Program:
Hope for Veterans Transitional Housing Program (R)
- Budget:
-
$1,450,000
- Category:
-
Human Services
- Population Served:
-
Military/Veterans
-
Homeless
-
Mentally/Emotionally Disabled
Program Description:
In an attempt to help veterans break the cycle of homelessness and despair, Community Hope developed the
largest transitional housing program in New Jersey for homeless veterans in 2004. Located at the Veterans Affairs Healthcare Campus in Lyons NJ, Community Hope helps 95 veterans a day overcome homelessness through the comprehensive services we offer at Hope for Veterans, including case management and recovery services, computer training, employment services, and transportation. Upon graduation, we link veterans to permanent housing and community-based services
Program Long-Term Success:
Hope for Veterans Program has helped 450 veterans -- both men and women -- to break the cycle of homelessness and despair.
Program Short-Term Success:
In 2008, rehabilitation of a new wing was completed, expanding the program to serve 95 veterans daily. We are in the process of launching a new shelter program in Newark, NJ in 2011. The VETS Program will provide rapid shelter and wrap-around services to veterans living in crisis on the streets.
Program Success Monitored by:
NJ Division of Mental Health Services
Community Hope's Outcome Measurements
Program Success Examples:
Brian enlisted after the 9/11 attacks because his country needed him. He was among the first troops to serve in Afghanistan and Iraq and saw heavy combat in 2002 and 2003. Though he was glad to return home, it was difficult readjusting to civilian life and the war stayed with him: Depression, nightmares and anxiety that forced him to isolate himself and turn to alcohol. After being hospitalized twice for depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, Brian found himself homeless and destitute. Through the VA, he learned of our Hope for Veterans Transitional Housing Program where he is working to steadily rebuild his life. Brian has found a job and renewed hope here and wants to help the young veterans he left on the battlefield.
Program:
Young Adult Residence
- Budget:
-
$400,000
- Category:
-
Mental Health, Substance Abuse
- Population Served:
-
Young Adults (20-25 years) -- currently not in use
-
Mentally/Emotionally Disabled
Program Description:
Our Young-Adult Residence serves 17 to 24 yr olds with mental illness, including youngsters aging out of the State's foster care system with little or no family support to assist them in their recovery. The Young Adult Program consists of a 24-hour group home, from which youngsters can progress to our Transitioning-To-Independence Residences, where they can begin to practice greater self-sufficiency with the support of around-the-clock staffing at the nearby group home.
Program Long-Term Success:
Scores of young adults have learned to manage their illness and reach their potential.
Program Short-Term Success:
Helping aging-out you and young people whose lives have been interrupted by mental illness to become self-sufficient, return to school and enter the workforce.
Program Success Monitored by:
NJ Division of Mental Health Services
Community Hope's Outcome Measurements
Program Success Examples:
“M” has the scars from her difficult childhood. The ones you can see from being thrown off a fire escape as a toddler and the ones you can’t. From her mother dying soon after and leaving her and two sisters alone. From living with different family through divorces and abusive relationships.
“I came here without a family to lean on or support me in my struggle with depression. But here, I have been able to make friends. I have been able to work on overcoming my depression and the difficulty I have in attaching to people. Now I am letting people get to know me, opening up more. With the help of my counselors, I am working on goals for my life: Goals like getting and maintaining a job and learning to be more independent.”
“Without Community Hope and the Young Adult Program, young people like me would not have an option other than to be sent to a mental hospital. Years ago, they would have locked me away. Imagine that, to lock people away for being depressed. Instead, I have a lot to look forward to. “
Program:
Community Residences with 24-Hour and Daily Support
- Budget:
-
$1,800,000
- Category:
-
Mental Health, Substance Abuse
- Population Served:
-
Adults
-
Young Adults (20-25 years) -- currently not in use
Program Description:
Community Residences with professional counselors providing intensive on-site support 24-hrs/day and help individuals take the first steps toward recovery and community reintegration after psychiatric hospitalization. Individuals are afforded the opportunity to establish greater self-sufficiency while continuing to receive intensive support services daily.
