Members of the Junior League of Fort Wayne are helping homeless, addicted women seek a better way of life.

The volunteer women's organization is in the second year of its Women's Independence Project, intended to help addicted women in residential treatment programs find employment. A fundraiser, the New to You Sale, is Saturday at the former Marshall Field's store at Glenbrook Square. Some of the women in the treatment programs are helping set up for the sale.

Christi Ellington, 31, is one of those women. Homeless and addicted to drugs, she found her way into Hope House three months ago. The program has two homes that accommodate 20 women who have drug or alcohol dependency and are working toward recovery and self-sufficiency.

Volunteers with the Women's Independence Project have helped Ellington and others like her with resume preparation.

“I'm actually very pleased with my resume,” Ellington said, surprised at how professional it is.

They also helped with interview preparation, including how to answer tough questions, Ellington said.

Junior League members took Ellington and other women to Career Closet, a ministry of Huntertown United Methodist Church, where they could pick out clothes to wear to interviews or jobs.

Ellington said the Junior League women offer encouragement.

“They make us feel like we're doing such a good job,” she said. “Some people can be judgmental, and I don't feel that from them.”

Courtney Waterman, president of the Junior League of Fort Wayne, said one of the goals of the program is “to empower women to be able to go out and feel confident when looking for employment.”

Along with Hope House, the Women's Independence Project partners with the Fort Wayne Women's Bureau Transitions program, another residential-treatment program for addicted women who are pregnant or have children younger than 10.

Junior League members teach the basic classes on resume building and preparing for interviews. They bring in people for more specific classes. For example, someone from Citilink may come in to explain how to use the city buses.

Waterman said 80 to 100 women already have participated in Hope House and Transitions programs.

In addition to helping women build employment skills, the program also is building a list of employers willing to hire these women, some of whom have felony records, Waterman said. A third goal is matching women with mentors.

Junior League members also try to do “Done in a Day” projects monthly. At Transitions, they did an “extreme room makeover” in a weekend. The Junior League of Fort Wayne has about 70 active members, with another 20 new members and 170 sustaining members.

Waterman said most Junior League projects last three to five years and then either spin off into their own nonprofit or are folded back into the organizations with which the league originally collaborated. The Women's Independence Project is set up to be a three-year project.

“This is a really good fit for us,” Waterman said, one the league might stick with for an extended period.

Residents in the Hope House and Transitions programs were invited to work side by side with Junior League members setting up for the sale. As a thank-you, they will each get a $20 voucher to be used at the sale.

Ellington recently took another step toward recovery: She's starting a job at Dunkin' Donuts this week. She would like to attend Ivy Tech and ultimately wants to go to a vocational school in Nashville for music engineering.