Make It Better Foundation: Changing the Fight Against Homelessness
From Shelter to Stability: How Individualized Care Is Changing the Fight Against Homelessness
Courtesy of Better Magazine:
Homelessness is a glaring epidemic in Chicago. As of January 2024, there were 18,836 individuals in Chicago experiencing homelessness. The homeless population has nearly tripled since 2023, with projections of it only continuing to increase in the upcoming years.
Many factors contribute to homelessness, and A Safe Haven Foundation is on a mission to restore hope and opportunity to individuals facing housing challenges.
Building Empowerment with Individualized Programs
A Safe Haven Foundation (ASHF) is an award-winning emergency and supportive housing service provider for homeless individuals and families throughout Chicago. ASHF provides supportive services to offer a safe environment for parents and children to establish consistency, stabilize health, and pursue education and employment en route to independent self-sufficiency and permanent housing.
What sets ASHF apart from other programs is its focus on individualized assistance. Every person’s journey to homelessness is different, and ASHF takes a person-first approach to care that addresses an individual’s specific obstacles. The ASHF Individualized Care plan provides case management through one-on-one individual and group therapy, consultation, coordination, and referral services with experts experienced in administering treatment and resources not directly available at ASHF.
Each program uses a strength-based, autonomy-enhancing model of services built on the belief that clients possess the strengths necessary to change the conditions that often lead to homelessness. By identifying and building on their strengths, ASHF clinicians and case managers can help residents secure the necessary resources to return to independence.
Helping Clients Beyond Stable Housing
While helping individuals and families find stable housing is an essential service of ASHF, it’s not the only service the foundation provides. Physical, financial, and spiritual stability are all important long-term indicators of an individual’s ability to become self-sufficient, which is why these are also primary focuses for ASHF.
Individuals who come to ASHF undergo an intake assessment, planning, service arrangement, and monitoring. If families come to the foundation, they have access to family education meetings and counseling with assigned clinicians to understand and work through the challenges of planning and caring for families. Based on the assessed needs indicated in the care plan, individual sessions for the household may also occur, including sessions with children that include activities for building self-esteem, teamwork, and trust.
While each program differs based on the needs of the individuals or families, common components of a program may include:
- Building healthy relationships,
- Parenting and caregiver skills
- Maintaining a healthy home
- Parent /child bonding
- Domestic violence education
- Counseling
Many Chicago families struggle to find comprehensive and affordable healthcare, especially if they’re facing homelessness. Families with ASHF have access to on-site health and wellness screenings at the Community Mental Health Center. The center also offers access to therapeutic counselors, psychiatrists, nurse practitioners, and graduate-level interns from professional psychology programs throughout Chicago who provide mental health and substance use assessments.
ASHF wants to ensure that permanent housing, long-term employment, and access to supportive services enable clients to become law-abiding members of their community and caring families with feasible and realistic outcomes.
Every Person Matters at A Safe Haven Foundation
A Safe Haven boasts one of the highest rates of parent-child reunification programs in the City of Chicago. The organization is “Winning the Fight Against Homelessness—One Person at a Time.” This statement indicates its commitment to supporting everyone who walks through its doors, not as a metric or statistic but as human beings who can be empowered and uplifted.
It may sound like a slow process to end homelessness one person at a time, but it reflects the ASHF ethos, which centers on the person first. This ethos does not preclude systemic changes, as the organization provides affordable housing units to create greater access and innovates with cutting-edge and evidence-based approaches to providing behavioral health. It is a reminder of who these systemic changes are serving. The changes only work as they serve the individuals who need them. And by prioritizing the entire household, ASHF is changing their communities, one household at a time.
How to Help:
Donate today to help A Safe Haven continue its critical outreach, which has served the Chicagoland community well for nearly 30 years. For more information about A Safe Haven and its life-saving work, visit A Safe Haven online or call 773- 435-8300.