Counseling: We encourage individuals to discover and amplify their inherent strengths through therapy, support groups, and job and financial coaching.
Education: We are a learning community, which means that everyone is free to make — and learn from — mistakes without blame or shame. Learning does not proceed just one way: from expert to newcomer. It is an interactive, experiential process: supervisors learn from interns; employees learn from volunteers; interns learn from clients. New personalities and fresh ideas ensure mutual growth and keep the work relevant and rewarding.
Advocacy: We work to enhance a person’s desire for growth, to distinguish individual problems from systemic problems, and to carry out individual and social change.
The underlying principle, which informs all others, is self-determination. Self-determination theory asserts that human beings are naturally striving, curious, spontaneous, and vital. We are inclined to 1) seek challenges, 2) gravitate toward choice, and 3) adopt behaviors that are prompted, modeled, or valued by others.
In addition to self-determination, Women’s Center associates also: