Agencies helping homeless people - Essay Example

Agencies helping homeless people Homeless people can be encountered in any country of the world. The United s of America is not exclusion as well. However, unlike many other nations, Americans strive to support people living on the streets, those who are not able to satisfy their basic needs without outside help. Organizations focused on providing real assistance (housing, food, and clothing) exist in every region of the country. Most of these organizations are non-profit which means that they collect donations from population and cooperate with business units in funds generation and service provision. Homeless people are individuals who have no place to live, have very low income, and cannot afford buying food and cloth. Most of the homeless people start living on the streets because they have failed to deal with the life problems. Very few homeless individuals enjoy the life they have, however, they do not see the opportunity to improve the position. Agencies helping homeless According to the statistics, there is almost one million American people living on the streets or staying in the shelters. These include men, women, and children. The government unable to satisfy the needs of all of these people and, for this reason, the non-profit organizations aimed at supporting homeless individuals are the only hope for numerous people without home. Every person has a different reaction when he sees the person with the sign "work for food". Many of citizens do not even know what it is like not to be able to buy even the simple bread. These individuals with the sign experience this feeling everyday. Some of Americans give money to homeless, while most just do not pay attention to them or get angry because of their presence. Most of the organizations offering temporary assistance to homeless people cannot cover all of the expenses associated with accommodation of homeless. For this reason, agencies have developed the official websites describing their activities, informing people about homeless and their problems, and offering the opportunity to donate any amount of money. The Institute for Human Service (IHS) is one of the agencies helping homeless people to cope with the life problems, offering temporary accommodation, and a wide range of different services. The Institute for Human Service is located in Hawaii and provides sleeping places to more than 250 individuals in one location and for 150 women (with approximately 60 children) in the second location; it serves up to 7,000 meals per week, and cooperates with many business units and non-profit institutions (http://www.ihshawaii.org). U.S. Vets Inc is another non-profit American agency offering help to the homeless veterans. Unlike Institute for Human Service, which is located only in Hawaii, Vets Inc has offices is California, Texas, Nevada, Hawaii, Arizona, and Washington D.C. According to the news posted on the official website (http://www.usvetsinc.org), U.S. Vets is the largest national organization dedicated to helping homeless veterans. If the Institute for Human Service provides accommodation services and helps homeless to meet the basic needs, U.S. Vets is focused on "successful reintegration of homeless veterans" rather than merely providing them with food, clothing, and shelter for one night. The agency cooperates with public and private sectors in providing the safe, sober, and clinically supported housing as well as employment assistance. The official websites of U.S. Vets Inc and the Institute for Human Service do not provide information about the intake procedures a participant of the programs has to go through. In addition, the sites do not contain any information about the composition of the staff or any guidance on what one must do to become a participant at the agencies. The lack of this information can be understood: the sites follow informative mission, the aim is to attract public attention to the problem, and generate funds through donations. The intake procedures are developed for homeless who do not have the computer and cannot access the websites of the .S. Vets Inc and the Institute for Human Service. The common intake procedure for the most homeless includes having ID, validation of veteran status, short records for all children, medical examination, attendance of the information interview before placement, testing, well child exams, and conversation with the agency psychologist. The Institute for Human Service provides following services to the homeless people: emergency services (meals, shelter, mail serves, free clothing), health care (baby and dental care), counseling (mental health counseling, substance abuse, financial management, and housing placement), education and employment (adult education classes, job search, skill instructions), and special support (legal consultations, domestic violence, parenting education). Among the other programs introduced by the Institute for Human Service are the Homeless Family Support Program, Homeless Women's Program, Homeless Men's Program, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Programs, and Supportive Housing Program. The Institute for Human Service has provided shelter to a total of more than 2,000 individuals in the year 2005 (68 families with the 179 children aged under 18), served 800 meals each day, 24 percent of individuals who received the shelter were Veterans, 70 percent of all families were put under the program to alternative housing within 3 months. There is no information about the number and specialization of the employers working at the Institute for Human Service, however, based on the above list of services, it is justifiable to note that representatives of the following professionals volunteer their services to homeless: psychology counselors, sociologists, healthcare specialists, financial advisors, career planning and employment counselors, specialists from legal sphere, and specialists in adult education. The main objective of U.S. Vets, in addition to the services offered by the Institute for Human Service, is to foster the sense of individual responsibility. This objective is achieved through the cooperation with different public and private institutions: private sector provides job development, VA provides medical support, Corporation for National Service and Veterans Service Organization provides different services, and government provides renovation support and financing, while volunteers provide support through different resources. U.S. Vets has already served more than 20,000 homeless individuals and maintained 85 percent success rate in getting homeless veterans back to the work within only one month and provided 25,000 meals each month. U.S. Vets puts major emphasis on emotional, psychological well-being of the homeless veterans and their employment. Therefore, the staff must include psychologists, healthcare specialists, social service representatives, and employment counsellors. Both the Institute for Human Service and U.S. Vets generate funds from individual donations. To show how the collected funds are spread the tables with the costs of delivered services are place on the official websites. The Institute for Human Service informs the site visitors that the expenses associated with one week stay in the shelter include 35$ for nutritious dinner for a homeless child, $40 for hot showers for one person, $50 to provide supply for childcare, $100 to deliver social service for the adult, $200 to cover all family needs (2 adults and 3 children). Taking into account that U.S. Vets is aimed at ensuring employment to previously homeless veterans, the table of costs covers expenses related most to employment: $5 to feed a homeless veteran for a day, $25 to buy sheets, blanket and pillow, $50 to buy a new suit for the newly employed veteran and $15,000 housing and services for treatment bed for the whole year. The official website of U.S. Vets contains the stories of the previously homeless veterans who managed to overcome their life problems, found the employment and returned to the normal lifestyle with the help of the agency. In addition, there is also information about how site visitors can help homeless veterans. For example, every individual willing to provide assistance can either employ the newly trained veteran, donate food and clothing, volunteer in the agency, sponsor the AmeriCorps member, or donate any amount of the money. The Institute for Human Service does not provide any information about how the person willing to volunteer can help and the major emphasis is made on donations (currently, donations cover one third of agency expenses). In summary, the Institute for Human Service and U.S. Vets Inc has successful covered the scope of their activities and programs on the official websites, however, they failed to inform the site visitors about the intake procedure for homeless and did not provide demographical statistics. The Institute for Human Service strives to provide assistance to all homeless individuals in satisfying their basic needs, offering psychological and medical offer without any fees. The U.S. Vets Inc, on the contrary, is focused on reintegrating the homeless veterans to community through helping them to overcome psychological problems and to find employment. To foster the development of personal responsibility, U.S. Vets requires all working veterans who are staying in the shelter to pay the fee (the amount is not specified). These agencies provide similar services; however, their missions are completely different. . References The Institute for Human Service. Retrieved 2 August, 2007, from http://www.ihshawaii.org U.S. Vets Inc. Retrieved 2 August, 2007, from http://www.usvetsinc.org Read More