By Florida Catholic staff - Florida Catholic
MIAMI | Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Miami has received a $5 million grant from the Day 1 Families Fund to expand housing and homelessness services in Miami-Dade, Broward, and Monroe Counties.
Photographer: COURTESY
Catholic Charities' New Life Family Center in Miami has an art therapy program to help children who face homelessness cope and express their emotions productively. These drawings were all done by children while staying at New Life. The goal at the heart of New Life Center is for each family to be self-sufficient and permanently housed.
Photographer: COURTESY
Families at Catholic Charities' New Life Family Center are encouraged to identify personal and professional goals. The case manager then helps them outline the steps that need to be taken, as well as provide soft skills needed to achieve their goals. These steps are then incorporated into the family’s service plan. This client, age 6, described her image as Wish Upon a Star.
Photographer: COURTESY
This picture depicts New Life Family Center's goal of keeping families together. Often, homeless families are split up into different shelters. At New Life, the whole family unit is welcomed.
The money is part of $97.5 million that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his wife, MacKenzie Bezos, are donating to 24 nonprofits across the U.S. working on family homelessness.
This grant will allow Catholic Charities to provide additional assistance for families in need of permanent housing through the Housing First Model, a best practice, and will ensure Catholic Charities can address more of its clients’ most basic needs. It also will help to expand supportive services that help families fighting homelessness become self-sufficient.
“With this wonderful grant, Catholic Charities will continue its work to move children and families out of poverty,” said Peter Routsis-Arroyo, chief executive officer of Catholic Charities.
He thanked the Bezos “for their generous and timely” grant that allows Catholic Charities “to be at the forefront of providing social services to children and families experiencing homelessness” in South Florida.
“This award demonstrates Catholic Charities’ continued commitment and history of service to those in need,” Routsis-Arroyo said. “As His Excellency Thomas Wenski, Archbishop of Miami, likes to say, ‘we help people, not because they are Catholic, but because we are’.”
Catholic Charities administers the New Life Family Center, a shelter for homeless families in Miami; as well as St. Bede’s Apartments, St. Bede’s Dormitory and St. Theresa Family Housing in Key West.
The Bezos Day One Fund consists of two programs: the Day 1 Families Fund that provides grants to nonprofit organizations fighting homelessness, and the Day 1 Academies Fund that will fund and build a network of pre-schools in low-income communities across the country.
The Day 1 Families Fund’s vision comes from the inspiring Mary’s Place in Seattle: no child should sleep outside. A small group of expert advisors provided input to the Bezos Day One Fund team to select these organizations. The Day 1 Families Fund will be awarding grants annually. For more information, visit www.BezosDayOneFund.org/Day1FamiliesFund.
Other Day 1 Families grant recipients were: Abode Services, Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New Orleans, Catholic Community Services of Western Washington, Community of Hope, Community Rebuilders, Crossroads Rhode Island, District Alliance for Safe Housing (DASH), Emerald Development & Economic Network (EDEN) Inc., FrontLine Service, Hamilton Families, Heartland Family Service, Housing Families First, JOIN, LA Family Housing (LAFH), Northern Virginia Family Service (NVFS), Primo Center for Women and Children, Refugee Women’s Alliance (ReWA), SEARCH Homeless Services, Simpson Housing Services, The Salvation Army of Greater Charlotte, The Salvation Army of Greater Houston, UMOM New Day Centers and Urban Resource Institute (URI).
Sheryl: a success story
Here’s one example of how Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Miami helps homeless families.
Sheryl was a Catholic Charities client who was seeking permanent housing. She was able to enroll in its Low Barrier Rapid Rehousing Program in October 2017. At the time, she was a 25-year old mother of three children who [had spent] several months on the street. The family had very limited income, which allowed her to receive a total of $6,560 towards permanent housing, the full amount the grant allowed.
Together with the help of her case manager, she was able to find an apartment and move in with the Rapid Rehousing dollars we were able to provide. During this time, she received connections to various resources in the community for her and her children, financial literacy education, and one-on-one sessions with her case manager.
Understanding her financial situation and being able to see exactly where she needed to be financially in order to become self-sufficient, she decided to open her own business. Sheryl leased a food truck. The food truck was able to bring her approximately $100 daily after expenses. She recently was able to hire someone to help her and she is now in the process of expanding her business by starting up her second food truck.
She shared that our services empowered her and she is now a business owner. The last follow-up of Sheryl’s progress showed that she was still permanently housed and doing well.
