Support for Service Providers > HVRP Replicable Models: Part One
HVRP Replicable Models: Part One
Speakers:
The WorkPlace, Inc. – Joseph Carbone
Aletheia House – Gloria Howard
New England Shelter for Homeless Veterans – Debby Wiesen and Sarah Sanchez
National Coalition for Homeless Veterans – Kristina Hunken
Kristina Hunken, NCHV
- Welcome/Introduction
- Question and Answer session following presentations
Joseph Carbone, The WorkPlace, Inc.
- The WorkPlace, Inc. is Southwestern Connecticut’s Workforce Development Board
- Has been awarded an HVRP grant for the 6th consecutive year
- Program is operated in partnership with Homes for the Brave (a residential provider in Bridgeport, CT) and our CTWorks One-Stop (with operator Career Resources and the Connecticut Department of Labor).
- Employment assistance program consists of five elements: Assessment, Employment Plan, Case Management, Co-enrollment, and Comprehensive Services Plan
- Assessment: Before entry into program, Homes for the Brave staff conduct comprehensive assessment to determine eligibility
- Applicant must be willing to work and must be physically and mentally capable of work
- Employment Plan: Upon entry into HVRP, participants are assigned to vocational counselor
- Counselor solicits participant’s employment aspirations, skill levels are assessed, barriers to employment are identified and a detailed, individualized employment plan is constructed.
- Case Management: Each participant is enrolled at the CTWorks One Stop Center; Career Development Advisor is assigned to the participant.
- Co-Enrollment: HVRP participants are eligible for services provided by CT Department of Labor and programs such as Projects With Industry
- Comprehensive Service Plan: Identifies all possible barriers that individual may have; case management team is assembled consisting of HVRP Vocational Counselor, HVRP Job Developer, CTWorks Career Development Advisor and representatives from CT Department of Labor and Projects With Industry.
- One-Stop Job Postings: CTWorks One Stop Center functions as repository of job postings from the employer community; in southwestern CT, over 200 businesses post job openings at Center
- Job Development: Job Developers reach out to employer community in an attempt to match individual participants to existing jobs.
- Targeted Employer Programs: Employers are approached and skill requirements are assessed
- Part of building hope is to inspire clients
- Rehab System Partners: Homes for the Brave is collaboration among five agencies with specialized expertise (Applied Behavioral Rehabilitation Institute, Chemical Abuse Services Agency, CT Dept. of Mental Health and Addiction Services, U.S. Dept of Veterans’ Affairs and the VA CT Healthcare System)
- Since many participants in the HVRP are considered disabled by definition, participants are able to take advantage of services provided by Projects with Industry and the CT Bureau of Rehabilitative Services.
- Representatives from collaborator agencies form a “Case Management Team,” provides participants with a comprehensive package of services.
- Career manager from One Stop and manager from Homes for the Brave co-manage process
- Homes for the Brave operates a 42 bed transitional housing facility, 33 of which are exclusively for veterans; has full-time Housing Specialist responsible for developing a plan for the progression from transitional to permanent housing for HVRP participants.
- Homes for the Brave owns and manages a permanent supportive housing facility, can accommodate up to 9 veterans
- HVRP provides bus tokens to participants; Homes for the Brave provides transportation through 3 agency-owned vehicles
- “People to Jobs”: augments public transportation; transports individuals from home to workplace
- Training Scholarships: have secured funding through corporate and foundation sources to provide training for HVRP participants not otherwise available under other more structured programs.
- Raised $6 million over past eight years
- Grants from EPA, DOL, Department of Education, Department of Economic and Community Development
- Funds used to provide industry specific training for high wage, high demand jobs in local labor markets.
- Disability Services: HVRP participants have access to Assisted Services Center in CTWorks comprehensive One-Stop; access to equipment and personnel designed to assist persons with disabilities with variety of job search activities.
- “Career Coach”: a 38-foot custom Winnebago; mobile computer lab is capable of bringing seminars, workshops and other computer related technologies directly to HVRP participant.
- July 1, 2004 through June 30, 2008 results:
- Assessments: planned 400/completed 442
- Enrollment: planned 240/enrolled 308
- Put into permanent housing: planned 240/placed 301
- Hourly wage rate: $10 per hour/accomplished $12.16 per hour
Gloria Howard, Aletheia House
- Aletheia House is based in Birmingham, AL
- HVRP project is Job One; year two of funding, began in 1998
- VA medical center is one of the largest in region; homeless veterans come from GA, KY, TN and FL
- Chris Retan, Executive Director, Aletheia House: “This program has been named Job One because getting a job can be the most important thing homeless veterans can do to lift themselves out of poverty and homelessness.”
- Program components: Employment Readiness, Employment Placement, and Employment Retention
- Senior outreach person frequents homeless shelters and streets of Birmingham to find homeless veterans who want to work; offers incentives (pair of socks, haircuts) to engage veterans
- Once enrolled, veterans get individualized employment development plan after human needs assessment (ex: medical and dental needs)
- Assistance obtaining required employment documentation and personal essentials (clothes)
- Evidence-based curriculum
- Ultimate Job Search (DOL website)
- Assistance developing resumes, scheduling interviews, transportation to and from interviews
- Place large emphasis on employment retention
- Enroll clients into classes and participate in individual supportive sessions; talking about stress of rejoining workforce
- Been providing employment services for substance abuse clients since 1995
- Job Development: cold calls, participating in job fairs, networking with DVOP/LVER, working with employers so they know benefits of hiring veterans
- DVOP has office at Aletheia House’s employment center
- MOUs with other service providers, including VA
- Member of homeless coalition in Birmingham
- Housing: VA Per Diem Program (30 beds), HUD Program (18 beds), 1st Step Housing (26 beds), permanent housing Shelter Plus Care (18 beds)
- Partnership with JARC for transportation
- Residential Substance Abuse Treatment (90 day program, requirements: homeless veteran and made two other treatment attempts)
- Case Management Services
- Substance Abuse Aftercare Services
New England Shelter for Homeless Veterans, Debby Wiesen
- For almost 20 years the New England Shelter for Homeless Veterans (NESHV) has delivered a comprehensive continuum of care for homeless veterans; began as emergency shelter
- Residential continuum consists of emergency shelter, transitional housing and permanent single-room occupancy (SRO) apartments.
