Restorers: A Water Street Podcast

Stabilization is the process of gradually helping someone who is in a state of high alert and panic, to come down and recognize they are in a safe place. 

This process is highly important to emergency shelters because experiencing homelessness can both aggravate and create mental health issues. 

In this episode, we take a preliminary look at how to address this complicated issue. Through a conversation with Rebecca Dempsey, a Licensed Mental Health Professional and Psychotherapist with Wellspan Philhaven, we discuss how fight or flight mode impacts our guests. Then, we sit down with Tjwana Reed, Director of Access & Case Management at Water Street Mission, to examine what stabilization looks like in the first 7 days at Water Street.

Connection and relationships often play a key part in both how people fall into homelessness, and in how to help them journey out of it. In today's episode, we'll be talking with Jenn Koppel,  Director of LancoMy Home,  as well as Dan Mesher, the Day Life Coach Supervisor at Water Street Mission, to discover why relationship-driven work is so important, and the role it plays in helping men and women overcome poverty and homelessness. 

When individuals and families come in off the street, there’s a world behind them and a world ahead.   We’ll hear from New York Relief’s Josiah Hakin and a Water Street Life Coach (and former guest) as they discuss the importance of this first interaction.  We dig into what we often see as people come through our doors and how our Access Center is built to meet the needs of that moment.