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1 Social Service Program Development Briana Nelsen SWK:5008 Macro Social Work Practice with Groups Capella University Dr. Rhonda Waddell

2 Social Service Program Development Homelessness in America has always been a significant issue and continues to grow with every passing year. There are many reasons why an individual or a family finds themselves homeless. Those reasons range from unemployment, escaping domestic violence, mental health, substance abuse, even divorce, or even based off where an individual lives. It has been observed that the bigger the city, the bigger the homeless population seems to be, for example, California and New York. “The United States has twelve states with more than 10,000 people experiencing homelessness, including Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, New York, Massachusetts, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Washington,” (Red Nose Day, 2021). The cost of living, food, and grocery prices increase, and unemployment numbers continue to rise as jobs are not providing enough hourly wages or salary to keep up with the demands of everyday expenses. Seeing that many individuals find themselves homeless due to substance abuse or mental illness shines a light on the fact that the programs and resources that are meant to be available to these individuals are not getting to everyone. “…the total number of people who experience some form of homelessness over the course of a year is estimated to be 2.5 to 3.5 million individuals, homelessness is a serious problem" (Balasuriya & Buelt, 2020). There simply is not enough resources and funds to be able to reach every single individual or family facing homelessness, although some individuals simply do not want help and would rather continue being chronically homeless. However, most of the homeless population is made up of individuals or families that had no choice due to circumstances as such fire or flood. ”Eviction, fire, job loss, work-related injury, or debilitating illness are among the events that mark the tipping point between being domiciled and being without a roof overhead, especially when resources have

3 been exhausted or are hard to come by in the local community”, (Lee, Shinn, & Culhane, 2021). There are many strategies put in place to fight against homelessness such as emergency shelters, transitional housing programs such as Housing First and Permanent Supportive Housing and shelters. While these have been seen to be effective, there isn’t always room in these resources to accommodate the higher number of homeless individuals. “On a macro level, cities across the United States are addressing homelessness through a variety of housing and service programs, including transitional housing, Housing First, Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH), rapid re- housing, and shelters,” (Nourazari, Lovato, & Weng, 2021). Program Proposal Vision Statement: Ending Homelessness Everywhere Mission Statement: Fighting Homelessness One Person and Family at a Time. Goals: 1. Reduce the number of homeless individuals and families living without any type of shelter. 2. Reaching more individuals and families fearing homelessness before they are homeless. Objectives: 1. A. Assess current numbers of individuals and families in emergency and transitional housing. B. Assist individuals and families currently in emergency or transitional housing get into permanent housing before moving onto other needs. During this stage, allowing for diversity and inclusivity so all individuals fully understand what steps is are that are being taken.

4 2. A. Increase services of homelessness prevention programs such as rental assistance, vocational resources. B. Conduct events for donations to increase resources offered to the homeless community and offer further information on the social issue. Methods and Activities: 1. A. Construct a Gantt chart. “It is helpful in constructing Gantt charts to identify needed activities, determine which ones must precede or follow others, and then, once a sequence is established, assign time frames,” (Netting, Kettner, McMurtry, & Thomas, 2016). B. Organize individuals or families into cases, record what services are required, services being used, services that have yet to be used or contacted. 2. A. Apply for grants and funding to create more prevention program opportunities. B. Host fundraising events to increase resources and recruit volunteers. Implementation Plan Creating or attending continuing education on causes, interventions, and strategy implementation. Case management has been commonly used when helping individuals transition out of homelessness. A social worker is assigned to an individual that is experiencing homelessness and is the link between the individual and the various resources they could be eligible including mental health counseling, housing or rental assistance, health care services, and employment searches. “Case management (CM) is one such intervention where individual case managers respond to the complexity of navigating the healthcare system by assessing, planning, and facilitating access to health and social services" (Ponka, et al., 2020). It has been

5 seen that stopping homelessness before it can happen is far more effective than any resources that help after the fact, as it is harder to place an individual or a family that has an eviction on their record. Other strategies include critical time intervention for individuals who have been released from a psychiatric facility and screenings of homelessness potential risk factors. “Once they have left homelessness for permanent housing, many formerly homeless families and individuals can benefit from support services to help maintain housing stability. This includes job training, childcare, and community-based counseling services. More fundamentally, enhancing housing stability for poor and low-income renters involves broader policy changes, including living-wage jobs; access to affordable health care; and adequate public benefits for people with disabilities." (Coalition for the Homeless, 2023). Evaluating the Program Evaluating a social service program is how a worker determines if their program is helping the cause or contributing to the cause. Since the overall goal of a social worker is to help, as workers we would want to make sure our programs are helping individuals. Asking for client feedback when accessible is a strategy in which workers see from different perspectives how the program worked and didn’t work for them. It also provides the clients with a chance to suggest what could be improved upon or what they had hoped they would receive help with or instead of. “Documenting participation from individuals in target populations is a critical component in determining if services are properly and effectively delivered and received,” (Tulane University, 2021). Creating a client survey that included demographic information such as age, gender, relationship status, employment status; 1 to 10 scale questions, closed ended questions (yes or no), and open-ended questions where clients could then let workers know what was the most

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