Case Management for Homeless Families
Location: Loudoun County
In 2008, INMED Partnerships for Children launched the Opening Doors program for homeless families. The program delivers intensive case management services to pregnant women and families with young children in Loudoun County’s emergency homeless shelters and transitional housing shelters.
The goal of the program is to help homeless families living in the shelters gain stability; strengthen their personal, financial and vocational capacity; and achieve the self-sufficiency that will allow them to maintain permanent housing.
An End to Homelessness: One Family’s Struggle to Find Stability
All five of her children were under nine years old when Ruth and her husband separated. Overnight she became a single mother with no money to pay for her children’s needs let alone the rent and the utilities. Seeing that she was facing homelessness, an acquaintance told Ruth about INMED and soon she was assigned a case manager to help her face these new challenges. Today, Ruth has a job, she is providing for herself and her family and she is optimistic about the future.
"Sometimes people just need to be shown a better way," Ruth says. "The people at INMED understand that there are seasons of trial, and they give you the tools to make it through." Ultimately, the key to success is a positive attitude, she adds. "INMED taught me that if you approach a bad situation with a negative attitude and feeling of entitlement, you will likely fail. But if you have an attitude of gratitude and an open mind, there's nothing you can't overcome."
