COMMUNITY COALITION ON HOMELESSNESS CORPORATION

The Community Coalition on Homelessness, in business since March of 1995, changed its name to Turning Points in February of 2012 since we realized some people who needed our services were not seeking help since they presumed, from our name, that they needed to be homeless before coming! Since a major focus of our programs is to prevent homelessness, changing our name has removed the assumption that we only assist people who are homeless!

We started our programs in direct response to the needs being expressed by people who found themselves newly homeless as well as those who were chronically homeless. In 2009 we opened our One Stop Center, a recognized best practice for serving our target population of people who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless. In our county, that is approximately 43% of the population!
Our Center houses the four programs offered by Turning Points as well as programs staffed by partner community agencies. Our major partner is Our Daily Bread which operates a food service program with daily meals from 10:00 am to 11:30 am as well as a client choice food pantry twice a week. Another major partner is Goodwill Manasota, which provides staff for a Job Connection office in the Center, as well as staff for the shared donation center on site.

Turning Points operates four outstanding programs designed to provide wrap around services here at the Center or by referral to our community partners. Our Day Resource Center offers clients in crisis a place to get their basic needs met, while linking them with other direct services they may need on site. The Open Door provides access to a restroom, hot showers, a mail service, laundry service, access to computers, fax, and telephones, and individualized assistance with mainstream benefit applications such as food stamps. Clients can also get clean clothing, help with getting legal identification, a bicycle, free notary services, help with prescription medications (non-narcotic), bus passes, and emergency assistance for a variety of needs common to people in crisis. The DRC has three paid staff and a daily volunteer group of more than 30 volunteers to deliver the many and varied services required by clients.

For people facing eviction and for those trying to get into housing, our Transitional Development Program offers case management and financial assistance for those who are eligible. Eligibility requirements include residency and income to ensure a client can remain housed (sustainability) if financial assistance is given. Clients meet with a case manager who reviews their documentation of income, need, and residency and works with them to develop a household budget which dictates the amount of rent they are able to pay. Eligible clients then find housing - on their own or utilizing a list of affordable housing units that Turning Points maintains weekly. Payments are made by Turning Points directly to the landlord, and a follow up with clients is conducted at 3, 6 and 12 months to assist them in maintaining their housing.

Veterans and their families get special assistance from our Yellow Ribbon Program. This federal program offered through the VA targets homeless veterans and those at risk of becoming homeless, providing comprehensive assistance to ensure families are housed and their needs are addressed. We have operated this SSVF program for five years and have assisted almost 150 families each year since inception. Since Florida has a high percentage of veterans that reside here, there is an ongoing need to address the needs of veterans and their families to ensure they get the assistance they need to be stable and successful. Our Yellow Ribbon program operates with two paid staff and almost a dozen volunteers who provide one on one assistance to each veteran and their family.

Healthcare is a major problem for many low income families, and lack of access to healthcare is a major contributor to homelessness. When Turning Points developed the framework for the One Stop Center, the many client complaints about medical and dental problems provided the impetus for the development of a small free clinic in the new center. However, over the years we have realized there is a huge need in our target population for health care access, and therefore our free medical and dental clinic has expanded in the past four years. We now have 8 exam rooms in our medical clinic and 4 dental operatories. Volunteer medical practitioners provide the bulk of services in the medical clinic and are supplemented by Lake Erie College of Medicine (LECOM) fourth year medical students, and LECOM pharmacy students and their supervisors. In addition to primary care services, our clients are able to take advantage of more than twelve medical specialty areas provided by volunteer physicians. We have a Hepatitis C specialty clinic, a diabetic project targeting our many diabetics, and a coumadin clinic in addition to smoking cessation classes taught by the pharmacy program. When you have a tooth ache and no insurance, what are your options for getting care? Most people go to the hospital emergency room which has no accomodation for treating dental pain, and they send you off with some aspirin and advise you to seek a dentist who will help you. With no insurance and little income, it is highly unlikely that these people will get care from a private dentist. So our dental program sees many referrals from the hospitals and walk ins who have put off getting help until they can't stand it any more! Often the population we serve has not taken good care of their teeth and it is not unusual to see someone in the thirties or forties that has never been to a dentist. The result is we often must provide full mouth extractions and dentures or other prosthetic devices for clients. We do not provide endodontic treatment nor crowns due to the expense. We have a paid and volunteer staff of receptionists, assistants, dentists and dental hygienists that take care of our clients that range in age from 5 to 70 years of age.

In addition to direct services, Turning Points provides leadership in our community on issues related to homelessness. We organize a monthly meeting of all the individuals and organizations in our area that provide services to our target population in order to exchange information, ideas, and plan for meeting the needs of our diverse group. We work on the local and state level to advocate for our clients and their need for more affordable housing, access to health care, and assistance with issues that prevent them from leading a stable, sustainable existence.

Turning Points relies heavily on an army of volunteers in order to provide the comprehensive services offered in our Center. Each month more than 150 people volunteer their time to serve in a wide variety of volunteer slots to ensure that clients get the help they need to move forward on a path toward sustainability. Our caring, compassionate approach to client services is only possible because of the army of volunteers willing to donate towards assisting the population in need. With such a wide variety of volunteer opportunities available, we engage the community and can find a valuable position for almost anyone who desires to volunteer!