First Responders for the Soul
Mission: To provide a residential facility that
addresses and provides solutions in the area of Drug Abuse, Homelessness and
Under-Education by creating a “Delancey Street” type model. This model is
intended to be A
solution not THE solution.
The Model: The Delancey Street model has been working effectively over thirty
years and has moved thousands from the “streets” to society. It started
as a reentry program for people coming out of prison and now meets the needs of
the homeless, the uneducated and the drug addicted as well. People come
into the program for a minimum of two years and a maximum of four years.
They are systematically shown how to be accountable to others and for others
with the “each one, teach one” philosophy. Persons in the program are
taught social skills, life skills, a proper work ethic, community service, and
three marketable skills. They receive,
at minimum, a GED, but are encouraged with opportunities to earn a higher
degree of education.
Delancey Street residents do the
work on their living quarters themselves under the guidance of professional
builders. From this comes a sense of pride, self-esteem and ownership in
the project; creating an atmosphere of achievement and encouragement. The
residents are not paid for their work as they receive room and board for free
while in the program. Income for the program is generated from the
various Delancey Street businesses
that are built and maintained by the residents themselves. Currently,
there are Delancey Street moving
companies, Delancey Street
restaurants, Delancey Street café’s
and boutiques, and more. It is this entrepreneurial spirit and focus that
makes this model the best for our community.
The Premise of Seneca Community Chaplain Corps: If you invest
in problems, you might win or you might lose.
When you invest in people, you always win! Our purpose is to impact lives and create
change for the better – for the individual, our community, our state and our
nation. The Delancey Street
model is strictly a secular model. It is our intention to provide Road
to Hope as a bridge between the secular model and the spiritual
community, as an added component. That is not to say that we are we
building a church, for we are not!
Rather, we will work with the faith-based community to address the whole
person.
Community Collaborations: It is the intention of SC3 to promote partnerships
within the community, including other agencies, organizations and government
entities, so that we don’t reinvent the wheel by duplicating services. We draw on the community resources of local
business owners, help from the College and University, Career Center programs,
and the professional community to help with the training, educating, and
equipping those in the program. It is our intention to help each
individual to a place of independence, employability, and to become an overall
productive member of our community, with help from the community.
We will ask local businesses to teach skills
and train individuals in a trade as interns within their companies.
We will ask those in the higher education
community to give of their time to teach seminars or classes to residents of
the program.
We will partner with professionals and ask
them to provide motivational speaking engagements with the residents.
We will collaborate with the Spiritual
Community to provide for that component of residents’ needs, as well as utilize
the Chaplains of the Corps for pastoral counseling, anger and
stress management training, and the teaching of life skills.
The Needs Addressed Specific to our Community:
Drug
Abuse: Statistics from the METRICH
Drug Task Force confirm a prominent problem in this area of our county.
Education: A Significant number of people do not have a
High School Diploma, GED, trade or higher education background for
employability.
Alcohol
Abuse: Our court system ranks #14 in
the state for the number of Civil Protection Orders granted for Domestic
Violence, and in a majority of the Domestic Violence cases, alcohol is a
contributing factor. There is also an issue with underage consumption of
alcohol in our county. Together with
heroin addiction, we have the unfortunate distinction of a high-frequency of
over-dose related deaths.
Homelessness: The Homeless Coalition has already identified the issues relating to homelessness in our county and has created a shelter program. Road to Hope addresses the issues on all of the above levels. Road to Hope will not house sexual offenders, or the mentally ill as determined by a psychiatric professional, as both of those populations require more management than we are equipped to provide in the way of treatment services, oversight and evaluations of progress.
The Clients: We house and help people from a broad spectrum of
society; from individuals to families with the targeted needs stated
above.
Referrals: We receive referrals from a variety of agencies,
including: the courts, probation, and rehabilitation facilities, as well as
agencies that contend with homelessness, law enforcement, concerned families
and individuals, churches, and community leaders. We make referrals to
various agencies as areas of resident need are identified.
Screening Process: The only criteria for denial to the
program is if the person has committed sexual offenses, or is a person with
mental illness that requires long term care and psychiatric supervision, such
as psychosis, which is beyond our scope and ability.
Rules: The Delancey Street model has only three rules: No Violence, No Threat
of Violence and No Drug or Alcohol Use. Road to Hope has expanded the rules
to provide additional structure to our program. Any infraction may result
in dismissal from the program. A resident council will mediate all
infractions and determine outcome.
What we have in place:
I. Community Support and
Collaboration for the Project
A.
Government Officials
B.
Local Business
Owners
C.
Local Support Agencies
D.
GED, Trades, and Higher Education
Support personnel
E.
Faith Based Community
F.
Drug and Alcohol Program Directors
G.
Law Enforcement, Probation, Parole Authority
H.
Local Civic Clubs and Charities
II. Facilities
A.
Administration and Community Service Center
B.
Housing
C.
Retail Space –
The program has a goal of entrepreneurial endeavors
as the persons go through the program. In teaching them three marketable
skills, the intention is to have them run a business from the ground up.
We have donated space in which to work and develop entrepreneurial endeavors in
order to become self-sustaining through services or retail sales.
III. Funding
A.
We are a 501(c)3
entity and able to provide tax deductions for donations.
B.
Grant Funding
C.
Community Support and Fundraising, locally
D.
Retail Endeavors
E.
Corporate Sponsorship
IV. Program and Project Planning/Implementation
A.
Collaborate with local officials for
identifying projects
B.
We have a Board of Residents and Community
Leaders
C.
Architectural and Construction Support
D.
Financial Oversight and Budgeting
E.
Retail Management/ Educational
Partnerships
What we still need:
I. Volunteers in the following areas
A.
Transportation
B. Victim Advocacy
C. Peer Support
D. Mentors
E. Health Care
F. Group leaders
G. Community Service
H. Food Preparation
II. Material Needs such as:
A. Linens
B. Pillows
C. Hygiene Items
D. Work boots
E. Tools
F. Food
G. Fundraising
H. Office Staffing
I.
Data
Tracking Software
J.
Power
Point Projector
K. Computers
road to hope