While in ACHIEVEability housing, all families receive comprehensive social services from our professionally-educated and trained self-sufficiency staff. Upon admission into the program, each family develops an individualized family goal plan with an ACHIEVEability self-sufficiency coach. The plan identifies goals in the areas of education, employment, parenting, personal development, finances, physical and mental health, home management, child care, and recovery from substance abuse, as well as strengths which can be tapped and obstacles which need to be overcome to achieve the goals. The plan is the beginning of the family's participation in the Family Self-Sufficiency Program.
The family and the self-sufficiency coach collaborate over the course of the family's stay to help ensure that the family is meeting its goals and progressing towards self-sufficiency. They meet formally every three months to reflect on the family's progress. Based on successes achieved, obstacles overcome and challenges encountered, the family updates its goal plan to serve as a continued guide toward self-sufficiency. ACHIEVEability uses its copyrighted ACHIEVEability Family Self-Sufficiency Continuum as an evaluation tool for its clients and for program development.
ACHIEVEability also collaborates with other social service providers in the community to offer its families the following services:
At entry, all parents undergo academic skills assessments. Parents are then provided with a skills development plan so that they can earn their GEDs within one year or get ready for college work. Clients who may be facing additional challenges in going back to school undergo additional assessments on learning styles and aptitudes and are provided with additional supports to help them succeed.
ACHIEVEability parents and youth enhance their life skills by participating in these and other workshops and seminars: relationships; financial topics; self-esteem; teen pregnancy; peer pressure; parenting; breast cancer; decision-making; career development; conflict resolution; nutrition; non-violence; study and test-taking skills; domestic abuse; and anger management. At home management workshops, clients learn home maintenance and repair -- from changing light bulbs, cleaning refrigerators and stoves, and replacing batteries in smoke detectors, to more advanced topics such as changing vinyl tiles and staining wood floors.
ACHIEVEability provides child care and transportation assistance to families by subsidizing -- as justified by each family's budget -- daily, after-school, evening and weekend child care and transportation costs of parents involved in training, education and employment activities. These child care subsidies also ensure that children are in nurturing environments as their parents work toward self-sufficiency.
As appropriate, ACHIEVEability provides clients with assistance in acquiring furniture. This is especially critical to families coming from shelters. ACHIEVEability is also able to provide emergency food assistance.
For clients in recovery from disabling drug and alcohol addictions, ACHIEVEability's full-time drug and alcohol counselor provides group and individual counseling and is on call 24 hours a day to provide crisis support. Psychological counselors from Widener University are at ACHIEVEability's counseling office five days per week, providing individual and family counseling services as well as developmental assessments for preschool and school-age children and specialized educational assessments for adults. They also facilitate small groups at ACHIEVEability's after-school program.
ACHIEVEability offers educational, recreational and cultural activities for families. These activities allow families to spend quality time and enjoyable moments together while exposing children to a myriad of experiences they might not otherwise encounter.
ACHIEVEability believes that families have a range of strengths, talents and resources that can be tapped to facilitate decision-making and ongoing operations. Through the ACHIEVEability Tenants Association and membership in ACHIEVEability's board of directors, clients help ACHIEVEability make its programs more responsive to the needs and concerns of families, promote self-reliance and collective determination and allow families to develop and hone the skills needed for self-sufficient living.
ACHIEVEability clients at advanced levels on the self-sufficiency scale participate in regular meetings throughout the year with successful professionals and business people. These meetings provide additional mentoring and networking opportunities to position clients for further success.
ACHIEVEability's after-school and summer children's program are held in one of our local buildings conveniently located within walking distance of most of our housing. The program provides children with homework assistance, arts and crafts activities, computer instruction in the ACHIEVEability computer center, educational games, recreational activities, nutritious snacks, and field trips.