Program Long-Term Success:
Community hope has helped hundreds of individuals and their families find renewed hope to continue their recovery from mental illness. In any given year 96% to 98% of our residents avert hospitalization and remain in their community housing.
Program Short-Term Success:
The intensive support provided by our residential counselors has enabled individuals to progress to greater self-sufficiency and to graduate to our more independent-living settings.
Program Success Monitored by:
NJ Division of Mental Health Services
Community Hope's Outcome Measurements
Program Success Examples:
I am one of the first five original people to have moved into Community Hope back in 1986. At that time, I was 23 and in Greystone Hospital. When I heard about Community Hope I thought this was a chance for me to gain independent-living skills and to be able to live in a home, not a hospital or a boarding house. The staff helped us with everyday living skills, with food shopping, cooking and things that every family would do. And we were a family the first five of us residents.
Over the years, I’ve progressed through the first three levels of transitional housing and now live in a more independent-living apartment at Community Hope. I have two roommates. The three of us have been together for the past 8 years and I think of us as our own little family. I’ve had many difficulties through the years but Community Hope has stood by my side all the way.
I have taken my experiences and tried to give back to others who are struggling with mental illness. I am a consumer advocate and have been for the last 25 years! I started advocating for other consumers when I lived in the first Community Hope group home and went to the first Coalition of Mental Health Consumers Organization retreat in Cape May. I work with Morris County’s mental health officials to make changes to better the mental health system. I can tell the professionals what consumers really need and bring it to their attention to make the necessary changes. I can then report back to our consumer advocacy programs on what is happening in the system and how it can benefit them.
Part of my advocacy is to represent all the people who can’t be heard or who just don’t know what’s available to them. I have served as a consumer advocate at Greystone Hospital, working with patients anxious about leaving the hospital. One way I have helped them is to let them know about the programs in the community and where they can meet other consumers.
I love using my time advocating because I think I’m helping others get through their daily lives. I know how hard it is and I can be there for them. I just want to help.
I appreciate all the Community Hope counselors and staff that have helped me along the way.
Program:
CHOICE Independent-Living Program
- Budget:
-
$1,100,000
- Category:
-
Mental Health, Substance Abuse
- Population Served:
-
Adults
-
Mentally/Emotionally Disabled
Program Description:
With the Community Housing and Independence for Consumer Empowerment (CHOICE) Independent-Living Program developed in 2000, CH has removed a significant barrier to the disabled living more independently: Creating affordable housing linked to services enables 70 individuals a day recovering from mental illness to live independently in affordable permanent housing in the community.
Program Long-Term Success:
Provides affordable housing to indigent and at-risk of homeless individuals. Our support services help residents succeed in living independently.
Program Short-Term Success:
Addresses the needs for affordable housing for the disabled within our communities.
Program Success Monitored by:
NJ Division of Mental Health Services
Community Hope's Outcome Measurements
Program Success Examples:
Program:
CHAMP Community Reintegration Initiative and “The Partnership”
- Budget:
-
$3,300,000
- Category:
-
Mental Health, Substance Abuse
- Population Served:
-
Adults
-
Mentally/Emotionally Disabled
Program Description:
Community Hope operates this program in collaboration with our partner, Comprehensive Behavioral Healthcare. Care and Hope At Morris Plains (CHAMP) is a 24-hour on-site support services in residences on the campus of Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital for individuals resistant to leaving the institutional setting after many years of hospitalization.
"The Partnership" Program at Greystone expands on the successful CHAMP model, we recently completed the construction of ten cottages at Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital to create a specialized 48-bed program. Like CHAMP, the self-contained program serves individuals who have experienced long-term hospitalization and provides specialized services to individuals with medical conditions and those with co-occurring mental illness and substance abuse.
Program Long-Term Success:
The CHAMP and Partnership Programs help individuals overcome the dependence of years of hospitalization and enables them to take the first steps toward reintegrating back to community living and family life.
Program Short-Term Success:
The Program currently serves 25 former patients and will expand further with the renovation of three additional residences for 15 patients.
Program Success Monitored by:
NJ Division of Mental Health Services
Community Hope's Outcome Measurements
Program Success Examples: