Neighborhood Partnerships

The 2011 Legislative session is just around the corner! Please join Neighborhood Partnerships in a meeting of homeless family advocates and others to discuss possible legislative proposals in the 2011 session. If you’re planning to advocate for policy or resources that affect homeless families and children, we’d love to hear about it.

Many of us are working to plan our 2011 legislative agendas, and there is interest and momentum around homeless families and children in particular. Please join us at this meeting to share what you’re thinking about in 2011 or learn about other policy proposals under consideration.

Please join us to discuss possible legislative proposals in the 2011 session on Tuesday, June 15 from 1—3. If you’d like to attend or have questions, please contact Alison.  If you can’t attend, we’d still love to hear what you’re doing, so please email or call us, 503-226-3001 x107.

Please join us!

Bridges to Housing is very excited to release our 2009 Year End Evaluation report!  Once again, this report indicates that Bridges to Housing is serving homeless families with very high levels of need.  The report also illustrates that Bridges to Housing is very successful in helping these families maintain their housing, helping children remain stable in educational settings, and helping these families make progress on health, safety, stability and other goals.

The evaluation of Bridges to Housing is being conducted by Portland State University’s Regional Research Institute.  On Thursday, May 5, 2010 Diane Yatchmenoff, Ph.D. of the Regional Research Institute presented the 2009 Year-End Evaluation Report to the Bridges to Housing Regional Steering Committee.

This report focuses on families who have been in Bridges to Housing for 18 months, families preparing to exit Bridges to Housing, and overall program retention rates.  The evaluation contains some exciting results about Bridges to Housing.  Overall, it finds that families enrolled in Bridges to Housing have continued to make gains in safety, stability and child wellbeing.  Families have also experienced dramatic improvements in basic life skills, social support networks and progress towards education or employment.  Impacts on children have also been significant.

The evaluation report shows significant improvements in safety.  Forty-two percent of families reported one or more instances of domestic violence during the six months prior to intake.  This drops in the six months after intake to 5% and remains at 5% through 18 months in the program.

Results for children are also promising – with significant improvements in stability in childcare or educational settings, children with primary health care providers and dental care providers, and improvements in meeting grade-level benchmarks in school.

As Bridges to Housing moves forward, we hope to share these evaluation reports and learnings not only with our local partners but with others working to develop housing plus services models for families.

You can download and read the full report or the executive summary here.  Earlier reports are also available.