Give to solutions that will have a lasting impact on the lives of people in need.
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LSSN'S STRATEGIC PLAN FOR THE FUTURE
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Low-income individuals experience multiple barriers to immediate needs such as employment, health, nutrition, housing, life skills, etc. These barriers are diverse and yet interrelated: lack of skills, education or training; lack of resources, financial or personal; barriers to accessing community resources - such as lack of transportation, cultural or language barriers; or perceived stigma to accessing welfare programs, etc. Therefore, to break the cycle of poverty and/or to prevent poverty and reach not only short-term but more importantly, long-term results for families, LSSN suggests a unique BREAK & EMPOWER MODEL OF CARING FOR PEOPLE IN NEED, a family empowerment-based continuum of care approach and intervention method. LSSN strongly believes that the provision of basic and emergency needs together with more intensive individualized and wraparound support systems that are based upon client goals and preferences is a long-term approach towards reducing and/or alleviating the cases of poverty, episodic homelessness and to improving residential stability thus achieving self-sufficiency and independence.
The primary goal of the Model is to assist people in need to help themselves and achieve greater self-sufficiency and sustainability in the long run. The BREAK & EMPOWER stands for: Bridging Resources Enforcing Accountability, giving the Key to independence & Empowering- those who are served.
The BREAK & EMPOWER Model (Breaking the Cycle of Poverty & Empowering Those Who are Served) will:
- Bridge and mobilize multiple community resources
- Empower and engage clients in self-growth and self-sufficiency, and
- Navigate poverty-stricken and low-income families to independence through community support systems
In the next few years, LSSN will work actively to achieve its strategic goals:
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Community Nutrition Center & Marketplace Services
The Community Nutrition Center & Marketplace of the BREAK & EMPOWER Model will break the cycle of hunger and poverty and consists of:
- LSSN Community Food Pantry
- Nutrition Education Kitchen
- Mobile & Satellite Food Pantry Initiatives
- LSSN Community Thrift Store, a social enterprise
The LSSN Community Food Pantry follows the F.E.E.D. Operation Methodology, which stands for Family Empowerment, Education and Distribution. The Center is an empowering, unique and holistic approach to the traditional stigma of food pantries. The traditional pre-packaged pantry model takes away the customer's ability to choose and can result in wasted food if customers do not use the contents of the bag. LSSN's power of choice model, the supermarket style client-choice food pantry allows clients to select items as they would in a grocery store. This helps ensure that clients retain the dignity of choice while eliminating waste, and preserving sensitivity to clients' cultural, dietary and health needs.
The supermarket style food pantry serves families in need by validating their individual needs, along with improving and maintaining their health. It also offers a far more culturally sensitive method of food distribution, reinforcing the customer's ability to select the food they know how to prepare. Household items such as bath tissues, hygiene and laundry supplies not covered by food stamps are also available, as well as pet food.
The education component of F.E.E.D. is a unique approach too. The families are provided with:
- Nutrition and food preparation training sessions
- Budgeting training - How to budget for purchasing food and household items not supplied through the Food Pantry
- Shopping Tips: Nutrient-rich vs. Calorie-rich
- Ongoing support, training, and coaching - Recipes with shopping lists that include pictures
- Special support groups for diabetics and obese clients, as they deal with other life issues that affect their food choices and eating behaviors.
LSSN would like to introduce F.E.E.D. to Pahrump, Mesquite, and other rural communities through mobile and satellite food pantry services. The Center will conduct extensive activities to provide these services in the near future.
Adjacent to the Nutrition Center is LSSN's Community Thrift Store, which is a social enterprise. The Community Thrift Store, which will be open to the general public, will collaborate with local communities to receive donated goods and sell at low prices. The Community Thrift Store will be overseen by a part-time Manager, and operated by volunteers with the assistance of clients in LSSN's Employment Center's vocational training program. The low-income and poverty-stricken clients served by other LSSN programs will receive vouchers for free clothing and other items from the store.
