Horizon House is the specific full-service day center which is located in Indianapolis. The non-profit center is organized to provide the necessary assistance to homeless neighbours in order to improve the conditions of their life.
The mission of Horizon House is to help homeless neighbours in Indianapolis receive the necessary assistance and support along with the opportunities to satisfy their basic needs because these persons belong to the local community, and members of the community should be discussed as equal to each other (Horizon House, 2013). From this point, the representatives of Horizon House contribute to increasing the homeless neighbours’ beliefs in their abilities and to the discussion of neighbours as valuable members of the community.
To understand and analyze the role of the center in changing the homeless neighbours’ life for better, it is appropriate to focus on the center’s assistance in employing neighbours and developing their job skills with references to influencing the neighbours’ motivation. Thus, it is possible to state that those homeless neighbours who use the assistance provided in Horizon House can increase their self-esteem, and this fact influences these persons’ motivation to find jobs and develop working skills positively.
Homeless neighbours usually cannot see possibilities for their successful employment and development of the necessary job skills because they suffer from the chains of the negative situations in their life which can prevent them from effective actions and can cause depression and fears of failure (Coren, Hossain, & Pardo, 2013, p. 1140). As a result, under the burden of the negative consequences, neighbours do not see perspectives for changing the life for better and to find the necessary job (Goodman, Saxe, & Harvey, 1991, p. 1220).
However, while receiving the help in Horizon House in relation to the developed employment program and computer lab, homeless neighbours’ motivation to find jobs and develop skills increases because they can see a difference.
The assistance of the center’s representatives and volunteers and positive attitude observed and experienced in Horizon House contribute to developing the neighbours’ motivation directly because these persons in need receive the appropriate assistance associated with different challenging tasks, see the progress achieved by the other neighbours and can share their positive results, and feel the support and trust of the center’s representatives who are also oriented to the positive result (Feist & Feist, 2008, p. 111; Horizon House, 2013). All these factors contribute to the growth of the neighbours’ motivation significantly.
Furthermore, the positive changes in neighbours’ motivation and in their visions of the employment opportunities are closely connected with the fact of satisfying the neighbours’ basic needs. Thus, in Horizon House, homeless neighbours can receive food and clothing. The center provides shelter and contributes to the neighbours’ personal safety (Horizon House, 2013). As a result, homeless neighbours become less focused on satisfying the basic needs and more focused on the development of their feelings of dignity and self-respect.
Responding to the neighbours’ needs in hospitality and care, Horizon House provides the assistance associated with the persons’ self-determination. That is why, those persons who become more confident in relation to their food and clothing can also become more interested in discussing the opportunities for employment, even if the process of finding jobs is rather challenging (Coutts, 2010, p. 659).
From this point, the role of center’s employment program and computer lab services for increasing the homeless neighbours’ motivation is significant because neighbours can receive the certain knowledge and develop practical skills in relation to finding jobs, writing resumes, and providing applications (Horizon House, 2013; Taormina & Gao, 2013, p. 155).
The fact that all these activities are explained for neighbours in detail along with the fact that neighbours can always receive the necessary help contributes to the persons’ increased interest in their future life.
To provide more opportunities to find appropriate jobs for neighbours, Horizon House worked out the Opportunity Knocks (OK) program which curriculum is developed to discuss the important job search skills and to develop the neighbours’ communication or interview skills.
Moreover, the program serves to influence the neighbours’ motivation directly because the coaches from the center organize the seminars to develop the persons’ life skills and to increase their self-respect and dignity with references to the adequate self-assessment (Horizon House, 2013). While receiving the information on how to use their potential as workers and personalities, homeless neighbours focus on their confidence, and their motivation to perform effective actions can increase proportionally to the assistance received in the center.
Thus, Horizon House is the important center which provides services and assistance necessary for homeless neighbours in Indianapolis. In spite of the fact that many persons come to the center in order to satisfy their basic needs and receive the food, clothing, and shelter, the center provides the support in relation to many aspects of the people’s life, and homeless neighbours can receive the chance to become employed because of the center’s assistance.
From this point, the neighbours’ motivation to find jobs is closely connected with their participation in the center’s activities. Homeless neighbours come to the center to receive the desired support, and their motivation to act more decisively increases because the representatives of the center believe in equality and dignity of all the persons, and they make homeless neighbours believe in themselves.
References
Coren, E., Hossain, R., & Pardo, J. (2013). Interventions for promoting reintegration and reducing harmful behaviour and lifestyles in street-connected children and young people. Evidence-Based Child Health, 8(4), 1140-1272.
Coutts, R. (2010). A pilot study for the analysis of dream reports using Maslow’s need categories: an extension to the emotional selection hypothesis. Psychological Reports, 107(2), 659-673.
Feist, J., & Feist, G. (2008). Theories of personality. USA: McGraw-Hill Humanities.
Goodman, L., Saxe, L., & Harvey, M. (1991). Homelessness as psychological trauma. Broadening perspectives. The American Psychologist, 46(11), 1219-1225.
Horizon House. (2013). Web.
Taormina, R. J., & Gao, J. (2013). Maslow and the motivation hierarchy: measuring satisfaction of the needs. The American Journal of Psychology, 126(2), 155-177.