Women seeking a safe haven can now feel at home in a newly renovated center.
Action in Community Through Service (ACTS) hosted an open house for its Women’s Empowerment Center on Tuesday.
The center offers shelter to women who are homeless and provide them with the resources they need to become self-sufficient.
“We’re taking women who may have been homeless, who suffered abuse, who are — they’ve been struggling, something has happened to them in their lives, and they need to recover and become whole again,” ACTS CEO Steve Liga said. “The Women’s Empowerment Center does just that.”
The center’s basement was recently finished, making the building feel more homey to its residents.
“What was just a plain basement is now set up as classrooms and offices and everything that we need to provide wonderful services to the women who live here at the house,” Liga said.
Prior to the renovation, staff members used living spaces for meetings and other activities.
“We now have a place so that when people are in the home, it’s really home. The living room, the kitchen, the bedrooms — that’s their space. And then the services are provided down in the basement,” Liga said. “Before, you had a counselor, a case manager having lunch at your dinner table. Or a group was being conducted in the living room. That’s changed.”
HomeAid of Northern Virginia performed the work, which “retailed” at about $82,000.
According to HomeAid Board President Mike Sandkuhler, 98 percent of the funds were donated by 18 trade partners.
“We’re all excited to be here and humbled and … just thankful for their generosity to help this thing get across the finish line,” Sandkuhler said.
Here are the trade partners who helped with the renovation project:
- Alliance Contracting Group LLC
- Atlas Plumbing LLC
- B&K Distributors, Inc.
- Buhl Electric Company, Inc.
- Builders Floor Service
- Color World Paint & Drywall
- Falcon Heating & Air Conditioning
- KT Enterprises
- KTGY
- Miller & Associates
- N&B Paving
- Railing Systems
- Scot Engineering
- Sight and Sound Systems, Inc.
- Stonewall Concrete
- TruTeam
- Van Metre B.A.S.E
- VCI
