About us
Our Story
There's a moment that changes everything.
For some women, it's the day they leave — a relationship, a city, a version of themselves that no longer fits. For others, it's the day they're released from something: a facility, a marriage, a job, an old identity they've outgrown. For some, it's the day someone finally says, “You're ready” — even when it doesn't feel that way yet.
That moment — when one chapter ends and the next hasn't quite arrived — is where The Welcome PDX shows up.
We were founded by a woman who knows that space intimately, from the inside — someone who has rebuilt her own life more than once, and who has spent years helping other women do the same. She started The Welcome PDX because she kept meeting women who had done everything right — left, survived, started over — and still found themselves alone in the hardest part: actually building whatever came next.
We believe women in that space don't just need someone to point them toward help. They need real tools, a real community, and a real hand in creating something entirely their own — a finished book, a small business, a skill they can call theirs, a plan with their name on it that no one can take away.
That's what The Welcome PDX exists to do. Through creative programs, entrepreneurial training, hands-on workshops, and a weekly community that holds it all together, we help women turn whatever they're building next into something real.
The Welcome PDX is the village we set out to build. We meet you in the in-between. We hand you real tools. And we celebrate every time a woman who once needed this village becomes strong enough to help build it for someone else.
Why we exist
We're what comes after the crisis ends.
The problem
Portland has strong crisis services — shelters, hotlines, emergency intervention for women in danger right now. Portland also has long-term systems — permanent housing programs, ongoing case management, support structures built to last for years. Both matter, and both are necessary.
But there's a long stretch of time in between that neither one is built for. It's the six months, the year, sometimes the two years after the crisis ends — when a woman is technically safe, but still piecing together an income, an identity, a sense of what her life actually looks like now. She's expected to have it together because the emergency is over, but she's often navigating all of it alone: without a job history that reflects who she's become, without much of a support network, and without anyone showing her that she's allowed to build something for herself, not just get by.
The gap
Entrepreneurship and creative programming built specifically for women rebuilding their lives — or just women in general — is nearly nonexistent here. Many workforce programs assume a traditional job is the only path forward. Most writing, publishing, and business-training spaces aren't built with a fresh start, isolation, or hard-won resilience in mind. Women in this in-between phase are largely left to figure out “what's next” entirely on their own.
What women in this phase need:
Community and peer support — not isolation
Practical, hands-on skills
A real outlet for the story they're carrying
A path to income and ownership, not just employment
Continued navigation and advocacy support along the way
Spaces that don't require them to relive hardship just to participate
The solution
The Welcome PDX exists to fill exactly that gap. We're not a crisis line, and we're not a case management program — we're what comes after, and what can make the difference between a woman who barely gets by and a woman who actually rebuilds. We provide real, hands-on training in creative and entrepreneurial skills, paired with the community and practical support that make it possible to actually use them. Instead of asking a woman to simply survive her next chapter, we help her build one worth having — with income, ownership, and a community behind her the entire way.
Mission
The Welcome PDX believes women rebuilding their lives deserve more than survival — they deserve the tools to build something new. We provide practical workshops, entrepreneurial and publishing programs, workforce readiness training, resource navigation, and weekly support groups for women navigating transition in the Portland area.
Vision
We envision a Portland where every woman rebuilding her life has the village she needs — not just to get by, but to build something entirely her own.
A community where practical skills, creative expression, and real sisterhood exist side by side. Where she has access to more than a referral list — she has the tools, the training, and the people to turn her next chapter into a story, a skill, or a business worth having.
We believe “starting over” shouldn't mean starting from nothing. It should mean starting something.
Values
Dignity
We honor the inherent worth of every woman who walks through our doors. You are the expert on your own life, and we treat you with the respect that deserves.
Community Over Isolation
Growth doesn't happen alone. We create spaces of belonging where women support one another through every stage of transition.
Ownership, Not Charity
We don't just give women things — we teach them to build things. A finished book, a working business, a handmade product line: what you create through The Welcome PDX belongs to you, not to us.
Practical Support
We don't just point you toward resources — we help you use them. Real skills, real tools, real follow-through.
Lived Experience as Expertise
The women who've navigated transition themselves carry wisdom that can't be taught in a classroom. We center their voices and their leadership.
Creativity as a Path Forward
Every woman carries a story worth telling and a skill worth sharing. We believe creative work — writing, making, building — is not a luxury on the way to stability. It's part of how stability gets built.
Empowerment, Not Rescue
We support your agency and self-determination. You make the decisions about your life and your business; we walk alongside you and hand you the tools.
Trauma-Informed, Not Trauma-Defined
We understand how transition and hardship can shape a person, and we hold that with care. But we don't ask you to relive it to belong here. You are more than what brought you to us.
Cultural Humility
We acknowledge power dynamics, commit to ongoing learning, and honor the full range of experiences among the women we serve.
Sustainability
We're building an organization — and revenue-generating programs — that will be here for the long haul, because this work doesn't end, and neither should we.
Funders & partners
Invest in what comes next.
Foundations, businesses, and community organizations help us open more seats, publish more books, and launch more businesses. See how a partnership works.