It’s a place in Oakland County where women are helping other women and enriching the lives of young girls.
The Well in Waterford is an incredibly special place where women can pour into other women and young girls facing tough situations.
It’s an initiative nurturing and strengthening the community and creating lifelong bonds.
“I began to think of and dream of what it would look like to have a house in the community that women and girls could gather and it would be a home, it wouldn’t be a facility,” Dana Bosnack said. “It would create an environment where it would make women feel comfortable like home, they felt loved.”
Bosnack created The Well for women and young girls who have no true place to call their home.
“It’s hard to believe that right here in Oakland County that there are children who live in facilities and do not have homes,” Bosnack said.
Here they learn home is so much more than just a place, it’s a feeling.
Dana brings in girls who are in foster care living in residential facilities, and girls from Children’s Village, a youth detention center.
“We have used every room to be something special and we keep the girls moving when they’re in the program we have them moving from room to room we use the whole house,” she said.
They begin in the dining room where the girls are always served a beautiful meal.
“Sometimes the girls in the program will say why are you doing these things for us? Because they feel unworthy like they don’t deserve something special,” Bosnack said.
The Well offers everything from fun crafts, to therapy for the girls from volunteers like Michelle Shelton.
“I had a lot of abuse and abandonment at a young age,” Shelton said. “All I wanted was a family, I just wanted a family but it wasn’t working so I had to go.”
Shelton grew up in foster care, too and she knows the pain the young girls are facing and she’s turning that pain into power for the young women in her same situation.
“This is where you come to get restored and healed and if you need a good meal and you need some love and you need a friend, this is where you would come,” Shelton said.
The well teaches the young women life skills from setting a table, writing a thank you card, hygiene to cooking.
“For Valentine’s Day the girls made their own homemade pizza with heart shaped dough,” Bosnack said.
All in the historic Waterford home, decorated to perfection.
“You know what? I wanted excellence because I felt like the women in the community were worth it,” Bosnack said.
Girls who are so often forgotten, starting knowing their worth and finally having a place to call home.
“Even if they’re only in this house one time, I want them to have the memory of a beautiful home where they were loved, they felt the love of Jesus and they felt hope for the future and they felt purpose and that they do matter,” Bosnack said.
Right now The Well is raising money to create a 5-week summer camp for girls, you can contribute to their mission and learn more about The Well on their website.
