Our Work
We end homelessness by working with clients to obtain and maintain permanent housing through our Project Connect program located in Newark and Summit, New Jersey. This is achieved in four comprehensive steps below:
1
Street Outreach & Engagement
The process starts with engagement by our professional Outreach Specialists and supporting volunteers to aid persons living on the street or other places not meant for human habitation.
Our Outreach Specialists distribute food and emergency items to individuals, initially triage service needs, and gauge an individual’s willingness for emergency housing placement. If the person is receptive to emergency shelter, our team transports them to shelter and ensures they have a follow-up appointment with our intensive Case Management Team the following business day.
2
Intensive Case Management
Picking up where the Outreach Specialists leave off, our Case Managers work with clients coming off the streets and into emergency housing to assess their health and social needs and identify barriers and strengths to obtain transitional and/or permanent housing. This process culminates in the co-creation of a housing stabilization plan.
The housing stabilization plan is a living document that guides the case management process and helps Case Managers assist clients by leveraging strengths to overcome multiple barriers to obtaining housing. Depending on the complexity of an individual’s needs and the availability of community support, the time spent in intensive case management may be as short as a week or longer than a year.
3
Housing Navigation & Placement
After Case Managers work to stabilize the client and they are enrolled in an appropriate housing program, our team works to search for appropriate and affordable housing that is affirming of the progress the individual has made.
Once a client has been successful in their housing search, our team ensures that the move from emergency or transitional housing to permanent housing is successful. We also support newly housed clients by connecting furniture and household items to celebrate their progress and protect against the indignity of moving into an unfurnished home.
4
Housing Sustainment & Skill Building
Once our clients are housed and working towards stability, we ensure they can maintain housing and continue to address any barriers that might impact their ability to maintain housing.
During this phase, our team works to obtain supportive employment (if appropriate), long-term or permanent disability, and meaningful activities (including volunteering). The desired end-state for all of our clients is longitudinal support, as needed, to ensure that life on the street is a memory of the past, never a future destination.