Empowering Women, Changing LiveS
Opening Doors uplifts and empowers women and children experiencing homelessness and poverty. Through housing, support, and comprehensive services, we collaborate with dynamic partners to provide hospitality, hope, and opportunity to over 5,000 women and their children. Our work builds a compassionate community and invests in a brighter future, helping women and their families overcome hardship, achieve self-sufficiency, and embark on paths to independence and success.
In Need of Shelter?
Call Teresa Shelter at 563.690.0086
Emergency and extended stay program are based upon availability. For additional resources please call the Homeless Hotline 24 hours a day, 7 days a week dial 2-1-1.
Three Doorways to Hope
Since organizational inception, our work has grown to encompass four locations including our operations center and three separate facilities including emergency, transitional, and permanent supportive housing. Our approach prioritizes key pillars: maintaining sobriety, securing full-time employment, regularly meeting with a case manager, and saving 30% of income. Due to these values, we are limited in our access to state and federal funding, as we choose to uphold our long-term vision over short-term compliance.
Teresa Shelter
Maria House
Francis Apartments
Emergency and Extended Stay Programs
Transitional Houseing for up to two years
Income-based affordable housing
Three Doorways to Hope
Since organizational inception, our work has grown to encompass four locations including our operations center and three separate facilities including emergency, transitional, and permanent supportive housing. Our approach prioritizes key pillars: maintaining sobriety, securing full-time employment, regularly meeting with a case manager, and saving 30% of income. Due to these values, we are limited in our access to state and federal funding, as we choose to uphold our long-term vision over short-term compliance.
News
Counting What Matters: How the PIT Count Supports Our Neighbors
Each year, the Point-in-Time Count provides a critical snapshot of homelessness in our community, helping identify service gaps and guide funding decisions at the local,
Attitude of Gratitude 2025 – Event Recap & Your Impact
With so many exciting things happening at Opening Doors, we’re thrilled to finally share a full recap of this year’s Attitude of Gratitude, and what
Help Us With a Critical Need
Every day, women and children call Opening Doors home. Right now, over 30 individuals are living in our emergency shelter and transitional housing. Together, we
Back to School: Ensuring Every Child Has a Fair Start
As backpacks are packed and classrooms fill with the energy of a new school year, we’re reminded of the excitement and hope this season brings.
Events
Support the Mission of Opening Doors
The women in our programs come from diverse backgrounds, with lived experiences including domestic violence, substance abuse, mental health challenges, and generational poverty. At Opening Doors, we treat each woman and child with dignity, offering personalized, comprehensive case management. Through this process, women are empowered to realize their full potential by setting achievable goals, gaining employment support, receiving life skills training, and participating in financial literacy programs, parenting classes, substance abuse treatment, and health care services. We also provide access to essential resources like food and clothing, helping them move toward stable, independent living.
Sign Up for Email Newsletter
Sign up for our monthly e-newsletter and occasional updates to stay informed about the latest news, inspiring stories, and impactful initiatives at Opening Doors!
Newsletter Signup
Receive our monthly e-newsletter and occasional updates about what is going on with Opening Doors.
Opening Doors Dubuque
Empowering women and children experiencing homelessness through compassionate care & comprehensive programs. We provide shelter, support, and a path toward stability and independence. Services: Teresa Shelter, Maria House, and Francis Apt
Home is more than a roof.
It’s safety. Belonging. A place where you’re known by name and supported through every season.
At Opening Doors, home looks like a family. Women and children walking alongside one another, supported by staff who show up with consistency, care, and compassion. It’s a space where routines are rebuilt, confidence is restored, and hope becomes tangible.
We’re not just providing shelter.
We’re creating a home where people are welcomed with dignity, surrounded by support, and encouraged to grow- together.
Because everyone deserves a place where they feel safe, supported, and part of something bigger.
That’s what home means to us.
🎥 @kodiak_creative
0 CommentsComment on Facebook
📣 Tours matter
For the past year, we’ve been inviting our community partners and supporters to step inside our doors, because knowledge is power.
Tours matter.
When you see our spaces, meet our team, and understand how our programs work, the mission comes to life in a way words alone can’t capture.
