Greater Harrisburg's Community Magazine

Bethesda Mission celebrates completion of new women’s shelter, expanding services for Harrisburg’s unhoused

Bethesda Mission staff and board members, Harrisburg Mayor Wanda Williams, City Council President Danielle Bowers, and project contractors cut the ribbon on the new women’s mission.

A seven-year-long project has reached completion and will provide a new home to Harrisburg’s women in need.

On Thursday evening, Bethesda Mission celebrated the completion of its new women’s mission building, which houses women experiencing homelessness, addiction and abuse, among other struggles.

“I am so excited,” said Shelley Brooks, director of the women’s mission. “When someone comes into our shelter, they can find the love and support that they need.”

In June 2020, Bethesda began demolition of the previous women’s shelter, a pair of 120-year-old former school buildings that the organization had occupied for 37 years. The buildings increasingly faced maintenance issues and deteriorated over the years. On demolition day, Brooks ceremonially took a sledgehammer to one of the buildings. They had served the mission for years, but she was ready to see them go.

The staff and guests of the mission moved into the new building in November 2021, according to Scott Dunwoody, executive director of Bethesda Mission.

“Isn’t the new building beautiful?” Brooks asked visitors at the celebration for the new, 18,400-square-foot building.

Bethesda’s Women’s Mission

Throughout the night, staff and volunteers provided tours of the four-story building, a project that cost about $4.5 million. Bethesda Mission raised the funds through donations and grants, but is still about $50,000 short of its goal.

The first floor of the building serves as a living space for shorter-term residents who may stay from six months to a year. The second floor houses women in recovery from addiction who will stay for a longer term of one to two years. On the third floor, the mission runs a new young adults program for 18- to 24-year-olds in need of a place to stay. The basement level includes a kitchen, chapel, fitness room and playroom for children who live in the shelter with their mothers.

In total, the shelter has space for 51 women and children. Currently, only about 20 women live in the new shelter, as Bethesda only recently reopened the program to new guests.

A living room space inside Bethesda Women’s Mission

According to Dunwoody, the long-term commitment aspect of the shelter is Bethesda’s “distinctive difference.” It gives the staff time to help guests address the root of their problems, he explained. They do that through recovery, life skills, mental health and religious programming, among others.

“They need love, direction and support,” Brooks said.

Harrisburg Mayor Wanda Williams attended the celebration, reading a mayoral proclamation and helping staff and donors cut the ribbon on the new facility.

“I hate the idea that they [women] have to come, but I love the place they get to come to,” Brooks said.

For more information about Bethesda Mission’s Women’s Mission, visit their website.

 

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