House -- Summary and Lessons

¶ … House -- Summary and Lessons Learned

Description of Cause

In order to be truly effective at helping homeless people secure meaningful employment and permanent housing, homeless assistance agencies must provide a wide array of full-service assistance that most people take for granted, including training in daily job search methods, rehearsing job interviews, providing job leads and referrals, bus fare to interviews, personal hygiene items and haircuts, as well as interview clothes and a place to receive phone calls and mail (Ettorre 17).

Strategies and Tactics Used towards Accomplishment of Goals

Complex problems demand complex solutions and the multifaceted issues confronting the homeless are certainly no exception. Therefore, identifying creative solutions and opportunities to improve existing approaches represents a timely and valuable enterprise for helping organizations. Using innovative approaches to complex problems as a strategy is described by R. Greene and Joost Elffers in their book, the 48 Laws of Power. Based on a critical analysis of numerous historical works, the 48 Laws of Power provides a useful framework in which to achieve innovative solutions as well as some factors that should be taken into account when providing social services to the homeless (Westwood 139). According to one practitioner, "These types of people inspire us to think more creatively" (Hargrove 191).

Description of Project

The service day experience focused on delivering social service assistance through the Hope House to residents in need of job search assistance, including new clothes and haircuts as described further below.

What Hope House Is and Does. The mission of Hope House is to provide temporary housing for the homeless for a time period of up to 6 months (Brown and Ruhl 3). The goal of this approach is for residents to find shelter of a more permanent nature during this 6-month period and counseling and job-placement services are available to facilitate the process (Brown and Ruhl 3). The rationale in support of the 6 months of services is based on the need for stable housing during this turbulent period in people's lives. According to Sherrie Kay, Director of one Hope House:

1. Many families become homeless within 35-40 days of losing their welfare benefits;

2. Shelters are filled to capacity, must turn people away and homeless families are forced to sleep outdoors;

3. Fully 75% of new residents of Hope House are there because they lost their benefits as a result of the welfare changes;

4. The length of time it takes families staying at Hope House to obtain housing and leave the shelter has almost tripled (cited in Whitman 37).

What Stilisti Is and Does. Established in 2006 by Marisa Marino, Stilisti has become a well-known name in hairstyle and customer service. The company's founder has dedicated her 18-year career to the beauty industry, including extensive experience as a colorist, stylist and national hair color educator. The company recently received the prestigious designation as "Boston's Best Stylist" by BostonSalon.com (About Us 1). The services provided by the professional hairstyling team at Stilisti are in big demand and are widely regarded as among the best in the industry (About Us 2). According to the company's Web site, "Marisa's commitment to education and her passion for travel and interior design have her constantly traveling the globe in search of new products and techniques" (About Us 2). It is this level of commitment, expertise and professionalism that Stilisti was able to bring to assist the residents of Hope House in preparing for job interviews by helping them look their best.

Haircuts

Volunteers from Stilisti visited the Hope House and provided residents with professional hairstyling services on-site and well as offering them advice for future hair care.

Clothing Drive for Hope House

One of the major constraints to securing meaningful employment for many is a lack of suitable clothing to conduct an interview and wear during the first weeks of work until people receive a few paychecks and are able to "get on their feet." To help overcome this constraint, part of the activities of this service day initiative involved a clothing drive to collect appropriate professional attire for the residents of Hope House.