- To assist clients at each stage of residential program, the NESHV has developed a broad spectrum of outreach, assessment and supportive, therapeutic services designed to address unique needs of homeless veterans.
- Services include: specialized mental health counseling for dually-diagnosed clients with a focus on veterans suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD); benefits counseling; legal assistance; financial planning and tracking; permanent housing placement; an onsite Health Center that provides medical and the Veterans Training School responsible for pre-employment classes, job training, job placement program and employment retention services.
- The "Cot Squad": veterans are provided with intensive counseling to address and resolve immediate personal issues.
- "Cot Squad" provides services to prepare each homeless veteran for Shelter's reintegration program.
- Assigned case manager for 30 days, begins process of transitional housing program
- The "Transitional Housing Program" - provides clients with a more comfortable living environment.
- Most clients are either working or enrolled in training or educational programs.
- Clients are encouraged to develop personal savings plans and address/resolve personal debts.
- Substance Abuse Counseling (SAC): does substance abuse assessments on all new clients, operates 90-day stabilization program for post-detox clients, provides individual and group S.A. treatment
- Medical department on-site
- Frail Elderly Program: 10-20 people, collaborative program with Boston VA Medical Center, provides specialized clinical services to frail elderly homeless veterans
- Bridges Program: collaborative program with Bedford VA Medical Center to provide specialized clinical services to homeless veterans with chronic mental illness
- Clients generally enrolled in program for 6-9 months
- Clients who have successfully completed Cot Squad program are eligible for SROs
- SROs: 59 project-based single room occupancy (SRO) permanent units housed within the John Joseph Moakley Veterans Quarters located at the shelter; 98 percent occupancy rate at any given time
- SROs are collaboration between shelter and city of Boston
- Clients provided with bus/train and commuter rail passes to attend job fairs, go on job interviews and medical appointments if they are unable to pay.
New England Shelter for Homeless Veterans, Sarah Sanchez
- Assessment: work history, problems in previous jobs, what they have liked/disliked at previous jobs, and what job did they stay at the longest and why did they stay?
- Cover barriers to work, both obtaining a job and keeping one: Criminal History, Substance Abuse, Mental Health, Physical Health
- Explain to client the advantages of working with multiple entities: have different strengths, connections with different employers, different approaches, makes job search faster; one person cannot do it all
- Work with local career centers and the DVOPs & LVERs to set up and run a career fair for area veterans
- Participate in local business advisory council
Question and Answer Session
Q: What can organizations do to strengthen their applications when applying for HVRP funds?
Carbone: As you apply for grants, be sure to include as broad of an array of partnerships as you can besides all of the service partners that you may need. Assemble the business or corporate or philanthropic groups in your community who wish to be a part of it so that you can demonstrate not just widespread support but you can demonstrate that you’re going to use the grant really as a matter to be leveraged. It’s going to create greater investment than what the government is paying for. I would say to any potential applicant go out there and build that partnership. Go business by business and organization by organization to get as much financial commitment as you can independent of the grant.
Howard: We went out and got commitments from construction companies, from businesses like Home Depot, and from the food service and hotel management industries. Having all of those firm commitments to add to our grant application in addition to the MOUs from our standard partners made it a really strong application.
Sanchez: We tried to set the numbers at relatively manageable levels so that we could see who we could serve and how it was going to work within the agency before we really went all out.
Wiesen: The shelter is 20 years old, but the school is about three and a half years old. The whole school was a start up. I don’t know what the secret to our success is. I think just a lot of hard work and letting the community know that even though we were new, we were in it for the long haul.
Q: I was just curious what the DOL evidence-based curriculum was from Aletheia House? It sounded like Ultimate Job Search.
Howard: It is called the Ultimate Job Search and it can be found on the DOL website under Vet Employment and Training. It was actually developed by the Institute in Denver.
Q: Were any particular technical training programs developed around these programs in collaboration with any of the training institutions, colleges or employers?
Wiesen: We have a very close relationship with Bunker Hill Community College in Boston. We offer start up, money management, and very basic classes. Plus we have three vocational programs on site. Bunker Hill Community College has sponsored a 3-credit computer course on campus here. So one night a week we offer a college course. We’re in the process of investigating offering several other courses that are going to be modular-based, as in one-credit bearing so that if our clients relapse or there are other issues where they can’t continue, at least they’ll get credit for the modular they have taken.
Carbone: We’ve got a program with one of our community colleges in southwestern CT Gateway. Through our grant with the EPA, we have established a program with a for-profit training provider to work with the community college in helping to get folks really prepared for environmental protection kinds of jobs, be they environmental inspectors, haz-mats, or a whole variety of new green careers. The community college will accept the training alone for the career as 13 credits toward an associate’s degree. To anyone it would appear not as burdensome as it might have appeared. You can get college credit, training for work, and a cool career.
Closing
Kristina Hunken, NCHV
- Thank you
- Part Two of this series will take place on November 5th
- For information on upcoming conference calls, visit www.nchv.org
To listen to a recording of this conference call, click here.
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