From Shelter to Stability
Family Focus Program
CARITAS has always given preference to the sheltering of parents with children. However, during the winter of 1996-97 this became a problem. The requests for shelter from families skyrocketed, and the number of families in CARITAS increased dramatically.
In late December of 1996, CARITAS was suddenly offered a building at St. Joseph's Villa and funding from the United Way and St. Bridget's Catholic Church to open a 3-month emergency shelter program for families. We were able to pull off a miracle in staffing and program coordination, and the program opened in mid-January of 1997 with room for eight families. A number of CARITAS congregations helped us greatly by agreeing to provide meals for these families.
During the next season, we ran the same program for 22 weeks, again with the assistance of St. Joseph's, St. Bridget's, the United Way and many CARITAS congregations who provided the food. When this program closed at the end of the season, we began to study ways in which we could increase congregational involvement and provide greater service to the families. This is how the current Family Focus Program came into being.
During the 1998-99 season, the Family Focus Program began operating like the Single Adult Program, totally within our congregations. A Day Center was opened at Grace & Holy Trinity Episcopal Church and Centenary United Methodist Church which helped us facilitate family intake and gave our families a place to go during the daytime. In order to be more responsive to the needs of the children, the Family Focus Program also began providing active case management through a contractual agreement with Emergency Shelter, Inc.
During the 1999 CARITAS Annual Meeting, congregational representatives voted to approve the board’s strategic plan to expand our Family Focus Program to year-round. In order to handle this expansion to our mission, we hired a Family Focus Program Manager and Case Manager.
With these changes, CARITAS has now become the largest emergency shelter in central Virginia. We are also the only homeless shelter in Richmond to provide services for families with fathers and families with more than 5 members. We are one of only two programs that shelter male children over the age of 12 with their families. Our congregations can be proud of the vital service they are providing for our community and for homeless families.
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