When Alex first found The Women’s Room, it wasn’t through a referral or a personal connection; it was a Google search. She was an occupational therapy graduate student looking for a site for her capstone project, drawn by a clear intention: she wanted to work directly with women, in a community setting, and with a population she hadn’t yet encountered in her formal training.
Throughout OT school, Alex had gained experience across a wide range of fields and age groups. What she hadn’t experienced was a community-based environment like a day shelter that serves women navigating homelessness. She felt strongly that this setting would not only round out her education, but also offer the kind of meaningful, human-centered work that had drawn her to occupational therapy in the first place.
At The Women’s Room, Alex quickly discovered that learning extended far beyond textbooks and treatment plans. She developed skills in conflict resolution and communication, working closely with both guests and staff. She deepened her understanding of trauma-informed care, learning what it truly means to meet people where they are, to center dignity and respect in every interaction, and to ensure that support is shaped by the individual, not assumptions.
Perhaps most powerfully, Alex came to understand the role of community in healing and self-worth. She witnessed how connection fostered a positive sense of self for guests at The Women’s Room, and how that same sense of belonging sustained the staff and volunteers who show up each day.
Occupational therapy, at its core, is about helping people engage in meaningful activities, the routines and roles that fill a person’s day and give life structure and purpose. In community settings like The Women’s Room, those activities can include social participation, job readiness, employment skills, schooling, and time management. While Alex didn’t implement direct OT services during her capstone, she used her training to identify where occupational therapy could make a powerful difference.
That insight became the foundation of her capstone project: “Bridging Gaps,” a framework designed to help The Women’s Room and other organizations serving people experiencing homelessness, identify needs, secure funding, find resources, and implement occupation-based services with certified occupational therapy professionals. She hopes that this framework can also serve as an entry point for other OT programs, helping future practitioners better serve women experiencing homelessness, an often overlooked and underserved population.
Alex’s time at Friends In Deed left a lasting impression. Working alongside guests gave her a renewed sense of purpose and clarity about the impact occupational therapy can have beyond traditional clinical settings. She sees tremendous potential for OTs to support women through highly specialized services like resume building, mock interviews, time management, and organizational skills, services that can be transformative, but are often out of reach due to limited funding.
Alex’s experience was so meaningful that she hopes to return as a volunteer. Her story is a reminder that sometimes, a simple search can lead to something much bigger: new perspectives, lasting relationships, and innovative ideas that help strengthen the community as a whole.