Transitional Shelter Program
The Haven’s Transitional Shelter Program features a comprehensive array of services designed to transition a woman and her children beyond homelessness and towards independent living.
The shelters are two homes in Libertyville. Hope House is a four-bedroom house that sleeps ten people and has a communal living room, kitchen, two full bathrooms, a playroom, storage facilities, a family room, and a fenced-in backyard with a large outdoor play set. Renewal House has six-bedrooms and sleeps 10 people with many of the same features as Hope House, plus a welcoming porch.
The communal nature of the shelters provide a supportive environment for each resident during her transition from homelessness to independence.
Typical goals that are achieved during a shelter stay include:
- gaining employment
- paying down debt
- saving money (residents are required to save a minimum of 80 percent of their income while in shelter)
- furthering education
- maintaining sobriety
- learning effective parenting, &
- regaining custody of children in foster care.
Depending on a resident’s individualized self-sufficiency plan, she will take advantage of numerous in-house and community-based services. She could take budgeting, parenting, resume-writing, and other life skills classes, attend an in-house support group, and/or receive employment or psychological counseling. She would also work with her case manager to ensure that the emotional, educational, and health needs of her children are being met. Tutoring is available for both adults and children. The case manager would help the resident to apply for all public benefits for which she is eligible. Free transportation to grocery stores, job interviews, work, and support groups is offered when available, as are childcare services during these activities. The average length of stay in the program is three to five months.
Transitional Housing Program
This Program is an important middle step between the shelter and independent living. The Transitional Housing Program offers residents clean, safe, and homey dwellings scattered throughout Libertyville that are owned or rented by the Haven and then sub-leased to residents at an affordable price. The length of stay in these units ranges from six months to two years, with the average being nine months. During their stay in the Transitional Housing Program, residents continue to receive the same high-quality case management services that they received in the Transitional Shelter Program.
The Transitional Housing Program currently maintains a total of eight 2- and 3-bedroom apartments. Capacity in the Program totals sixteen. ♥
