NPIHN's Programs for Homeless and at-risk Families

NPIHN's programs provide essential services to help homeless and at- risk families attain stability.

Counseling and Referral: Volunteers and staff speak with families and those at risk of homelessness, serving as a resource, identifying options and appropriate shelter programs as well as selecting some families for a stay in our program as space is available. During 2005, the NPIHN office counseled and assisted in placing 307 homeless families and individuals.

Congregational based Shelter: NPIHN's shelter program operates and delivers services in the Germantown, Mt. Airy and Chestnut Hill, Roxborough and East Falls sections of city of Philadelphia. Guest congregations are organized to take responsibility for two weeks to two months in providing private space for each family, food and companionship for 5 families (up to 17 individuals). Hosting services are provided by congregations whose members contribute over 7,500 volunteer hours each year in preparing space for the family and hosting their stay overnight. During 2005, NPIHN sheltered and relocated 20 families comprised of 62 individuals.

Case Management: With permanent housing and financial self sufficiency as the primary objective, each family works with a social worker to establish goals and formulate plans leading to their achievement.

Lifeskills Education and Recreation Weekly life-skills programs prepare adults to live knowledgeably and independently. Staff, volunteers, and former guest family guides provide a program of parenting, financial literacy, career and education development, job search support and networking, life-skills education, housing counseling, support groups, art/music therapy, and recreational programs for the families in the shelter setting.

Day Center: The staff offices and day center provide a comfortable daytime base for non- working families to care for children, and offers computers, telephones, fax and copy machine, supporting families in their search for career programs, jobs and housing. The Case Manager's office is on site, as is a kitchen for light meal preparation and a shower, should one not be available at the host congregation. A resource room is on hand with a collection of videos and materials on employment, education and career planning, financial literacy, family health, nutrition, parenting and housing programs.

NPIHN Mentors and Movers: Unique in its design, Family Mentors and Movers is one of the first homeless shelter related programs to link each family member and adult heads of households with mentors. The program is designed to provide tangible and emotional support to each family relocating to permanent housing. Each guest family is matched with a volunteer who assists and supports the family through their move to permanent housing, assisting in collecting, obtaining and moving all necessary furniture and household goods to set up house quickly as to minimize time away from work due to relocation. The program actually pays for each family move and supports each move with a rented truck, volunteers and hired professional movers.

The Mentors and Movers program is designed to reinforce the lifeskills workshops held in the shelter setting, by providing ongoing support and counsel to families with follow-up contact at least monthly, and sometimes as often as weekly, depending on need. Mentors and families gather together quarterly for educational and social programs. Mentors meet on a monthly basis for training and support with Ellen Latimore, M.Ed., Mentoring and Volunteer Director.

Educational and Social Advocacy Programs for Congregations and Community Organizations

Just Neighbors: Just Neighbors is an engaging 9- part interactive educational series on poverty and homelessness in the United States. Each session, which can be held as a stand-alone session or combined in a series, is ideal for congregational study groups, high school and university students to gain better understanding about the root causes of poverty and homelessness. The program serves as a springboard to social advocacy activities and additional types of volunteer service programs.         Just Neighbors Toolkit

Interfaith Advocates: A coalition of congregants, clergy, formerly homeless and homeless families working together to advocate for policies that challenge the systemic causes of homelessness and poverty. Based on a similar organizing structure that involve congregational volunteer coordinators and membership, Interfaith Advocates volunteer for 12 hours a year of non partisan -advocacy on the local, state and federal level. The program has been in existence for less than one year, and already has engaged 15 congregations and 142 individuals signed up as advocates.