Help with Housing – Supportive Housing for Families

In a web of acronyms, across Wheeler’s continuum of care, are dozens of grant-funded community-based programs, all unique but largely centered on a common theme: helping at-risk families stay together and thrive at home.

Hundreds of Wheeler staff work in these specific programs, serving hundreds more families every day, who are generally referred to Wheeler through the Connecticut Department of Children and Families (DCF), which funds and closely works with staff in each program. The teams are, broadly, non-clinical, and their work focuses more on connections for the families they serve…for help, housing, health care, and resources that help them thrive.

They do similar work in each program, but they work in different ways. All are time-limited; they are not intended to be long-term solutions by themselves. And one common thread remains…the programs focus on the unique strengths within the family, and they all aim to show families that they themselves have what they need to grow, as each family, even those referred to Wheeler by DCF because of abuse or neglect, are strong in their own ways.

“They say it takes a village to raise a child, but every family’s village is different,” say Tabor Napiello, LMSW, program manager of one of the programs, Care Coordination. To address one of the most pressing issues today—housing—Wheeler offers a program called Supportive Housing for Families.

Help with Housing – Supportive Housing for Families (SHF)

• The Basics:
  SHF provides families with support services, and access to safe, quality, affordable housing. The mission of SHF is to help DCF families thrive by finding homes in safe neighborhoods, learning skills to manage their housing independently, in order to provide their children with a stable home environment.
   
• Referred by:
  Department of Children and Families
   
• More Information:
  Wheeler Health - Supportive Housing for Families

“The reunification and/or preservation of the family is our priority,” says Susan Schneider, LCSW, director of community-based family services. “Parents have previously lost their housing or no longer have independent housing, and this is impacting their ability to provide a safe environment for their children.”

Services include housing subsidy; case management services that focus on budgeting, housing maintenance, and employment; linkages to behavioral health services where necessary and community resources. Unlike most Wheeler programs, Wheeler does not hold the contract with the state to offer SHF; it is a subcontractor of The Connection, in Middletown, which engages Wheeler to deliver the Supportive Housing for Families model. The Connection provides model training for staff, as well as vocational and parenting coaches that parents can be paired to for increasing skill.

“We want to focus on the skills parents need to sustain housing for their family. Do they have adequate employment? Do they know how to budget? Are they keeping up with their own mental health needs? Do you know how to build a good, working relationships with your landlords? We help our families with all of this, and more.”

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In Supportive Housing for Families, and many more programs across Wheeler, staff are entering a family’s home to work, which sets it apart from other services, like outpatient behavioral health care.

“When you enter someone’s home, someone’s environment, you’re getting a systemic view of the family,” Angeles Ramos, MS, LMFT, program manager of one other community-based service, Intensive Family Preservation (IFP). The program is different from Supportive Housing for Families, but the sentiment is the same.

“You’re seeing the hallways they walk down, how the children walk to school, and you’re experiencing their lives through the environment around them. There’s nothing like it. You gain a holistic view of the client and family, and you can more readily see the things that we can do to help them thrive in the community.”

IN THIS SERIES ON WHEELER'S GRANT-FUNDED PROGRAMS

• Healing at Home: MST and MDFT Programs at Wheeler Health
• Planning for a Better Tomorrow – Care Coordination
• SAFE Family Recovery
• Intensive Family Preservation
• Supportive Housing for Families
• Upcoming in this series...
  • PROUD and REACH
  • Community Justice
  • Congregate Care
  • Community Support for Families
  • And much more!