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Center of Wellness & Life Skills Development
Integrated mental health, substance abuse and life skills programs are critical ingredients that lead to positive treatment and housing outcomes for low-income individuals and families. A client-centered integrated plan is personalized to fit the client's needs, strengths, risks, culture and preferences.
The Center of Wellness will offer a full range of mental health services, which integrate sound professional practices with individual planning by a multidisciplinary team, including psychiatric consultation. Services will be available to individuals, couples and families. It is anticipated that children, adults and families will come to the Center with a variety of issues: depression, anxiety, stress, behavior problems, abuse, suicide, marriage and divorce problems.
Services will include diagnostic assessments, individual and family therapy, child and adolescent therapy, group therapy, therapy for abuse and other types of trauma, psychiatric consultation and medication management, addiction assessment and aftercare, psychological testing and evaluations, and others. The Center can also accommodate 12-Step meetings in the evenings or weekends, expanding the number of meeting places available to North Las Vegas residents, as well as offering on-site support to residents of the Veteran's Housing, Transitional Housing and Senior Affordable Housing, if necessary.
The Center for Wellness and Life Skills Development will host a variety of life-skills workshops, both in a practical, hands-on format, as well as theory-type classes discussion emotional intelligence. The outcomes from participation in life skills classes include the attainment of essential life skills such as the ability to resolve conflicts, manage anger and stress, and the ability to negotiate. These skills will result in improvements in family (parent/child and co-parenting, particularly for non-custodial parents) relationships and engagements.
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Employment Services Center
LSSN currently offers job skills training classes, such as computer software classes, resume writing, and interview techniques to clients. A computer center is also made available to any low-income person needing computer access to search for jobs, check e-mails, or for other purposes. Furthermore, LSSN assists low-income people with obtaining necessary work cards (e.g., Sheriff's Cards, Nevada State ID) and assists poverty-stricken people to obtain birth certificates for identification purposes and access to public programs. The Employment Services Center will expand these services, and introduce vocational training and job creation programs.
The career connection center will provide families in need with access to computers, printers, the Internet, and a phone bank for employment searches. Evidence-based employment programs will focus on employment search and retention, and vocational training sessions will be provided on specific trades and professions to empower clients and increase their practical skills. The Employment Services Center will not only offer the training and education necessary to obtain a job, but also the intensive case management some hard-to-serve clients need to retain a job. Such employment-centered intensive case management may include ensuring the client arrives to work on-time and prepared, that conflicts with co-workers are minimized, and the case worker will act as a resource to the new employee's supervisor to intervene in potential problems before termination occurs, etc.
The vocational center will research opportunities to create certain jobs for its clients and provide more comprehensive employment support to families, in addition to our current computer classes, birth certificates and State Identification services. Such examples include transportation assistance through bus passes, sheriff's and health cards, uniforms, and work attire. These services will result in employment-related outcomes including completion of any paid work expereince through "on the job training" (OJT) experiences provided by LSSN or community partners, entrance to unsubsidized employment in a high-demand occupation or industry, earning high wages, and retaining employment. Addressing other non-employment outcomes that lead to long-term success in the workplace, such as reductions in recidivism, improvements in family relationships, improved ability to manage stress or anger, and improved ability to negotiate for desired outcomes will be addressed through the Center for Welllness and Life Skills.
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Senior Services
The Senior Support Services will provide in-home medical and non-medical support to address the growing needs of the elderly and people with disabilities. The program will be committed to helping people live independent lives in their homes. Families can then enjoy peace of mind knowing they have dependable and trained help for their loved ones. The in-home support services will range from a few hours of help to 24-hour respite care and will be tailored to meet the clients' needs. Our professional Personal Care Attendants will assist clients with dressing and bathing, meal preparation, housekeeping, laundry, transportation, companionship, grocery shopping and errands, bills and correspondence, and a variety of other services. Skilled nursing care and daily medical monitoring will be provided to those in need of medical services.
Both in-home medical and non-medical programs enable people to remain in their homes by providing personal care services, allowing them to maintain their independence.
