PROVIDENCE HOUSE

Our vision is to "Imaging a Community Where No Family is Homeless". We want to be a catalyst for change so that no family in our community is homeless by providing an opportunity thrive as equal members of our community by engaging people in acts of compassion, empowerment and advocacy.

The singular aim of Providence House is to break the homeless cycle one family at a time. We are a residential development center and temporary home for homeless families with children providing comprehensive supportive services for improving the family structure and moving the family into independent living to break the homeless cycle.

The main facility on Cotton Street provides emergency and basic support services such as shelter, meals, laundry facilities and a high quality child development center. A family entering the Providence House participates in assessing the needs and obstacles to permanent independent living that a family faces and focuses on providing the life skills training, behavior modification, education and employment at the highest level of each individual's ability. When a family completes this segment of the program they are ready to move to Project Next Step.

Project Next Step is for families who have become stabilized in the main shelter and are working full-time at a job or on their education. This segment involves moving them into apartments in our community. These families add to the stability and quality of life in their new neighborhoods and demonstrate to others what people can do to help themselves through education and hard work. Once these families have successfully managed their responsibilities within their new home, they graduate from the program, at which time the rental leases which Providence House initially holds, are converted to the client's name, so that they may continue to live successfully in these neighborhoods.

Our 2020 Strategic Goals are:
1) To engage parents and encourage them to become involved advocates for their children. Specifically, we will give incentives to parents and students to take an active role in attending school functions, events, and meetings pertaining to their children's progress, behavior and enrichment,

2) Focus on developing employment opportunities that will allow families to expand career options. The goal is to have at least five families to begin careers (not simply a job),

3) Enhance our focus on the mission by implementing more effective case management while building relationships with support and appreciation, and

4) To market and grow our Child Development Center to include the community.

Our ability to accomplish these goals is predicated on the involvement of all staff. In October of each calendar year, the entire staff meets to measure our success (or failure) of each goal. We are only capable of moving our strategy forward when:

1) We employ, empower and entrust the best and the brightest to support specific programmatic area,
2) We provide compensation commensurate with the expected outcomes with each program sector,
3) We research, collaborate and share best practices,
4) We constantly and consistently engage the families that we serve to determine if we are hitting our intended benchmarks,
5) We measure performance strategies. Specifically, is the (Who, What, When and Where) benchmarks correct or do we need to revisit the plan.

Providence House employs staff that have worked within the social service sector, but also others that bring in a different level of expertise. The private sector offers a wealth of information that can enhance the work of the non-profit sector. It takes both groups to yield the outcomes and expectations within our strategy.

In 2019 alone:
1) 26 adults completed vocational educational training; 16 adults participated in the HiSet/GED program
2) Providence House served 415 people; 266 were homeless children ages 0-17
3) We engaged 233 volunteer groups! They gave 4,614 hours serving meals, reading to children, hosting birthday parties and pitching in to the meet the needs of families
4) 40 families (41 adults and 79 children) graduated from the program boosting the total number of families that have completed the program to 630
5) More than 28,000 meals were served and we provided 41,000 nights of lodging
6) We garnered in-kind goods valued at $399,848
7) 207 on-site counseling sessions were completed including both individuals and family sessions.