Women’s Empowerment Executive Director Lisa Culp meets with a program graduate at her home in the nonprofit’s Trellis Gardens transitional workforce housing program. Women’s Empowerment has received a grant from the Yocha Dehe Community Fund to help fund the program. Photo courtesy of Kristin Thebaud Communications

SACRAMENTO, CA (MPG) - Women’s Empowerment has received a grant of $50,000 from the Yocha Dehe Community Fund to provide transitional workforce housing for Sacramento women experiencing homelessness with their families. 

“We are so grateful for the generosity of the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation and their commitment to ensuring women who are working and have children also have safe, affordable housing as they work to increase their salaries and afford market-rate rent during Sacramento’s housing crisis,” said Lisa Culp, executive director, Women’s Empowerment.

Women’s Empowerment created its Trellis Gardens transitional workforce housing community at an existing development in Sacramento this past year, subleasing 16 cottages to graduates of the program who have families and have secured employment but cannot afford market-rate housing. The gated community is just one mile from four schools, two parks and a grocery store, and close to public transportation. Children in the cottages receive developmental assessments, and local financial institutions provide financial education for residents so they can prepare to move into permanent housing when they are finished at Trellis Gardens.

“Taking care of others and helping them thrive is how we honor our values as a native community,” said Mia Durham, Yocha Dehe tribal secretary and community fund chair. “Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation truly understands the struggle and stigma of being unhoused, and the detrimental impact it can have on women and children. We are grateful for the opportunity to partner with Women’s Empowerment to support this critical effort to provide local women and children with a safe place to live.”

Women’s Empowerment provides a two-month employment-readiness and empowerment program, paid job training, childcare and support services so women and their children can break the generational cycle of homelessness. Women’s Empowerment offers the most comprehensive job-readiness program in the Sacramento area designed specifically for women experiencing homelessness and their children. In 2023, 165 jobs were secured by graduates, and 189 women either secured or maintained housing. Since 2001, 1,903 women have graduated from the program with more than 4,000 children. Women’s Empowerment is funded through private donations from the community and grants. To make a donation: Womens-Empowerment.org.

The Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation is committed to building strong communities and helping those in need, establishing the Community Fund to advance this mission. The Community Fund has established partnerships with more than 400 organizations throughout Yolo County, the state and nation, and granted nearly $40 million in philanthropic aid to support programs and initiatives dedicated to assisting people in need. The Community Fund prioritizes grants that help people help themselves in critical areas: education, Native arts and culture, environmental protection, Native rights and tribal sovereignty, and health and wellness. For more information: visit www.yochadehe.gov/giving/community-fund.