LSSN Adult Day Center will provide active seniors and other adults who are socially isolated or who are not safe alone at home with a comfortable, safe environment to spend their days. The program also gives caregivers peace-of-mind and respite from their care giving responsibilities, which is especially helpful to caregivers who work. Adult Day Service will also help seniors and families by preventing premature placement of elders in long-term care facilities. The Adult Day Center will provide its participants with things to do, people to see and talk to, a good, nutritious noon meal and, if needed, medical and personal care.
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Temporary Financial Support to Retain Family Stability
Lutheran Social Services currently provides financial assistance to low-income households to achieve such goals as obtaining employment, retaining housing and avoiding homelessness, gaining access to public assistance programs by having birth certificates, etc. As the needs arise, LSSN responds with appropriate resources - and always includes intensive case management to resolve the crises or issues that caused the need to begin with. LSSN's BREAK & EMPOWER service model will include space and resources specifically dedicated to the provision of temporary financial assistance to help bridge gaps between what a low-income household can provide and what is needed for them to readily regain self-sufficiency and stability.
LSSN anticipates the Temporary Financial Support portion of the BREAK & EMPOWER model to expand on its current services, which focus on housing stability and employment achievement. However, currently, LSSN only offers financial assistance with rent or utilities, obtaining birth certificates, bus passes and (when resources allow) obtaining work cards. Future financial assistance will expand to include vouchers for child care while a parent works or seeks work, assistance with interview-appropriate clothing, gas and car repair vouchers, and assistance with minor home repairs for low-income homeowners on a fixed income.
All client households assisted with temporary financial support will also receive client-centered wraparound case management services to achieve a long-term resolution to the crisis or problem that prompted their application for assistance.
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Supportive Housing Services
The Supportive Housing Services consists of four main housing programs:
- Transitional and/or permanent housing for poverty-stricken families
- Affordable Senior Housing
- Supportive Housing Services for Veterans
- Short-term medical rehab housing for homeless patients released from hospitals
The Supportive Housing programs provide safe, sober and affordable housing to poverty-stricken veterans, seniors and families. The Supportive Housing Services portion of the BREAK & EMPOWER Model provides wraparound case management services focusing on employment, health, interpersonal relationships, financial management/budgeting education and other activities to support the families to reach residential stability and eventually, independence. The services' ultimate goals are to increase the household's income and transition them to independent, permanent housing. The Supportive Housing component of the campus will consist of three affordable housing complexes: 50 supportive transitional units (91 beds) will serve homeless veterans, 10 supportive transitional units (7 one-bedroom and 3 two-bedroom) for homeless families & veteran families with children, and 19 units of affordable senior housing. Additionally, to fulfill a severe need in the community for medical after-care of individuals without homes, LSSN will make available up to 10 beds and the medical support staff necessary to support homeless individuals being discharged from area hospitals with continued medical need. The program will emphasize short-term, aggressive rehabilitation and medical care with the goal of returning to housing. In the case of homeless patients, LSSN will try - based on each homeless client's age, veteran status, and other factors - to find housing either in one of LSSN's housing properties or will bridge and link them with other local community organizations to find temporary shelter or transitional or permanent housing.
The Affordable Senior Housing Project will target low-income single and/or couple seniors that are at or below 60% percent of the median income. Nineteen one-bedroom units will be built, serving anywhere from 20 to 40 individuals. The project will be designed specifically for independent senior adults, who are healthy, do not need daily supervision, and want to enjoy an independent lifestyle that is made possible when one is not paying too much for housing. The Senior Housing Project will emphasize safety, affordability, handicap accessibility and functionality and will allow the senior to continue with an active retirement. Seniors will have the opportunity to be engaged in recreational, educational, and social activities such as shopping trips and cultural outings, as well as being engaged in meaningful volunteer work at any of LSSN's on-campus service centers. Other features are to include a resident council, a community room with kitchen, library and on-site laundry facilities. Residents will have access to LSSN's support services and will be assessed to determine support systems, nutrition, financial, wellness, and special health requirements or restrictions.
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