Nonprofit of the Year | Small: Women’s Medical Respite

Fourteen years ago, Carol Daniel and her team at Missouri State University set up a wellness clinic for unhoused people living in Springfield shelters. It would change the trajectory for hundreds of homeless women coming out of area hospitals. Their clinic found that people were being released from hospitals directly to shelters, even if they needed medical follow-up and a quiet place to recover, which shelters are not typically designed to be able to provide.

That experience gave rise to Women’s Medical Respite, a small nonprofit that provides a home-like setting for homeless women recovering from medical procedures or receiving cancer care. Boarders have access to beds of their own, nutritious meals, and support of various kinds, including assistance in locating housing. It started in 2015, in an apartment donated by The Kitchen Inc., but has since been able to purchase a three-bedroom house that can help up to six women at a time.

A little respite doesn’t sound like a big deal, but for the women who are resting under the watch of four full-time employees and almost 50 volunteers, it can literally change their lives.

“There’s an impact statement that was made years ago by one of the ladies who had left us,” says Carol Daniel, board treasurer. “She said, ‘Thank you for giving me time to find my determination.’”

The numbers also support the huge impact the nonprofit has made in such a short time. Nearly 90% of the residents who stay with Women’s Medical Respite don’t need to return to the hospital during that stay, and an estimated 31% are able to find more permanent housing due to the help they receive there. Along with being a safe place to recover, Women’s Medical Respite helps their guests with finding a primary care doctor, obtaining legal documents like birth certificates, and applying for public assistance including Medicaid and disability payments.

So far, over 375 women have been helped by the tiny nonprofit, whose operating budget is about $123,000 this year. All of that money comes from fundraisers, grants and donations. Neither the women who stay, nor the hospitals that discharge them to the care of the organization, pay anything for the service.

The Musgrave Fund has been a generous supporter of the organization, nonprofit officials say, but individuals have made donations that have had huge impacts, as well.