) at Oasis?
The Oasis mission
statement is to inspire success-filled living.
The Oasis offers a
comprehensive array of supportive services for Islanders to become over-comers
of life challenging barriers. Rather than promote short-term entitlements, we
promote life-long transformation.
2. What specific
services does Oasis provide?
The Oasis provides for
four main tiers, and within those we have a variety of supportive services.
1) Recovery – we offer
a multitude of substance abuse classes that range from AA meetings to Early
Recovery Skills. We also provide a group home for our residential recovery
group home and apartments for our Empowered Together program, which serves
homeless mother in recovery that have children in their care.
2) Victims of Sexual
Assault, Domestic Violence, Dating Violence, Stalking, and/or Human Trafficking
– we serve victims through supportive services (including art therapy, other
therapeutic classes, parenting, etc.) and housing in our transitional housing
program The Animu Project. We also have a Rape Prevention Program through
funding from Department of Public Health and funding to support our DV/SA
programs as a sub-grantee under the S*T*O*P* award from the Federal Programs
Office.
3) Workforce Development – We have The Dream
Project, funded under ANA Social and Economic Development Strategies that
provides a nine-month program for women in poverty to receive workforce
training, skills development, and microenterprise assistance through helping
with business plans and offering competitive start-up grants. The Dream Project
also includes a group home and transportation. We are also a vendor for DVR
where we offer job coaching and workforce training for individuals with
disabilities;
4) Other – The Hidden
Treasures Second-had Boutique that provides workforce training and revenue to
fund clients with jobs. We are also anticipating starting up a small plot of
gardens on-site in order to provide some basic vegetables and herbs for our
clients and provide a means of garden therapy.
3. Who is your target
audience?
Our target audience
includes the following: homeless women with disabilities, homeless women with
disabilities and their children, adult men and women needing outpatient and
intensive outpatient services, women and their children who are victims of
sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, stalking, and /or human
trafficking, individuals with disabilities, and women in poverty.
4. What are your hours
of operation and what is the best way for people to reach you that are
interested in assistance?
At our 556 E. Marine
Corps Dr. E. Hagatna location, we are open from 8 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Monday –Friday. Interested people may reach us at 646-4601.
5. In addition to
direct services, what resources does Oasis offer?
We offer the resources of leveraging and
referring to partner organizations.
We also offer the
opportunity for interested individuals to attend our church – Zion Fellowship
on Sundays and to receive prayer on Saturday evenings.
6. Thinking about current events, how do you foresee recent events in your field
of work affecting your organization and its work?
We are largely affected the federal cuts and slashes in SNAP
benefits, as are most of our clients personally affected. We do not have much
in the way of funding for food for our various programs and are awaiting the
funding award of the Emergency Food & Shelter Program Grant. Although, we
are writing food category budgets into future grants, we are still trying to
come up with solutions to our current shortfalls.
7. Can you discuss your community partnerships and how they contribute to the overall success of Oasis individually.
The Oasis has the following community partnerships: Guam
Homeless Coalition (Quorummember), Guam Behavioral Health & Wellness Center,
the Department Of Labor, Guam Small Business Development Center, Department of
Public Health and Social Services, Agency for Human Resources Development,
Division of Vocational Rehabilitation, Victim Advocates Reaching Out, Guam
Coalition Against Sexual Assault & Family Violence (member), Guam’s Social
Workers, Healing Hearts, Guma San Jose, Guma Mami, Guam Legal Services
Corporation, Prison Fellowship Guam, Guam Ministerial Alliance, Payuta,
Soroptimist International Marianas, Federal Programs Outreach, past and current
project beneficiaries, and a wide variety of private corporations and
independent business vendors.
All of our members contribute in various ways
pertaining to how our programs relate to their mission statement and how we can
work together in order to inspire success-filled living.
8. Can you touch on
the history of Oasis and how the organization is set up?
Incorporated as a 501(c)3 tax-exempt nonprofit organization in
2002, Elim Pacific Ministries has become a credible and well-established
organization on the island of Guam [refer to Certificate of Good
Standing*]. In 2004, Elim Pacific Ministries founded The Oasis
Empowerment Center (Oasis), a nonprofit, faith-based organization, which
provides a much needed recovery center for homeless Pacific Islander women with
life-controlling and life-limiting problems - including drug addictions and
disabilities.
9. Any upcoming plans
or projects that our island community should be aware of?
We are launching our
Dream Project classes on February 11, 2014 that will assist women with no-to-low income
in receiving housing in a shared group home (if needed), workforce training, microenterprise
development, with the ability to compete for a seed grant award. Applications
are available at our main facility at 556 E. Marine Corps Dr. E. Hagatna or can
be requested via email.
10. Why do you think
the work you do is important to our island community and the world at large?
Our work impacts our
island in dramatic ways. Since we focus predominately on women (and those with
children) we see that there is a huge gap in programs for women and women with
disabilities and those who are homeless. There exist some short-term programs
on island, but we are unique in our holistic programs that are long-term in
nature and focus on life changes rather than promoting short-term entitlements.
As many of our women have children, and many are single moms, they (and our
programs for children) in turn have a huge effect on children. Since our
children are the future, we see that we have an intergenerational impact on our
island. Furthermore, our programs are tailored to assist women in job creation
and development so our programs also have an effect on increasing needed
employment on Guam. This in turn, has an effect on the world as Guam can be a
transient place where Guamanians go to Asia, Australia-Pacific, and the
mainland for other job opportunities, education, and various other reasons.
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