|
|
|
|
|
|
The Carpenter's Place (CP) Model was
developed after recognizing that many street individuals were not linked with community
agencies in a coordinated manner, or at any level of commitment. It was noticed that in
spite of the many specialized services that are often available to the homeless, after
receiving the specific service, the individual was most often back-on-the-street-again . .
. enveloped in all of its negative forces. The person on the street is most often not able
to focus or even begin to sort-out his/her issues and develop an effective Life Recovery
Plan for themselves, and so they continue to spiral further out of control. This causes
havoc not only in their life, but also in the lives of those around them and the community
at large.
The CP Model currently includes innovative
outreach and engagement, assessment, and comprehensive case management that employs a
balance of compassion and accountability. Services include a daytime drop-in center for
the homeless, addicted, mentally ill or otherwise severely distressed ‘street'
population of the community. Self help/study groups are offered including
alcoholic and drug recovery classes, mental health and substance
abuse recovery group, practical daily devotions, art, as well as other classes and support groups.
Medical services are provided on-site by Crusader Clinic. Professional case managers offer
extended services such as: showers, storage of personal belongings, mail and message
service, clothing, haircuts, as well as extensive interagency collaboration and advocacy
with linkages within as well as outside of the local community. |
|
CP philosophy maintains that individual
services provided apart from a holistic plan can not address core issues or barriers and
may even perpetuate an individual's issues and life condition instead of producing lasting
change. Case managers therefore assess 14 areas of life which include: Identification,
Relationships, Health, Mental Health, Addictions, Education, Housing, Belongings,
Employment, Financial, Legal, Transportation, Recreation, and Spiritual. Individualized
Life Recovery Plans are then developed with Guest input and buy-in, then monitored, and
periodically adjusted as required. This combination of unique programming elements has
achieved success in producing lasting outcomes for homeless individuals that have formerly
remained unreachable on local streets for decades. In fiscal year 2006 CP recorded 299
Guests that came in homeless and attained stable housing working with CP case managers.
|
|
What most agencies refer to as their
clients, CP refers to as their Guests. They emphasize that each Guest is a unique
individual with unique attributes and abilities, as well as unique impediments and
challenges. Expectations that are too high may become more than the individual has the
will or capacity to attain. Expectations that are too low may enable or even encourage an
individual to remain in a destructive lifestyle. Some homeless Guests have the will and
resources to commit to positive change in their lives, while those at ‘the end of all
roads' may only have the will to dull their pain through any means available. Programming
must meet people where they are and then encourage progress.
|
|
CP also strives to maintain a unique balance
of compassion with accountability. Services provided without accountability can lead to
destructive negative enabling and entitlement mentality. A CP byline is: “We are not
here to make it easy to stay in a destructive lifestyle”. If an individual is serious
about receiving and applying help, we are serious about providing that help. Guests must
also follow through with commitments, to the degree that they are capable. The balance
involves recognizing that there is often a fine line between the ‘willfully
non-compliant' and those that do not possess the full capacity to ‘be' compliant.
There are a host of unaddressed mental health issues, personality disorders, developmental
disabilities, learning disabilities, and other inhibiting conditions among distressed
populations that demand extensive individualized attention.
|
|
Having a strong outcome-based philosophy, CP
is focused on counting lasting 'outcomes' such as seeing Guests successfully becoming housed, maintaining
sobriety, addressing mental health conditions, and other core issues.
|
|
|
