How Kansas City’s Sheffield Place structures support to empower homeless mothers and children

Courtesy Sheffield Place

Since 1991, Sheffield Place has been on a mission to reduce the number of women living on the street, break generational cycles, and heal the Kansas City community one case at a time.

Located just outside of downtown and surrounded by craftsman houses, an orchard, and other greenery, Sheffield Place offers a holistic approach for mothers seeking support.

“Our niche in social services is that we serve women with very high barriers to success, women who have backgrounds of trauma, addiction, mental health, or domestic violence,” David Hanzlick, the Director of Program and Development at Sheffield Place, says. “About half of these women don’t have a high school diploma or a GED. A third of the women have felony convictions, so if you stack each of those barriers, one on top of the other, it makes it hard to climb.” 

Many of the women who stay at Sheffield Place have lived most of their lives in foster care. A main goal of the facility is to help them develop self-sufficiency, which is done through a highly structured program. In the program’s Level One, according to Hanzlick, each mom has a weekly hour of individual therapy, an hour of case management, substance use disorder counseling, and 23 hours of group work. Classes also include parenting, financial literacy, digital literacy, goal setting, recovery, and processing, which is a therapy group. 

Once the women pass Level One, they can move to one of the other, less structured facilities near the main building. These are primarily for women who have transitioned back into the community as part of Sheffield Place’s aftercare program. They can come back for workforce development, job skills, recovery, critical thinking, and peer group budgeting.

Courtesy Sheffield Place

Adding to the holistic program design, every staff member is directly involved with the clients, including their children. For example, Hanzlick runs a group every Friday morning, focused on helping clients find a job. 

“We have this somewhat unusual setup for a social service agency, and everyone, regardless of your title, has some client responsibility,” Hanzlick says. “For most agencies, the Development Director wouldn’t be doing a group, but we like to blend the administration and the program because it gives us much more insight into what the women are doing and how they’re doing. Plus, it’s just great to know the people your efforts are benefiting.” 

Families staying in the facility are given plenty of privacy. Each unit can hold a family with up to seven children and includes its own bathroom. There are shared kitchens, where every mother gets her own food to prepare. Sheffield Place also owns its laundry machines, which costs residents a dollar per washing and drying cycle. This intentionally reinforces budgeting skills.

Courtesy Sheffield Place

A large part of Sheffield Place’s mission focuses on children, too, who make up about half of its client base. They learn days of the week and months of the year in the children’s program, and plant fruits and vegetables in the garden. Uniquely, Sheffield Place takes children up to 18 years of age, and has been doing this since 2015. 

In addition to gardening, Sheffield Place has other comprehensive efforts that benefit the younger children. Volunteers, for example, bring dogs for the kids to spend time with.

“Little Micah comes in, and he goes to the children’s program, and they pet him for an hour. It’s so affirming that the kids can just experience unconditional love from that dog, and they also learn how to treat animals respectfully,” Hanzlick says.

Clinical Director and Licensed Clinical Therapist Shelby Hansard works closely with the children who come through Sheffield, and she speaks on a success story about one of her clients.

“We had a teen boy who came in a few years ago; his mother had a lot of very significant challenges,” Hansard explains. “Her son was exceptionally bright and driven, and he wanted to succeed. With a lot of coaching from staff here, he was able to get into the Boys Hope program. This really opened up doors for him that, being the teen boy of a mom who is currently homeless, he wasn’t going to necessarily get to experience.”

For the staff at Sheffield Place, working with these clients is not just a job. It is their passion, something to which they have a very personal tie. Substance Abuse Counselor Tina Baker has been clean for 25 years, and she uses her experience to inspire and help others suffering from addiction in the aftercare program. 

“When they come in, we work on coping skills because a lot of the time, when they first come in, they’re still under the influence of alcohol or drugs for a while. Once we get them past that first month, then we start working on routines, going to meetings, and that kind of thing,” Baker explains.

Not only does Baker meet with clients in person, but she is also available by call, text, or email—24 hours a day, seven days a week. To her, helping these women is the most rewarding thing in the world. 

“I love seeing their first 30 days off drugs, because you can just see the shine and clarity,” Baker says. “For some women, it’s the only way they know, so it’s getting them to know there’s a better way and a different life. I come from a family of drug addicts and alcoholics, but you can change. I love it. I still love my job every single day.” 

Sheffield Place has been helping one client with getting her children out of the state’s custody while bonding with her daughter, who currently stays with her at the facility. She works as the Resident Monitor, a volunteer position with a lot of responsibility, including meeting new moms and checking that everyone is in their rooms before curfew. 

When asked what she wanted to get out of her experience at Sheffield Place, this client says, “I’m hoping to move on from here and get adequate housing, and they have a lot of resources to help with that. All the workers here are very caring and very friendly, and they interact with you and your child. It’s an amazing experience, if you’re ready for it.” 

If you wish to support Sheffield Place’s work, you can donate here. They also have an immediate needs list that is regularly updated on their website.