Nervous to take the step into the professional world with an internship required to complete my English degree at Mount Mercy University, I came to the Catherine McAuley Center hoping to be able to use my passion of helping others through writing. Through my internship in the Development and Communications Department at CMC, I have been able to expand my passion for writing in a professional setting. I have also seen firsthand the impact the Center’s programs have on adult learners and women who are overcoming past trauma.
Having a loved one who has participated in other supportive living programs throughout the State of Iowa, the Transitional Housing Program caught my attention right away. The Transitional Housing Program offers a chance of a brighter future for women overcoming trauma, homelessness, and in some cases, substance abuse. The Center provides the women with a safe place to live while they take the necessary steps to overcome their 
personal obstacles, and offers classes for women to take to help build their life skills and to recover from trauma. While meeting with the Housing staff, I learned about a resident writing group that is offered to help the women with their writing skills and aid the recovery process. My own belief in the power of words to transform lives drove me to participate in the group.
In my first visit to the writing group, I was fortunate enough to witness how the power of words can move women to greatness. To start off the class, we were told to write instructions of how we wake up and get ready for our days. While we began to write our answers, one of the women began talking to me, and in response, another woman whispered with a light in her eyes, “SHH!! This is my favorite time of the week.” The passion in the swift flick of her wrist forming words moved us to silence, and we too began to write.
A few minutes later, the women were asked if they wanted to share what they wrote. After one woman shared, the one who hushed us began to read her passage. Powerfully, she told us how she wakes up every morning, and how she has to overcome her personal obstacles every time her alarm goes off. She told us of her strength and power as a woman with the eloquence of Maya Angelou.
Through the power of her words, she shared that despite her struggle of waking up with the knowledge of her past overwhelming her—she still thanks God for giving her another day to live, and she counts each day as a blessing. She gave me the strength to wake up every morning believing that life is worth living. Not only did writing help her in her daily struggle, it gave her the time and the tools to inspire others in the room to do the same.
Words are powerful. The writing group is giving these women the stepping stone to strengthen themselves through the empowerment of writing. Just like Maya Angelou wrote, “Up from the past that’s rooted in pain / I rise.” In just one hour per week, these women are rising up and defeating their limitations through the power of writing.
By Abby Herb, Development and Communications Intern
Women’s history (or HERstory) is an important topic here at the Catherine McAuley Center. An extraordinary group of women, the Sisters of Mercy, founded our organization in response to community need. They were inspired by Catherine McAuley, who created a place of refuge in 19th century Ireland where women could be treated with dignity and gain meaningful employment skills. How appropriate, then, that following International Women’s Day on March 8 and during Women’s History Month the ladies of our Transitional Housing program were featured on a 
Guest post by Kelsey Kuester of Mount Mercy University Enactus
At the memorial sites, friends of Raymond and Sharon spoke of the qualities they most admired in the victims, “They always put a smile on your face.” Many CMC residents, not far removed from homelessness themselves, explained to the group, “It could have been me.”
Mount Mercy Enactus, a local chapter of a worldwide student entrepreneurship club, has renewed and expanded their partnership with the Transtional Housing Program (THP) at the Catherine McAuley Center (CMC) through a series of workshops on employment skills for residents . Enactus has been building relationships over the course of several years with the women of THP, who come to CMC in need of a stable environment in which they can overcome the barriers like mental health and substance abuse that led to their homelessness. This year these career-readiness initiatives have been funded by a grant from Wal-Mart.
Housing staff explained that because every person learns differently, these creative activities allow the women to use many techniques to explore their inner-selves. These techniques include writing in a journal throughout their time on the retreat, listening to music and then describing how the lyrics apply to their own lives, spending quiet time in meditation and reflection on nature, creating a “stress box” that contains coping mechanisms for handling stress, and creating their own “inner-goddesses”, which are physical models representing the positive characteristics each resident sees in herself.
An agreed-upon highlight of the retreat occurred during an activity led by alumni who have graduated from the Transitional Housing Program and are now leading self-sufficient lives. Alumni asked each woman to write a poem about herself then read it aloud to the group. Though staff were present, it was the current and former residents who controlled the direction of the conversation and provided the overwhelming sense of openness and encouragement that resulted. This activity that is easily described as the most powerful experience of the retreat demonstrated the strength of current residents and the transformation that program alumni have experienced.