Introduction
Housing and Empowering Our Heroes is a Chicago non-profit that combats veteran homelessness. The charity will support homeless veterans in Chicago and other vulnerable populations. According to the Housing Assistant Council, 736 veterans in Illinois are homeless, and approximately 560 of them live in Chicago (Housing Assistant Council, n.d.; CBS Chicago, 2020). The city allocates a budget of $5 million specifically meant for building homes limited to three dozen annually (CBS Chicago, 2020). In other words, although newly housed veterans may have a roof over their heads, they may struggle to acquire basic needs such as food, healthcare, and education. This underscores the need for starting a nonprofit organization that goes beyond mere provision of shelter for veterans. Thus, HEH will fill this gap by housing homeless Chicago veterans and providing them with mental and physical health care, practical skills and employment training, and legal advice.
Why HEH is Unique
HEH will be a veteran-centered nonprofit organization guided by the moral principle that everyone has a right to a safe and stable home. In addition, people who spent many years defending their country, should not suffer from homelessness. However, this issue remains crucial due to low military payments, unemployment, and veterans’ service-associated mental health problems that make social adaptation challenging. In turn, the organization will implement a multi-dimensional and comprehensive strategy for its solution. In other words, it will not only provide shelter but essential knowledge and skills for employment along with psychological support. The identity of HEH and its major advantage that distinguishes it from competitors is in its individual approach to every veteran in accordance with his individual and cultural peculiarities.
In addition, the organization will distinguish itself from others by using the Housing First framework to enroll homeless veterans. Homeless individuals are not required under the system to tackle all of their issues, including mental health issues, or to complete several assistance initiatives before they may get accommodation (AHURI, 2021). Additionally, the program does not require social service engagement to get or keep a place to live. Given no additional requirements or requirements above those of a regular tenant, stable housing is accessible under the Housing First philosophy, which sees shelter as the cornerstone of life development. While participation in these programs is not compulsory, it has been proven that doing so makes them more successful in helping individuals maintain their homes and improve their well-being (AHURI, 2021). Other strategies impose similar restrictions for an individual to secure and maintain housing.
HEH in 20 Years
HEH will embrace technology in the future to ensure that its operations align with the changing dynamics of the human services sector. When it comes to making data insight useful, predictive and descriptive analytics are at the center of the information boom. Consequently, HEH will use predictive analytics to enhance knowledge of various services’ differential efficacy, so initiatives and resources may be intelligently targeted for improved results. For example, the organization will apply predictive and descriptive analytics to learn about the connection between disparate risk factors, including poverty, unemployment, shortage of low-cost dwellings, mental disorders, violence and trauma, and alcohol and substance use.
Vision Statement
HEH’s vision statement may be defined as the following:
“HEH stands for just and equality and exists for helping homeless veterans efficiently, providing high-quality services, and handling them with love and kindness. With its performance, it aims to contribute to the solution of the issue of homelessness, develop through continuous learning to achieve the most successful results in the human services sector, and become a place where every underserved person will feel valued and respected knowing that he will receive all necessary help and support”
Envisioned Future
The organization’s excellent standards and everyday efforts are based on its core values, including collaborative partnerships with its customers, education, creativity, and research, social responsibility and honesty, trust, and respectful communication. In relation to its envisioned future, HEH plans to make changes in its sphere improving the living conditions of vulnerable populations by establishing itself as the first resort for homeless people and their families and a place for finding secure, cheap housing, fulfilling activities, and a sustainable wage so that they can resume living productively and meaningfully, mainly if they have served the country. In addition, HEH’s development presupposes the creation of a mobile app for psychological support, consulting, and follow-up.
Guiding Principles
According to HEH, shelter is a basic human right. A person’s living condition has a direct impact on their wellness and health. Housing fairness requires inclusiveness, diversity, equality, and affordability. Homeless people must locate a decent, secure, and affordable temporary residence to overcome medical, family, financial, or legal impediments to long-term housing stability. Thus, regardless of their financial situation, no one should be denied access to decent, reasonably priced rental accommodation. In addition, a trauma-based strategy should be used to deliver services premised on an awareness of the effects of trauma and the unique needs of trauma victims.
Collaboration, teamwork, and communication are the ideal approaches to eliminating homelessness: Research should influence policy reform, program design, and resource deployment decisions.
Mission Statement
As a non-profit organization in Chicago, HEH aims to support homeless veterans stating that homelessness is unacceptable, especially for these people. The organization strives to build a community where all veterans have equal, fair, and inclusive accessibility to stable housing options and resources that enhance their health, life quality, and economic stability.
The organization’s internal environment will be anchored on values such as organizational justice, cooperative leadership, and group cohesiveness. Firstly, a tight-knit team’s members respect each other, presuming that everyone has the group’s best interests at heart, concentrates on the process rather than the individual, and completely contribute to collective decisions and plans, generating responsibility within the team (Janczewski et al., 2021). HEH will create teams with high levels of cohesiveness to encourage morale based on the quality of their interactions, the warmth of their team dynamic, the loyalty of their members, and the collective wisdom they bring to decision-making.
Secondly, organizational success is often attributed to committed and strong leadership (Janczewski et al., 2021). HEH’s operations will be organized and properly run to increase the likelihood that individuals, families, and communities will get beneficial and empowering assistance that boosts possibilities and quality of life (Hoefer & Watson, 2013). Thirdly, organizational justice is an extension of standard models of workplace behavior, which often focus on elements like job requirements, job management, and social support when evaluating an employee’s happiness and output in the workplace. Accordingly, HEH will consider these factors and align them with its personnel needs.
Conclusion
The objective of eliminating homelessness is to guarantee permanent housing, which implies that individuals have a stable residence that encompasses necessary services, employment, and resources. For HEH, preventing veteran homelessness requires a unique approach than merely handling the issue through crisis support and services such as in a temporary shelter. When veterans are forced to rely on emergency assistance because they lack stable housing and other essential services, their health deteriorates, and their survival is curtailed. HEH presents novel solutions that stress prevention and rehabilitation lead to suitable housing opportunities with support.
References
AHURI. (2021). What is the Housing First model and how does it help those experiencing homelessness? Web.
CBS Chicago. (2020). Hundreds of volunteers’ survey Chicago’s homeless population in annual head count. Web.
Hoefer, R. A., & Watson, L. D. (2013). Developing nonprofit and human service leaders: Essential knowledge and skills. United States: SAGE Publications.
Housing Assistant Council. (n.d.). Supporting veterans: Illinois. Web.
Janczewski, E., C., Mersky, P., J., & Lee, P., C. (2021). A brief measure of work environment for human service organizations. Management, Leadership & Governance, 45(5), 479-492, Web.