Pathways

Our Mission

Empowering women and children on their path out of homelessness through hospitality, housing, and hope.

Our Vision

A Birmingham free of homelessness.

Our Story

The number of homeless women and children in Birmingham, AL was both startling and growing in the early 1980s. While several men’s emergency shelters existed in that period, no social service agency provided any support for homeless women during daylight hours. In 1985, a small group of professional women from the Cathedral Church of the Advent (St. Mary’s Guild) partnered with Greater Birmingham Ministries (GBM) to fill that critical gap, believing that “wrap-around” services were needed during daylight hours to assist homeless women in their return to a life of dignity and self-sufficiency. Over the past thirty years, St. Mary’s Center became an independent 501(c) 3 agency (renamed, Birmingham PATH) and later merged with another non-profit agency, Bread & Roses, to become Pathways, a United Way Agency. Thus, Pathways is the oldest, continuously operating agency in Birmingham, dedicated to serving homeless women and their children.

Today, Pathways continues to offer a range of services for homeless women and children through four programs: the Day Center, Safe Haven, Stepping Stones and Pathways Early Learning Center.