Amazing! I have been looking more closely at the Community Action Committee of the Lehigh Valley and am so excited about what they do. This group currently has three shelters running in Allentown and they recognize that the process from homeless to being a productive member of a community is not a one step process nor a one size fits all approach.

One of the biggest challenges is providing meaningful services to someone trying to find their way back. Food and shelter provide the stuff to make it to tomorrow, but unless other issues are addressed, there will be no change. And the issues are as varied and scary and challenging as ...well, more than the average person can or wants to imagine.

The first shelter provides opportunities for homeless families to be housed and to move toward self-sufficiency. They house a family for approximately 60 days and a Family Service Plan is developed that begins to address education, work and financial issues with the adult family members. The CACLV has set the goal of having at least 75% of the families they house complete their Family Service Plan's short term goals within the 60 day housing period. We're talking about things like attending resident meetings, going to counseling, learning budgeting skills and basic life skills, as well as working with any other necessary referrals to move toward positive change.

This is huge! Additionally, the CACLV wants at least 50% of the families to be ready and able to move into affordable housing upon leaving the shelter. These early goals make me realize the staggering scope of this type of program. To think of beginning to address perhaps long time, habits/addictions/health issues/mental health issues, etc. would challenge the best of us - but to anticipate all the needs and provide the professional help is just staggering! I need to find out what their statistics look like in previous years. Their target for 2008 is to see that 85% of the families moving into affordable housing will retain that housing for at least 3 months after leaving the shelter and this same 85% of families will continue to work toward accomplishing their Family Service Plan.

Lastly, they have set a target of having 30% of the heads of household employed three months after leaving the shelter. In addition there are goals to provide health care services for the adults and children and access to an emergency food pantry. An adult in this "system" in one thing, but these are families and so it follows there are children also trying to navigate this transition. The CACLV's target is that 95% of school aged children will attend school on a regular basis. In addition they are working to provide Kid's Club programs and medical screenings, dental care and foster care if necessary.

This is truly humbling to think of the struggle to address so many issues at once from both perspectives. The families addressing issues of substance abuse, domestic violence, metal health and mental retardation to become healthy and productive and a group of people and professionals trying to provide services to make success possible. I want to look at the other two shelters in terms of their work-plans before I visit so I can try to fully grasp what this organization is doing.

As I said at the start, amazing!