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Project Home -- Helping homeless veterans find a place to stay, a doorway to permanent housingOn July 9, 2010, we opened the doors to our first veterans who can call PROJECT HOME their home. Click on the collage photo to view some of the photos taken at the ceremony and check back here later to view more pictures of the before and after the renovations.
Read all about this transitional home for area veterans in two articles recently published in The Day.
For an update and a "thank you" to those who have contributed their time, donations, and energy to making Project Home a continuing success, please follow the link and read this letter from our Executive Director, Cathy Zall and Board Member Ron Steed: click here The Need
Since we began operation of our day time hospitality center in January 2007 we have identified a significant number of veterans among the homeless population. Each year about 90 veterans have utilized our overnight shelter—some for extended periods of time. Like every homeless individual, veterans in the grip of long term homelessness need access to stable housing and support services to return to independent living. The Veterans Administration has a program (called Grant and Per Diem) which provides access to this type of support. In an effort to secure these supports for veterans in
Paying for the Project The total cost of acquisition and renovation will be $200,965. The Department of Veterans Affairs has awarded us $130,627 (65% of project costs) toward this total. We are responsible for raising the remaining $70,000 required. We have already raised approximately $47,000 of this match but are still seeking support for the remaining $23,000 in project costs we need to cover.
Once the renovation is complete, the Department of Veterans Affairs will be providing an ongoing per diem grant to support operating and support service costs for the transitional housing program. By combining both capital funding and operational support, the Grant and Per Diem program offers us a unique opportunity to meet the needs of homeless veterans.
Currently, the
A place to live is the first step…then comes the hard work of returning to independent living. Homeless veterans face a variety of barriers as they work to return to permanent independent housing. Our goal is to support each veteran on his/her individual path with flexible supports tailored to each person's needs. We will directly offer only support services we believe are not available from, or cannot be as effectively delivered by, existing programs. The operation of the transitional housing and the costs of support services will be funded through the per diem portion of the grant.
Case Management -- each program participant will have a designated case manager. Case managers will have experience in working with homeless individuals, demonstrated effectiveness in motivational interviewing approaches, basic knowledge of VA and community based resources and in many cases their own experience in the military. The case manager's primary tasks will be to enhance motivation for change through effective engagement, to help identify resources which can support the veteran in pursuing change and to provide practical support to the veteran as they implement their change plans.
Housing that supports transition to independent living -- Our design seeks to very intentionally use the time in transitional housing to help veterans develop the money management and independent living skills they will need to maintain permanent housing.
Help in securing benefits -- while case managers will support veterans as they pursue most applications for public benefits, we have found that special expertise is required to support applications for SSI/SSDI. As needed, a member of our staff with specialized training and extensive experience in preparing applications for disability using a nationally tested and validated model (SOAR) will support veterans pursuing disability benefits.
Finding work will be a key challenge Increasing employment income is at the heart of our design. We will make extensive use of Department of Labor services targeted to veterans and existing skills training/job readiness programs. We will also devote our own staff time to developing paid and unpaid work experience opportunities for our participants. Utilizing a network of local employers, as developed through our local VFW and other contacts, we will develop paid part-time, short-term employment opportunities uniquely tailored to the needs and skills of each veteran. Where paid employment is not feasible we will seek out internships, job shadowing and volunteer opportunities.
What are we doing? We currently are able to house 8 Veterans at a time in the house and are continuing to institute new projects to improve the quality of life for our Veterans. We recently planted a community garden in conjunction with Eastern Connecticut Community Gardens Association that is being kept up and maintained by the veterans that reside in the house. The garden was dedicated on September 11, 2011 to those that lost their lives in the events of September 11, 2001.
Catherine Zall |
July 8 2010: 
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