Although many organizations providing temporary shelter for individuals experiencing homelessness exist, there is a gap in the Gainesville, Florida community for these services specifically serving families and unaccompanied youth. In 2018 there were an estimated 641 people experiencing homelessness in Alachua County, the majority of whom were on the streets rather than in shelters (NCF Alliance 2018). In the entirety of Gainesville, Florida, the most recent data from 2012 showed that an estimated 365 people experiencing homelessness were in groups of at least one adult and one child (NCF Alliance 2018).
In this project's design for a safe transitional housing community built upon reducing trauma surrounding homelessness for children and families, this project aims to work with clients to reach sustainability through the connections with medical and other services, youth and parental life-skills courses, and the provision of free housing transitioning gradually to a sliding-scale basis for the purposes of empowering financial growth. To provide unaccompanied youth safe shelter, pre-independent living group shelter will be available.
This organization will provide trauma-informed approaches to reducing adverse experiences related to experiencing homelessness such as food insecurity, poverty, or child-parent separation. Families and unaccompanied youth served will ultimately be provided with a safe space to obtain stability and receive connections to other services throughout the community.
Trauma-Informed Principles
Trauma-informed principles are built into the program through development of key elements of a trauma-informed organization (SAMHSA 2014).
Safety - Securing the facility with a gated entrance and security provides safety for residents and employees. Physical security alleviates mental stress of individuals and provides safe, trauma-free spaces.
Trustworthiness and Transparency - The involvement of stakeholders in project functions is essential, as they reside at the organization. Holding town hall meetings for residents to voice their concerns and gathering input on decisions being made increases the transparency of the organization, creating a trusting relationship between project and community.
Peer Support, Collaboration and Mutuality - Life-skills classes and the residential style of the organization creates a social network for residents to meet others in similar situations who may be relatable, providing support. Additionally, unaccompanied youth in group housing will be able to meet other children with the same lived experience.
Engagement between residents of this organization and the surrounding outside community is essential for a greater support network. Programs that involve community engagement strategies such as social or service events in the community bridges the gap.
Empowerment - Offering classes and resources to stakeholders gives them the choice of which programs to take advantage of. Residence at the organization requires families to gradually become self-sufficient, providing choices of which direction to lead the lives of themselves and their families.
Cultural and Gender Issues - Providing culturally sensitive and appropriate resources for families is essential. Being inclusive both in terms of gender and culture allow for a trauma-informed organization. All staff will be educated in key competencies, as well as in potential historically-connected traumas.
Social-Ecological Model
This project will address the individual, relationship and community levels of the CDC’s Four-Level Social-Ecological Model (CDC 2019). At the individual level, unaccompanied youth are provided life-skills training and counseling, impacting factors that can place an individual at risk for traumatic experiences, such as education level or income. Families utilizing parenting skills training also benefit at the model’s individual level, as these resources promote behaviors that prevent traumatic experiences.
Additionally, the relationship level is impacted by the project’s services of reuniting unaccompanied youth with their families, if possible, attempting to provide familial stability for the child. Unaccompanied youth seeking pre-independent living group housing will also be affected at the relationship level by becoming active with peers at counseling and life skill trainings to reduce conflict and promote healthy relationships. Families at this organization may also find support from other families through housing and resources offered, providing close social-circles.
At the community level, strategies such as providing housing opportunities, childcare, and economic support seek to reduce characteristics that are associated with trauma. This organization seeks to improve the housing opportunities of the neighborhood, providing a space for families to safely navigate their community without struggling to provide a trauma-free environment for their children.
Public Health Framework
This organization is built on trauma-informed framework following a cross-sector public health model for addressing ACEs and trauma. Therefore, the framework for this organization is trauma-preventative, trauma-informed, and trauma-specific.
Policies such as the provision of a safe family-only neighborhood for those experiencing homelessness, are trauma-preventative. This project’s framework is to keep families together, reducing childhood exposure to poverty, and separation. This framework, providing a safe and informed space with access to counseling and peer-support, reflects knowledge about trauma exposure and seeks to mitigate consequences of those experiences. By fulfilling a need for homeless child/family resources, the organization demonstrates understanding of the prevalence of this trauma (Scattergood Foundation, 2017). The organization promotes policies that provide access to services such as counseling, childcare, and life-skills courses that mitigate the effects of trauma exposure. These services, as well as referrals to others such as medical or employment, promote recovery by aiding in the stability of the family or child.
Stages of Prevention
This project seeks not only to respond to trauma, but also to prevent it by promoting strategies that align with stages of prevention. Primary preventative strategies provided include stability created by housing. This prevents potential ACEs caused by homelessness, or the separation of a child from family. Secondary prevention is addressed through the provision of resources to families. Although homelessness may have already occurred, aid in gaining employment or provision of food can reduce the impact of that trauma. For tertiary prevention, the referral of families to services such as counseling or medical care to treat the ongoing health of individuals involved aids in the recovery long term.
References
2018 COUNT OF HOMELESS PEOPLE IN NCF ALLIANCE, SHELTERED AND UNSHELTERED, AS REPORTED TO HUD. (2018). Retrieved from http://www.ncfalliance.org/wp-...PIT-counts-final.pdf
"Point-in-Time Counts of People Who Are Homeless CoC: FL-508 Gainesville/Alachua, Putnam Counties CoC." 2018. Retrieved from http://www.ncfalliance.org/wp-...istoric-Summary-.pdf
SAMHSA. (2014, July). SAMHSA’s Concept of Trauma and Guidance for a Trauma-Informed Approach.
CDC. (2019, January 16). The Social-Ecological Model: A Framework for Prevention.
Scattergood Foundation. (2017). Trauma-Informed Philanthropy.
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