SOS Community Services will undertake a comprehensive outcome evaluation of its Transitional Housing Program, which has been running since 1990, and helps homeless families who need more than 3 months of shelter time to find stability.
Last fall, SOS was awarded a $50,000 Targeted Capacity Building Grant from the Compassion Capital Fund of the Administration for Children and Families (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services) to help SOS build capacity in the areas of revenue development and program development. The comprehensive outcome evaluation of the Transitional Housing Program will serve the program development needs of this grant.
“SOS has done some terrific work helping homeless and transitional children in our community. Investing in an organization like this is a good thing, seeing that they are using that investment well is a great thing,” said Congressman John Dingell, who provided a valuable letter of support for the grant last fall. “I’m sure that the Transitional Housing Program, which already provides an important service, will only get better after this review. I’m glad I could help and I look forward to doing more with SOS in the future.”
Sue Ann Savas, who owns an independent evaluation consulting business and is an adjunct professor of Social Work at the University of Michigan has been hired as the project’s evaluation consultant. The evaluation will be completed in the fall of 2008.
“SOS Transitional Housing project is important to the agency, the client families and other organizations working on behalf of families in crisis,” said Sue Ann Savas. “The evaluation will document family participant outcomes gained, including those expected and unexpected. The project will also advance SOS Community Services’ system for conducting ongoing evaluations for program improvement.”
Many of the aspects of the Transitional Housing program are consistent with the Housing First approach. As SOS moves toward a Housing First approach, this evaluation will inform the transition SOS makes to become a Housing First organization.
The SOS Transitional Housing program gives families up to two years of housing subsidy and supports to overcome their residential stability challenges so they can be self-sufficient. These challenges may include: increase income, recover from substance abuse, or improve employment potential. Housing First is a program that is designed to shorten the time people spend in shelter, putting them into permanent housing, and then providing them with intensive support for a period of time to help them remain housed.
0 comments:
Post a Comment