DIVERSION CLOSING THE GAP FOR FAMILIES IN NEED

Most people know firsthand how challenging these last couple of years have been. At Trellis, we received a surge in calls from families struggling to meet their basic needs. For many of them, this was their first time reaching out for financial support. Seeing these needs along with the increased cases of homelessness, we turned to two of our existing programs, Home Stay and Community Connections, to determine how we could make our services go further.

Looking Upstream And Downstream

The experience of homelessness is traumatic for anyone, but it is especially damaging for families. When families are uprooted from their communities and sense of safety, it can lead to severe, longterm impacts on their entire family unit.

“We want to help families avoid these situations whenever we can,” says program director Jocelyn Adamo. “If we don’t prioritize prevention, we will see the scale tip to a place where the system is unable to manage all the families experiencing homelessness right now.”

Historically our Home Stay program primarily served families in need of immediate financial support to avoid homelessness. This could mean short-term assistance for families facing eviction or accessing shelters. A separate program called Community Connections focused on connecting people with resources for financial support and social inclusion. During the pandemic, however, we found that a large group of people had fallen in between where they were not yet at imminent risk of homelessness but still needed support to get to a place of stability.

Home Stay worked directly with 205 families last year and also provided over 350 instances of diversion support for people at risk of homelessness.

The question then was how do we close the gap for these families?

Our team responded with a holistic solution that would expand the services we were already offering. By combining funding from the Calgary Homeless Foundation, Family and Community Support Services (FCSS) and ENMAX, we made the move to merge our two programs into Home Stay Family Prevention and Diversion.

“A big part of us wanting to build out the prevention side of Home Stay was to make sure that we’re looking upstream as well as downstream,”

Jocelyn says. “Our goal is to make sure that we’re able to provide families the financial support they need so that they don’t end up in crisis situations.”

Supporting Families When And Where They Need It Most

The Home Stay Family Prevention and Diversion program now provides financial support, short-term case management and connection to community resources for families experiencing financial instability, facing eviction or who have recently become homeless. This looks like:

Support with accessing housing

Rental and utility arrears

Support accessing basic needs

System navigation

Financial literacy

Connection to community resources, programs and activities

94% of families said their housing situation is more safe and stable after participating in the program

Expanding our Home Stay program means we are now connecting more families to the continuum of services across our agency as well as community partners like Inn from the Cold, Children’s Cottage and Distress Centre Calgary to provide families with the wraparound supports they need.

“So many families come to us for financial stability, but they’re also experiencing challenges within their family unit,” Jocelyn says. “The plan is to really leverage this as an opportunity to have that one big door for families that’s able to serve across generations.”

CHECK OUT OUR VIDEO INTRODUCING HOME STAY FAMILY PREVENTION AND DIVERSION PROGRAM