Intervention Strategy for Homeless African American Children & Families (Essay Sample)

Intervention Strategy for Homeless African American Children & Families

Name:Class:Date:
Table of Contents
 TOC \o "1-3" \h \z \u  HYPERLINK \l "_Toc309934318"
Introduction  PAGEREF _Toc309934318 \h
1
 HYPERLINK \l "_Toc309934319"
Organization a Relief Program through Volunteerism  PAGEREF _Toc309934319 \h
1
 HYPERLINK \l "_Toc309934320"
Literature Review – Qualitative Research  PAGEREF _Toc309934320 \h
5
 HYPERLINK \l "_Toc309934321"
Literature Review – Quantitative Research  PAGEREF _Toc309934321 \h
5
 HYPERLINK \l "_Toc309934322"
Literature Review – Mixed Methodology Research  PAGEREF _Toc309934322 \h
6
 HYPERLINK \l "_Toc309934323"
Conclusion  PAGEREF _Toc309934323 \h
6
 HYPERLINK \l "_Toc309934324"
References  PAGEREF _Toc309934324 \h
6

Introduction
Organization a Relief Program through Volunteerism
The intervention program for African American Families as proposed should use the community volunteer base to establish a shelter location that allows for single women with children to receive emergency shelter facilities as part of a targeted outreach program designed to meet an urgent need in neighborhoods most affected by the housing crisis and economic downturn. If the level of homelessness among African American families is rising due to foreclosures, unemployment, lack of public assistance programs, etc. a volunteer driven community program can operate in support of the single parent family by providing immediate emergency shelter to African American women with children. for fund raising, administration, and the provision of services that are designed to combat the root causes of poverty, homelessness, and racism in conjunction with but independent from the government assistance programs that have been designated to address these issues. The structure of the organization should include a board of directors and council of governance that is made up of the wider membership and donor base of the group. The first area of priority is to provide services for the shelter and housing of any individuals or families that may be found in a position of “temporary or forced homelessness”. The NGO group should secure properties in urban locations that allow it to run and manage homeless shelters and food service or meal programs for the homeless on a local basis. Where the need is severe, for example in large urban areas, the NGO should attempt to secure multiple properties for the purpose to meet the greater need of homeless individuals and families. From the initial basis of providing emergency shelter to individuals and families, which should be funded collectively from donors and philanthropic foundations, the charity should also provide the services of job training, educational support, vocational school referencing, library services, family counseling, home building, and financial services that assist families or individuals to own their own home. The complexity of each organization can be made more efficient by operating a larger number of local centers in each region rather than one central facility. In summarizing how the charity would operate:
African American women with children would be able to secure emergency shelter at one of the NGO locations, with an estimated rate of 10 families able to receive shared housing facilities at each location.
From the basis of the shelter, the person or family members would be able to access counseling services which would assist the individuals involved in building a personal plan to develop their own lives into a sustainable and satisfying course of life.
The counseling services should recognize, according to the person’s own individual values and goals, the immediate, intermediate, and long term objectives that best assist the individual in realizing their self-identified life goals.
Those who need healthcare or substance abuse counseling would be able to receive treatment by recommendation into a hospital or drug detoxification program.
Those who need educational services or vocational training would be assisted in enrolling in a program that best serves their personal needs.
Those who need a job or career path with training would be assisted in finding work on a short term, temporary, or long-term, career basis with local industries and businesses in partnership.
Those who need shelter would be transitioned from the homeless facility to low-cost rental housing or apartments that were within the budget of their employment and salary.
Those who wished to buy a home would be assisted in finding a location that was affordable and financing that was non-predatory and within the budget of their salary.
The charity should follow the example of “Habitat for Humanity” in purchasing land and building homes for people directly on a low cost, volunteer basis, and then providing these homes to people who required them with assistance in long-term financing.
By providing assistance with education, scholarships, vocational training, and learning material to individuals, African American women can better become prepared to address their own long-term needs, through scholarships and tuition support. Similarly, by making apartments, houses, condos, and other facilities available for rent in short-term situations, the homeless can be supported within their own financial means to become self-sustaining members of the community. Finally, by providing non-predatory financing and assistance to the poor in buying and owning real estate properties in the community, in subsidizing the development costs by volunteer labor and donations, as well as supporting the individuals in job and education so that they can recover to purchase their own home and raise a family on their own terms, the charity provides a viable path of self-development and social welfare that is not currently being provided by existing governmental programs.
Literature Review – Qualitative Research
In “Helping Homeless Families Overcome Barriers to Successful Functioning” (2005), Kevin J. Swick undertook an analysis of the factors which contribute to homelessness, including a further study of how these can be overcome through social work, volunteerism, and other types of charity or emergency relief services. Swick (2005) concluded that family social issues were a major contributing factor to homelessness, and that many homeless mothers often experienced a variety of forms of abuse in their own lives either in youth or in the period preceding homelessness. (Swick, 2005, p.195) Sudden family traumas and natural disasters were two of the leading reasons for new cases of homelessness. The process of becoming homeless was found to lead to a general loss of security, personal safety, and privacy which impacted the mental health of those who experienced it. (Swick, 2005, p. 195) Swick (2005) referred to this as a "disconnect" which particularly impacted children, and the main recommendation made by this study was to help the effected people attain "needed social services" as swiftly as possible, with additional support in education, employment, counseling, and long term personal problem resolution through social services. (Swick, 2005, pp. 195-196) 
Debra J. Rog and John C. Buckner (2007) published “Homeless Families and Children” as part of the National Symposium on Homelessness Research an attempted to give expression to the statistics that were gathered from a wide range of studies to explain the effect of homelessness on families and children in America. They reported:“The best estimate is that families comprise 34 percent of the homeless population (23 percent children and 11 percent adults) on any given night (Burt et al., 1999). In a given year, this translates to about 420,000 families, including 924,000 children, experiencing homelessness in the United States. By extrapolation, about 1.8 percent of all families in this country spend at least one night homeless over the course of a year (Urban Institute, 2000).” (Rog & Buckner, 2007, p. 197)Recognizing the importance of affordable housing in geographic areas and regions, the pair also illustrated the need for emergency temporary shelters that attempt to address and prevent the traumatic experience of family homelessness. The review of this report of studies on the question of the effect of homelessness on mental health of the families who experienced it led to the conclusion that increased rates of depression and post-traumatic stress disorder could result in families as the consequence of experiencing homelessness. (Rog & Buckner, 2007, p. 198) The study also found that single women with children were one of the largest segments of the national homeless population. (Rog & Buckner, 2007, p. 201) Family separation frequently resulted after the homeless experience and elevated levels of substance abuse were detected in homeless mothers with children. (Rog & Buckner, 2007, p. 201) In studying the social networks of homeless mothers with children, the pair found that the personal friendships or surrounding support community of relationships the women usually accessed were reduced or altered in the period preceding homelessness, suggesting that the failure of personal support networks to support single mothers with children often failed to prevent the homeless experience, requiring emergency shelter assistance to intervene in these situations. (Rog & Buckner, 2007, p. 202)
In “Understanding the Impact of Homelessness on Children” (2008), John C. Buckner reviewed the previous studies and surveys on the effect of homelessness on children and found inconclusive results. The expectations were that children who experienced homelessness would perform less well than students for low income ho...