As a program-first shelter, we are truly one of a kind in our region. We don’t just provide a safe place to stay, we walk alongside women and their children through a continuum of care, offering consistent case management, support services, and transitional housing that help families move toward stability and independence.
And no matter what, having dignified, welcoming space for both our staff who show up every day and for the women and children who call these spaces home- is a mission in itself. The environment matters. It communicates respect, safety, and possibility.
Every tour creates deeper understanding, stronger advocacy, and more informed support. When people see the work, they don’t just understand the mission, they become part of it.
Thank you @conlonconstruction team - Becky Conlon and Poppy Conlon for joining us, asking good questions and helping us grow out mission!
0 CommentsComment on Facebook
🎂 Monthly Birthday Cake Partnership 🎂
We are so grateful for Candle Ready Cakes for their generous commitment to donate a birthday cake every month for women and their children in our program.
For many of the women we serve, birthdays haven’t always been celebrated or even acknowledged. This simple but meaningful gesture helps restore dignity, joy, and a sense of being seen.
Because of community partners like Candle Ready Cakes, birthdays at Opening Doors are filled with candles, smiles, and moments of hope. ❤️
Thank you for helping us celebrate life, resilience, and new beginnings- one cake at a time 🍰
0 CommentsComment on Facebook
Community partners- this work wouldn’t be possible without you.
Through strong collaboration, woman in our program have the opportunity to either enter the workforce or return to school- continuing their education and taking meaningful steps toward a more stable, sustainable future for herself and what comes next.
To our business partners, colleges, educators, and financial partners: thank you for showing up, working alongside us, and believing in what’s possible. When we work together, lives truly change and we’re grateful to witness it firsthand. 👏
🎥 @jimmynaprstek
0 CommentsComment on Facebook
January was a long one- but it was a productive one. We started 2026 with momentum, connection, and meaningful progress behind the scenes and on the front lines.
✔️ Launched our Gather & Grow series and took a virtual tour into local businesses & homes.
✔️ Hosted more live tours, because more tours mean more advocates
✔️ Updated our website donation options to create more flexible, accessible online giving
✔️ Kicked off grant writing for the year ahead
✔️ Celebrated one of the strongest holiday appeals we could ask for
✔️ Took time to celebrate our staff at a well-deserved holiday party
✔️ Our Program Director presented final 2025 impact numbers to our Board
✔️ Our new Executive Director participated in the Point-in-Time (PIT) Count for the first time
✔️ Hosted multiple J-Term classes, supporting a wide range of volunteer and project needs
✔️ Celebrated resident success as women moved into new, sustainable living situations
✔️ Made key updates to our administrative office systems, creating greater efficiency behind the scenes
We’re grateful for the staff, partners, volunteers, and supporters who helped us start the year strong. Every step—big or small, moves women and their children closer to healing, hope, and home.
#OpeningDoorsDubuque #JanuaryRecap #CommunityImpact #PITCount #GatherAndGrow SafeShelterSavesLives
0 CommentsComment on Facebook
This week, our Executive Director, Jessica Schlader, alongside community partners, had the opportunity to participate in the Point-in-Time (PIT) Count, a biannual nationwide effort to count individuals and families experiencing homelessness in our community on a single night.
The PIT Count helps identify who is experiencing homelessness, where gaps in services exist, and what resources are needed most. This data directly informs local, state, and federal funding decisions and helps communities plan effective, long-term solutions.
We are grateful to Shelby Eipperle, Homeless Program Coordinator with Community Solutions of Eastern Iowa - CSEI and the East Central Intergovernmental Association (ECIA), for coordinating this important effort and bringing partners together in service of our community.
Why this matters:
Data for the PIT count are submitted to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and accurate data leads to better funding, stronger programs, and more informed advocacy. Most importantly, it ensures that individuals and families experiencing homelessness are seen, counted, and included in solutions that create pathways to stability, dignity, and home. Resources such as sleeping bags and warm clothes were also made available to those in need during the count.
Thank you to all who participated and continue to show up for our community.
#PointinTimeCount #CommunityCollaboration #endinghomelessness #openingdoorsdubuque #datadriveschange
1 CommentsComment on Facebook
With the help of both the Teresa Shelter and Maria House I know I can do anything if I just stay positive and put my mind to it. With you having “Open Doors” there is hope for everyone who enters the programs.