Thank you so much and congratulations to the other winner.

I cannot believe I have been given this wonderful chance to do something I've been dreaming about for a very long time and believe there are some great resources for direction and information in the form of experienced people who do this type of thing. Please share your knowledge, contacts, information sites, anything that will move this dream toward a reality.

Over their lifetime, my parents fostered approximately 26 children so my dream may well be a seed my parents planted! I've spent more than the last decade working as a VP/Operations for a small construction company and have carried my dream with me to work everyday. My dream has changed from time to time, but the core thought has always been to provide a safe place for homeless and/or handicapped individuals to work and live while providing a service back to their community. This would start with the discovery and funding to renovate an available property and partner with unions/minority businesses/various agencies for the handicapped/shelters, etc. to accomplish the renovation.

The mission of this property would be to provide housing and work for several adults and possibly serve as a "guest-house" for parents with babies/children in the nearby hospital. This could provide a "how-to" for future businesses to support the great need for safe, suitable and meaningful work and community for struggling individuals with a direct benefit to the general public.

I cannot wait to get started. Stay tuned for more.

So....where to start? Recognizing that this is a huge project, my goal is to talk to various agencies to see if there is a similar project already in place or one that could partner to make this happen. I absolutely want to learn from others' successes and mistakes.

My first meeting was with three people from VIA and three parents who have children with autism. VIA is an agency that works to match special needs clients to a job that facilitates pride and self-actualization. Additionally there is community, friends, money...all the things that make a job an important experience. These are wonderful, caring professionals who try to make it happen and have had wonderful successes! They are creative and talented and a blessing. However, they do recognize that there is still much to do for many and this not a case of one size fits all. The current philosophy used by many agencies and educators is one of "inclusion". "Inclusion (per Wikipedia) is a philosophical movement which advocates educating students with special needs in normal, mixed-ability classes, with students of the same chronological age, for all or nearly all of the day. Advocates of regular inclusion and full inclusion believe that special needs students "belong" to the regular classroom. Consequently, all special services are delivered within the normal classroom." This philosophy can also be extended to the workplace in that special needs clients should be incorporated into the same jobs and work places that all of us know.

Given the current "Inclusion" philosophy, my idea of a house with several clients living there and caring for the premises (under supervision of VIA or similar agency) smacked of a protected workshop and would probably not be eligible for any funding. My idea was to have a house that could offer lodging to families traveling to local hospitals for care for a loved one. (See Jenn's House to view a successful hospitality house ). The VIA individuals indicated they had heard similar ideas from others and funding for projects outside the current system and inclusion philosophy, made success much more difficult.

One of the parents at the meeting has two autistic children and made a point of telling me that she is very worried about what will happen to her son and daughter when she is no longer around. Her fear is that they could become homeless because their autism makes them difficult to deal with and they don't fit within the parameters of many existing programs. I heard similar fears from the other parents who were trying to brainstorm ways to provide for and protect their children now and in the future. As the conversations continued, I became painfully aware of the staff and expertise that would be needed to support this kind of housing. I also know that persistence and passion can go a long way so I am not scratching this off the list just yet.

I also contacted the founder of Jenn's House and had the chance to hear a little of his experiences and struggles to get his dream to become a reality. Quite a journey. He asked what tragedy had occurred in my life to make me want to do something like this and several other people have asked that same question. I thought that was an interesting question and realized that so many of these private projects are born out pain and tragedy. How lucky am I to have this chance...."just because"!

My plan is to contact the local Salvation Army, the local Rescue Mission and do further research into Holland House in New York City. All will have information, experience and programs in place that I can learn from. Stay tuned and please contact me with comments, suggestions, contacts, anything that will keep me learning and moving forward!

I've spent some time looking for existing shelters that form the bridge for homeless people/families to start over. Starting over in the true sense has to include education and/or vocational training, single or family counseling , drug and alcohol counseling, mental health or mental retardation screenings and help, dental and medical care and the list goes on and on.
This is in addition to the safe housing that is needed as a start to the journey back.

This idea of taking a building and using it as a place for homeless/mentally challenged to live and work was certainly not my idea. Quite some time ago (1987) I heard of Thomas Reuter trying to do something similar with the Holland Hotel on West 42nd Street. The Holland Hotel was one of the bleakest welfare hotels in New York City - a nightmare for the average person to think of living there. According to the New York Times the city placed nearly 275 homeless families in a place where by 1986 there had been about 1000 violations of health, housing and building codes. Prostitution, robbery, drug abuse and vandalism all flourished there and the real "take your breath away" fact is that the hotel was making a 50% profit, estimated at $3 to 4 million dollars a year on revenues of $6 million dollars.

The good news is that this property was renovated and finally sold in 1995 to Project Renewal who is in charge of the Holland House today. I did put a call in to Holland House and spoke with several people there, so I know this project is still in existence and I intend to contact Project Renewal and maybe arrange a trip to take a look at it. But, wow (!)...from 1987 to 1995 - eight years to get this project far enough along to actually begin to serve the community. I do want to see it though, because that project is the one that started my dream.

I have also begun looking at the Community Action Committee of the Lehigh Valley. They are a member of the Community Action Agency which came about from the LBJ era of fighting poverty on the local level. This agency serves Lehigh and Northampton Counties, the area I would like to work in. They have several shelters, some short term or 60 day stays and some long term or about 2 year stays. The long term shelters require a commitment from the individual or family that they will attend classes on parenting, personal finance, life skills, get their GED and the children must participate in preschool and youth activities. YES! This is so exciting. I can't wait to talk further with this group and in speaking w/Marsha Eichelberger, who is the Program Director, they are looking to start building a new shelter in the near future.

So for now, I have a LOT of reading and studying to do to understand a small part of the services they offer and then schedule a meeting with Marsha to introduce myself and learn, learn, learn!!

Anyone out there having info or advise...I'm waiting to hear from you!

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!

Hello out there! Well, I've been "off track" for a bit because our 16 year old companion and friend got seriously sick! Our black lab was suddenly quite ill and after many days of hoping things would turn around we realized it was her time to go. She left us this morning and we are all feeling quite sad. Abby was a great dog and gave the entire family her unconditional love and kisses whenever any one of us needed them and so we sent her off with ours. She was a blessing to our family and will be sorely missed by all of us.

That said, I will be getting back on track and do have some news! I will be part of a committee reviewing the blue prints/plans for a new shelter to be started this year by the Community Action Committee of the Lehigh Valley. Very exciting! My goal for next week is to go over the work plans for the other two shelters they have in operation (My last post looked at their Sixth Street Shelter) and make an appointment with the director to go see at least one of them. Marsha Eichelberger is the program director and has offered to meet with me and show me around. So....time to get moving again!

Again, any suggestion, contacts, please email me!!!