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New center is
launched by All Saints’ Church, diocesan agency, local government
The
Institute for Urban Research and Development (IURD), an institution of the
Diocese of Los Angeles, has teamed with the Department of Public Social
Services of the County of Riverside to open Project ACHIEVE Riverside, which
will help homeless individuals and families leave life on the streets for
permanent housing and self-sufficiency.
The Riverside project was
modeled on the successful Project ACHIEVE that has been operating for
several years in Glendale. Impetus for the Riverside version came from the
Rev. Clarke Prescott, rector of the city’s All Saints’ Church, who drew the
attention of local civil leaders to the homeless problem. “I informed our
local politicians about Glendale,” Prescott said, “and they liked it.”
The Riverside center will
be a one-stop case-management service center, offering mental health care,
substance abuse treatment, employment counseling and training, and housing
placement services, along with two 50-bed transitional shelters—one for
single men and the other for single women and families. The new program will
be operated from what is currently the Riverside Men’s Shelter. The women’s
and children’s shelter is under construction and is scheduled to open in
mid-December.
Such programs were long
overdue in the Riverside area, according to Cathy Welborn, Riverside
County’s administrative manager of homeless programs, and a parishioner at
All Saints’. “For years we have been seeking an approach to homeless
services that goes beyond simply warehousing people night after night,” she
said. “These new programs represent a new commitment to providing homeless
individuals and families with the support they need to achieve
self-sufficiency.”
That is the philosophy of
IURD, a nonprofit social service agency committed to “breaking the cycle of
homelessness” by providing specialized case management services.
“Simply providing homeless
people with food, clothing and emergency shelter does not help them to exit
life on the streets,” says IURD Executive Director Joe Colletti. “Intensive,
comprehensive case management does.”
IURD estimates that the
center will serve approximately 2,000 adults and children in the residential
and non-residential programs in one year. A 2002 analysis prepared by
Riverside County estimates that over 1,700 single individuals and persons in
families are homeless on any given night in the county.
Church involvement will be
local as well as diocesan. According to Prescott, All Saints’ Church stands
ready to assist in whatever Colletti needs them to do, such as taking part
in the center’s meal service. All Saints continues to serve 2500 meals each
month in its own long-standing food program. |
