For emergency shelter guests, First Light provides breakfast, dinner, laundry and shower facilities, and all linens needed for the evening. Overflow emergency shelter guests are provided with breakfast, dinner and all linens needed for the evening. A security officer monitors the emergency shelter and the overflow emergency shelter with assistance from volunteers who stay overnight. First Light offers a variety of life-skills programs for homeless women. These programs include art and music therapy; nutrition, health, and hygiene education; GED classes; group counseling for domestic violence victims; and bible studies for those who wish to participate.

First Light’s Emergency Overflow Shelter Program began in July 2003. Previously open only on bad weather nights, the overflow emergency shelter is the only shelter in Birmingham that is open 24 hours per day for women and women with children who cannot access other shelters after normal business hours or who do not qualify because of mental illnesses and/or active substance abuse.

First Light’s Permanent Supportive Housing Program consists of 8 individual rooms in a community setting for homeless women who suffer from serious mental illnesses and who are unable to live independently. All residents are evaluated and treated by JBS Mental Health Authority. First Light organizes weekly activities for the women such as cooking together, microwave cooking classes, movie night, grocery shopping, birthday parties, holiday parties, field trips, art therapy, movie therapy, massage therapy, music therapy, self-esteem-building makeover days and other life skills programs. A master’s level social worker and a licensed case manager work closely with permanent residents.

First Light’s Permanent Supportive Housing Program has proven to be a great success. Designed to accommodate chronically homeless and seriously mentally ill women who lived in the basement shelter of First Presbyterian Church and on the streets of Birmingham for many years, this program provides a home where residents can spend the rest of their lives in a warm and safe environment that allows them to flourish. The experience of helping the women become stable and more self-sufficient has been above and beyond what was ever imagined. The program continues to exceed its goals, including increasing the number of women who see a psychiatrist and are compliant with medications, increasing participation in programs, increasing levels of self-sufficiency and increasing income through entitlement programs.

The purpose of Project Healthy Minds is to help the women who are guests of First Light’s emergency shelter program to address the root causes that brought them to homelessness, while teaching skills to help them overcome the inevitable challenges of the future. Approximately 90% of the women served at First Light report having been abused at some point in their lives. All of the guests of First Light are in the shelter because they have lost something. Some may have lost their jobs, their children, marriages and their homes. Many have lost their dignity, self-respect, motivation, hope and even at times their desire to live. Project Healthy Minds provides women who are homeless with the foundation-building tools to help them reach their highest level of self-sufficiency and a better quality of life.

Through Project Healthy Minds, First Light emergency shelter guests are provided with the opportunity to meet with a licensed master’s level social worker for individual therapy and group therapy while receiving transportation assistance to doctor’s appointments and assistance with purchasing medication regarding their mental and physical health. Additionally, the master’s level social worker performs a formal mental health assessment on every guest of the emergency shelter, which helps First Light to make proper referrals for women who need and do not have a mental health care provider. The master’s level social worker also helps guests manage their medication by supervising weekly med box fills, which has proven to be a significant foundation to the stability of the mental and physical health of First Light guests.

First Light provides an average of 1,076 hours of individual therapy and 538 hours of group therapy per year. Guests and residents may receive individual therapy once per week for one hour per session, and group therapy is offered two times every week. The group therapy sessions that are offered at First Light include movie therapy and a series of life skills groups. Through a partnership with the YWCA, a domestic violence support group is offered once per month. In movie therapy, the counselor uses a film to begin conversations about particular mental health and relationship issues. For example, after watching “A Beautiful Mind”, the guests and residents were led in a discussion about schizophrenia and its effects on the individual and their family. Studies show that movie therapy can change the way one thinks, feels and ultimately deals with life’s ups and downs. The four, 3-week life skills series include Losing and Living, Communication, Boundaries, and Budgeting. The master’s level social worker addresses stress management, relaxation therapy skills, verbal and non-verbal communication, and ways to move past the loss that so many of First Light’s gu lives.

The homeless women of our community are in various stages of putting their lives back together. Whenever there is illness, brokenness and pain, there is a diminishment of soul. Making art can be a pathway of healing and a source of comfort, enhancing life and well-being. Art can also be an opportunity to rebuild social skills, a way to reconnect to the world. Since creation is an interactive process, the purpose of Creative Adventures! is to:

• Provide a positive setting where participants can take joy in using one's creative gifts. Fellowship and dialogue are encouraged, thereby enhancing social skills. A lively, playful atmosphere prevails. We talk, create, paint, sing, experiment, glue, adorn, write, and reflect on collaborative projects.
• Engage in art in all its forms, using a mixture of materials, and participate in a variety of experiences, including day trips that are enriching and educational.
• Enhance self-esteem, leading to personal fulfillment. Art energizes, enlivens, gives pleasure, heightens awareness, and lifts depression.
• Provide emotional release -- art can help alleviate stress and anxiety, sometimes allowing one to find inner peace and calm.
• Engage people in the creative process regardless of their functional ability. Art is possible for everyone and all expression is acceptable -- there are no failures in art.
• Practice The Golden Rule, respecting and helping one another, as well as sharing supplies and cleaning up after project completion.
• Learn to think visually and express what words cannot, communicating personal stories and experiences through images.
• The First Light Art Gallery, made possible by The Junior League of Birmingham, allows guests to display art they have created, promoting positive feelings of self-worth.

"Rhythms of the Soul" is one of the day programs offered to the guests of First Light. The goal of this program is to create a vehicle of self-expression through music to develop self-awareness and community, encouraging our guests to shape realistic healthy goals and build positive attitudes. A brief history of music and its power in time of trouble is covered, including the origin of music styles such as rap.

The impact of creative music brings out character and emotional and self-esteem development. The music allows our guests to gain hope, draw upon pleasant memories, verbalize problems or fears and concentrate on the positive things in life.

Through a partnership with the YWCA of Birmingham, First Light offers monthly domestic violence support groups.