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Ileana Font-Soloway
Community Outreach
Hispanic Advocacy

In addition to offering  much  needed  services to the low-income and at-risk residents of Westchester and Putnam counties, WestCOP engages in open dialogue with the community and other local social service organizations regarding social justice issues.  WestCOP shows its support  for important causes in various ways, whether it means publishing a response to an article in a local  paper,  signing petitions, attending and speaking at demonstrations, or extending our services to new people and places.

If you see WestCOP getting involed in issues that you feel passionately about, please contact us and find out how you can help! If you are living in Westchester or Putnam, are struggling with a social justice issue and desire WestCOP's support, please get in touch and let us know how we can help you!

Also, Westchester and Putnam have been experiencing the rapid growth of the Hispanic population and WestCOP intends to make its resources available and easily accessible to all Hispanic residents who could benefit from our services. In addition to the Proyecto Madres program, WestCOP's objective is to make many of its services bilingual, be able to provide classes in English as a Second Language, and promote the creative,  productive and potentially lucrative expression of the Latino/a experience in Westchester and Putnam counties.

PROYECTO MADRES

 In partnership with the Junior League of Westchester on the Sound, a national organization who's mission is "women helping women," WestCOP is presently attempting to organize a support group specifically for Hispanic women in Mamaroneck and Larchmont. Here, the members of the group will feel at ease sharing their experiences and concerns while receiving important information in their native language regarding the resources available in their area.

   With the Junior League's help, we can offer a filling and healthy breakfast to the Latina participants and their children, a babysitting service during the meeting so the mothers have an opportunity to relax and socialize, a small  participation gift, and an opportunity to have a lecture and question and answer session with a local social service provider.

   The group will be conducted in Spanish and the discussions kept confidential for the utmost comfort and ease of converstation and sharing. With new knowledge and understanding of the local services and resources available to them in their language, Latina mothers will have the confidence and means to become more self-sufficient and self-empowered.

WestCOP CONSIDERS THE EFFECTIVENESS OF WARMING CENTERS IN
WHITE PLAINS

The following is a brief summary of the events leading to the opening of a warming center in lieu of a homeless shelter in the city of White Plains taken from an article written by Tim Murphy published in the Journal News on September 9, 2007.

"70 to 80 homeless people in and around the city were upended when the county executive, Andrew J. Spano, ordered the closing of a 43-bed men's shelter that  had opened early last year in the basement of a county office building at 85 Court Street. Susan Tolchin, Mr. Spano's deputy, said the county was bowing to pressure from the city..."In addition, the county decreed that the men who had stayed there, and homeless men and women like them who remain outside the county's conventional shelter system, could no longer stay at the women's shelter or at two others in the city... "Ms. Tolchin said that when the weather gets cold the county plans to open "warming centers," where people could sit in a chair overnight..."