Family Promise Of Summit County

Sanctuary – Homeless young people arriving at our door are often frightened and mistrustful. Young men and women can grow only when they feel safe and secure. Covenant House protects them from the perils of the street and offers a critical sense of security.

In regards to SAHP collaborations within the homeless care arena include the Union Gospel Mission of Tarrant County, the Presbyterian Night Shelter, the Salvation Army, and the Day Resource Center. The above collaborators currently offer day-to-day temporary shelter and providing more basic and immediate needs, a continuous source of clients, and begin the process of self-sufficiency for the clients. The SAHP agency offers purposeful transitional housing designed to continue what these shelters initiated. Through more intensive individualized case management and more demanding financial literacy, the SAHP agency seeks to complete the efforts of these other shelters and collectively work to end chronic homelessness in the Lancaster

The FamiliesWork360 Initiative is a transformational change model that bridges indigenous asset-limited individuals and families, with twenty-first century financial tools and resources they need to 1) create short and long term sustainable livelihoods that educate fellow residents about important issues such as health, the family, education, and employability, 2) create and sustain a peer-to-peer network of support for those who want to use their new knowledge to make changes in family life, education, and employment, and 3) work toward building private markets, creating healthy local tax revenues, and empowering residents. The program is unique in that it builds strengths within the targeted communities in order to support long-term change

This summer I spent my summer in St. Louis, Missouri, where I interned at Epworth Children and Family Services. Specifically it was at the Drop In Center, working with their Older Youth Services department. Epworth is a well known facility that services a thousand different types of clients for many different things. The slogan on all of the promotional material is “To Help Children, Youth, and Families Move Toward Self- Sufficiency, by focusing on health, housing, education, and employment”. For 150 years this company has provided underprivileged youth, families in need and any other clients that who can benefit from their services. Understanding the needs of their clients and helping them surpass the odds to a better future is one of Epworth’s many goals they teach their staff. Epworth has created a system that advocates for the youth and families in need that have a safe place to transform their life.

Our main goal for our grant proposal is to provide families with a safe location to raise their families.

Therefore, the goal of the program is to build the Southern Kentucky Community Center in order to expand programs and a fitness area into a bigger space in 2016, beside the Lifeline Home Care in Burkesville. The facility will provide for our main programs, such as, teaching youths to be more involved within the community on a regular bases as well as providing empowerment to teens and adults who are considered at-risk, art and physical education classes, drug use counseling, education and advisement for adults on employment opportunities as well as resume building. Through offering these programs, then we can allow for residents to have unlimited access to our facility to help aid them in their future.

Gultekin, L., Brush, B. L., Baiardi, J. M., Kirk, K., & Vanmaldeghem, K. (2014). Voices From the Street: Exploring the Realities of Family Homelessness. Journal of Family Nursing, 20(4), 390-414. doi:10.1177/1074840714548943

Multiple-family groups (MFGs) were developed to help families who were homeless or at risk of becoming homeless. The participating families were recommended to the MFG’s by their shelter case workers to attend weekly meetings. These groups also attended weekend retreats to help strengthen families and to encourage families to have fun together. The majority of families, 57 percent, were African American and 77 percent of the families consisted of single mothers with children. The staff of the retreat included several social workers. The weekend retreat had four areas that they concentrated on. These areas were, building trust, effective communication, managing stress, and decision making responsibilities. Overall, “[t]he weekend retreat appears to provide the necessary conditions from which social support can be built and an opportunity for families to reduce their feelings of isolation, anxiety, and helplessness” (Davey, 2004). This retreat helps families realize that they are not alone in their situation. It gives them hope and reassurance that they will be alright. Several of the families involved did not complete the full eight weeks of this program because they had found proper and affordable

Homelessness is a growing concern within our country. When families become homeless, the issues presented are much more complex than losing a house. Often times, the children within the family feel the greatest impact when their family becomes homeless. The solution for homeless families, if they are not fortunate to find living arrangements with family members, is to place them in shelters or motels. Although this solution may take the family off the street and provide the family with a roof over their head, there are remaining concerns surrounding this approach.

Family Promise is working towards possibly partnering with another agency that assists homeless individuals. As a result, the landlord liaison will have the opportunity to learn and seek out additional resources for families that experience homelessness. Moreover, this position may require additional funders and the organization has established previous relationships with funders. Based on the organization’s connections with other funders, there is an opportunity to have more than one funder to support the project for more than a year. Lastly, this position has the opportunity to grow, and expand to other agencies that support families that experience homelessness.

The Interfaith Housing Network has chosen to target their services to this market segment since they have the greatest need.. Namely, time in prison, abusive relationships, alcohol and drug dependencies, and exposure/participation in gangs, as a result. these citizens have nowhere else to go and usually no one to turn to, and unfortunately are in desperate need of permanent housing as well as life skills to empower them to self-sufficiency.

I enjoyed learning about the Interfaith Housing Coalition through your presentation. The mission of the coalition is all encompassing. The goal of the coalition is not just to stabilize homeless; they want individuals to have continued success after the program therefore they provide the needed tools and education to ensure success. I found the coalition unique in that part of their stabilization efforts is to focus on the children effected by homeless and provide them with counseling and therapy.

Homelessness among families with children in an increasing problem in the United States today (Martin, 2014). A single mother with two to three children is among the fastest growing homeless demographic (Bassuk, 2010). Research shows that root causes for homelessness among families with children include, a lack of affordable housing, unemployment, domestic violence and substance abuse. Furthermore, studies support that homelessness negatively affects families with children by resulting in shelter living, a decline in mental and physical health, a break down in the family structure and poor academic performance (National Coalition for the Homeless, 2009). Legislation implemented to address homelessness among families consisted of the Homeless Person’s Survival Act, the McKinney Vento Homeless Assistance Act(National Coalition for the Homeless, 2006), and the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001(U. S. Board of Education, 2004). Although, these programs were designed to improve the circumstances surrounding homelessness, more programs are still needed to combat this social problem. Human service professionals must continue to advocate for more policy changes and legislation that will positively impact and reduce the number of homeless families with children.

At 18 years old, when most other girls were graduating high school and deciding what college to go to, I was pregnant, alone, and scared out of my mind. I was able to work hard and make a successful life for myself, but many other women aren’t as lucky. Hundreds of women and children in our community are homeless and scared right now. But simply providing shelter is not enough to help these families become successful. Temporary housing combined with life management and leadership skills is an effective method for helping homeless women and children regain their independence and become contributing members of society. That is precisely what an agency called M.I.S.S. Inc is doing.

Homelessness is a huge and complex issue in Montgomery county which includes veterans, children families and elderly population. Homelessness not only happens in the state of Maryland or large cities but in can happen anywhere we go. “On a single night in 2016, 549,928 people were experiencing homelessness in the United States”(Henry, 2016). There are many issues that can lead to homelessness such as lack of education, mental illness, economic and social stabilities. “Reasons for homelessness include poverty, lack affordable housing, unemployment, lack or inadequacy of government financial support, crime, violence, lack of kin support, mental illness, substance, and socially stigmatizing infectious diseases” (Hood, 2014, p. 369). However, this problem requires community and government to work together in order support and provide housing, food, protection, education and health. As a community, we should coordinate services to homeless individuals and their families by providing emergency shelter, food, clothing, transportation and some basic care. Our church came together as community in the Montgomery county to support and collectively get involved to end homelessness and hunger. Even though, Montgomery county provides services for homeless people that include: outreach, emergency shelter, transitional housing, and permanent supportive housing there are still some many needs to be meet in the community such as: knowing where to refer