More and more families are struggling to meet daily needs. At any one point in time, there are more than 1,200 children and adults in our community who are experiencing some form of homelessness. Even for those who have a home, our client data reveals that 80% of our clients have annual incomes of $20,000 or less. The requests for emergency assistance far outnumber our resources. Volunteers and donors help us serve many more families than we could with staff alone.

The two major components of this program, Hardship Assistance and Housing, provide immediate as well as long-term survival assistance to residents in specific areas of our community. Fortunately, there is growing awareness among our supporters that families need permanent housing in order to make long-term changes.

Housing stability combined with supportive services helps parents gain skills that lead to independence. And fixed housing allows them to cope with other financial pressures—the clients in our permanent supportive housing programs are proving it.

You can make the days a little brighter for the vulnerable children and families we serve.

Volunteer Opportunities

Contact the volunteer coordinator to:

• Help organize or staff our Back to School event in Council Bluffs in August 12, 2009
• Help with holiday celebrations
• Adopt a Family
• Provide child care while parents are in groups
• Help children with homework
• Teach cooking, budgeting, or other life skills
• Sort donations for the families at our Sarpy Donations Center
• Organize a Wish List collection

Donation Opportunities

• Items from the Poverty & Homelessness Wish List
• Items from the Career Clothing Closet Wish List
• A monetary gift

Programs in this category

• Hardship Assistance
• Housing

Hardship Assistance

Brief crisis and referral services are provided for basic survival needs, to help stabilize immediate situations concerning food, clothing, housing and utility assistance. Clients of Heartland Family Service may obtain needed items from the following programs:

Case Management (Sarpy County)

Case management provides mid-level support services between crisis intervention and professional counseling. Case managers assess a person’s situation, help find the community services needed, and check to see that the services were provided and were beneficial to the client. In addition, the case manager helps the client work out a more permanent solution to the particular problem, in an effort to empower individuals and families to continue living independently. Call the numbers above for residents in these areas.

Career Clothing Closet (Omaha)

Located at our North Office, the primary purpose of the program is to help men and women transition into self-sustaining careers. The service is free and open to Heartland Family Service clients as well as those referred by other agencies, colleges and shelters throughout the metro area. Clients are given appropriate clothing for job interviews, as well as a small wardrobe for starting a career or job training. Voluneers and clothing donations to the Career Clothing Closet are welcome.

Gendler Emergency Medication Service (Omaha)

GEMS provides free or low-cost prescriptions to individuals who need medication they cannot afford. Assistance is available primarily to individuals and families in the North Omaha area, who have no medical insurance and have exhausted all other resources available to pay for medicine. Members of the Heartland Family Service Senior Center are also eligible. Participants may be requested to share in the cost of their prescriptions; however, the service is offered on a sliding fee scale, based on and revised according to federal poverty guidelines. These funds are made available through a personal endowment gift to the agency by Lee and Carol Gendler.

Holiday Assistance Programs (North Omaha & Sarpy Counties)

Donors and volunteers are essential in providing extra assistance to Heartland Family Service clients during the holidays. Clients must sign up for these services:

• Adopt-A-Family Distributions: Heartland Family Service client families are matched with holiday donors of food and gifts. Call 451-6244 for more information on adopting a family.
• General Distributions: Other Heartland Family Service clients who are in need of holiday assistance are eligible for civic and religious donation programs through our association with the Omaha World-Herald Goodfellows, Toys for Tots and community churches.
• Sarpy County Holiday Assistance: Toys are made available through the cooperation of various Sarpy County agencies in a mass distribution on one day in December.

Pottawattamie County Homeless Link (Pottawattamie County)

Heartland Family Service is the lead agency for this collaboration in Council Bluffs that provides services and referral to homeless and near-homeless people of the county. Outreach workers help connect people to the services they need that are available in the community. Temporary shelter is provided when available. A food kitchen serves meals and a food pantry distributes food for upcoming meals. Staff refers parents to community services that can stabilize their financial situation. If needed, they transport them to agencies and walk them through the process of applying for assistance. In addition, they train them in self-help skills so that once their housing situation is stable, they will be able to help themselves. The program is a joint venture among Heartland Family Service, the Christian Worship Center, the City of Council Bluffs, Legal Services of Iowa and the Micah House Shelter.

Sarpy Donations Center (Omaha/metro area)

Clothing, personal care items, household goods and furniture are offered to all Heartland Family Service clients through donations from the community. Clients need to arrange a visit to the Donation Center with a staff from their program. However, donations can be delivered during business hours, 8:30am – 5pm, Monday through Friday. Volunteers are always needed to sort items and assist clients, and hours are negotiable—call or email Laura Zachary at 402-552-7418 or lzachary@heartlandfamilyservice.org. (Donation Center Location)

The Tri-City Ministerial Association Pantry (Sarpy County)

This food pantry is located at our Sarpy facility for clients residing in Papillion, La Vista and Ralston. The pantry is offered through a collaboration of local churches located in this geographic area. Bellevue residents are served through a separate food pantry located in Bellevue. Referrals for the food pantry can be accessed by contacting the Sarpy Neighborhood Emergency Services Program Specialists at 402-339-2544.

Housing

Transitional and permanent supportive housing provide long-term stability for homeless families. Heartland Family Service has significantly expanded its services to this population over the last few years in order to meet community needs.

Heartland Homes (Pottawattamie County)

Located on the Charles E. Lakin Human Services Campus in Council Bluffs, Heartland Homes is a permanent supportive housing program for families and individuals who are currently homeless. Case management, therapeutic services and stable housing are provided to strengthen the family’s success. A unique aspect of this program is that support services address the root causes of homelessness to help residents maintain permanent housing. A permanent home permits the adults to develop skills and identify support systems that can assist, should a crisis arise in the future. Residents generally move out of the apartments and into a permanent home of their own within a year or two.

Heartland Housing Solutions (Douglas and Sarpy Counties)

Heartland Housing Solutions is a scattered-site Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) program for single women and families with children who are currently homeless. The purpose of this program is to assist low-income families to gain permanent housing and become independent. At the same time, case management, financial counseling, therapeutic services and rental assistance are provided to help strengthen the family’s success. The community-based nature of the program allows participants to remain in their housing upon completion of the program.

Transitions (Pottawattamie County)

To support the Pottawattamie County Homeless Link collaborative, Heartland Family Service provides a transitional housing shelter, which offers a stable home complemented by wrap-around services to help homeless families get back on their feet. The shelter is located in Council Bluffs. Eligible families – those motivated to participate in a two-year program — may live at the shelter for two years at a greatly reduced rent. This extended support is enough time to find an appropriate job, stabilize finances and arrange permanent housing. At the same time, Homeless Link participating agencies will serve the tenants through a collaborative approach, teaching self-sufficiency skills and encouraging their personal skills development.