Social Services and Educational Supports

The goal of AchieveAbility's Family Self-Sufficiency Program is to help low income, formerly homeless, single parent families to develop new skills to improve the quality of their lives and reach true, lasting self-sufficiency.

AchieveAbility's Family Self-Sufficiency Program helps over 150 families annually. These formerly homeless, low income, single parent families living in AchieveAbility housing to learn new skills and increase their levels of self-sufficiency. Families participate in AchieveAbility's program from three to five or more years, the time period necessary to attain self-sufficiency.

While in AchieveAbility housing, all families receive comprehensive social services from AchieveAbility's professionally educated and trained self-sufficiency staff. Upon admission into the program, each family develops an individualized family goal plan with an AchieveAbility self-sufficiency coach. The plan—which identifies goals in the areas of education, employment, parenting, personal development, finances, physical and mental health, home management, child care and recovery from substance abuse, as well as strengths which can be tapped and obstacles which need to be overcome to achieve the goals—serves as the initial basis of the family's participation in the Family Self-Sufficiency Program. The family and its self-sufficiency coach collaborate over the course of the family's stay to help ensure that the family is meeting its goals and progressing toward self-sufficiency. Every three months, the family and self-sufficiency coach meet formally to reflect on the family's progress. Based on successes achieved, obstacles overcome and challenges encountered, the family updates its goal plan to serve as a continued guide toward self-sufficiency. AchieveAbility uses its copyrighted AchieveAbility Family Self -Sufficiency Continuum as an evaluation tool for its clients and for program development.

In addition to case management services, AchieveAbility, through collaborative arrangements with other social service providers in the community, makes available to its families the following services:

Academic Skills Assessments for Adults: At entry, all parents undergo academic skills assessments. Parents are then provided with a skills development plan so that they can earn their GEDs within one year or get ready for college work. Clients who may be facing additional challenges in going back to school undergo additional assessments on learning styles and aptitudes and are provided with additional supports to help them succeed.

Computer Skills Assessments: At entry, all parents and all school age children undergo computer skills assessments. Based on results, AchieveAbility's Computer Center staff develop classes so that all AchieveAbility clients can develop basic computer skills.

Developmental Assessments for Children: Counselors provide on site developmental assessments of pre-school and elementary school children. Based on the assessments, which include formal interviews, direct observation and play therapy, families are provided interventions so that the children will significantly increase their chances for success both in and out of the classroom.

Reading and Math Skills Assessments for Children: Upon coming to AchieveAbility, the reading skills of all children at all grade levels are assessed so that measures can be taken to bring up their skills to age and grade appropriate levels. Similar assessments for math skills are also conducted for children from first through fifth grade. Dr. Morton Botel, who is the William T. Carter professor of education at the University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Education, developed these materials and volunteers as a consultant for AchieveAbility.

Assistance with Educational Financing: AchieveAbility helps clients to access scholarships and government financial assistance. When a client is not able to secure financial aid by the time school starts, AchieveAbility assists clients in the meantime with their tuition payments and book expenses.
After School and Summer Children's Program: AchieveAbility's after school and summer children's program is held in one of the local AchieveAbility buildings conveniently located within walking distance of most of AchieveAbility's housing. The program provides children with assistance with schoolwork, arts and crafts activities, computer instruction in the AchieveAbility computer center, educational games, recreational activities, nutritional snacks and field trips.

AchieveAbility Neighborhood Computer Learning Center: The center, located near to most of AchieveAbility's homes, is open 7 days a week and has 20 networked computers and multimedia equipment. IBM, through United Way, has also donated three Young Explorers computers and workstations, which are specially designed for children age 3-7 years. Staff provide assessments, individual and group instruction on academic, computer and multimedia topics.

Tutoring: With the help of dedicated volunteers, AchieveAbility provides both parents and children tutoring services on Tuesday evenings and Saturday afternoons, as well as by appointment.

Education, Skills and Employment Assessments, Placements and Counseling: AchieveAbility's education and career coach provides education, skills and employment counseling and placement services to each client to help the client pursue an optimal education, training and employment path.

Life Skills Workshops: AchieveAbility parents and youth enhance their life skills by participating in, among others, the following workshops and seminars: relationships; financial topics; self-esteem; teen pregnancy; peer pressure; parenting; breast cancer; decision making; career development; conflict resolution; nutrition; non-violence; study and test taking skills; domestic abuse; and anger management. At home management workshops, clients learn home maintenance and repair - from how to change light bulbs, how to clean refrigerators and stoves and how to replace batteries in smoke detectors, to more advanced topics such as how to change vinyl tiles and how to stain wood floors.

Transportation and Child Care Subsidies: AchieveAbility provides child care and transportation assistance to families by subsidizing-as justified by each family's budget-the day, after-school, evening and weekend child care and transportation costs of parents involved in training, education and employment activities. These child care subsidies also ensure that children are in nurturing environments as their parents work toward self-sufficiency.

Furniture and Emergency Food Assistance: As appropriate, AchieveAbility provides clients with assistance in acquiring furniture. This is especially critical to families coming from shelters. AchieveAbility is also able to provide emergency food assistance.

Drug and Alcohol Counseling: For clients in recovery from disabling drug and alcohol addictions, AchieveAbility's full-time drug and alcohol counselor provides group and individual counseling and is on call 24 hours a day to provide crisis support.
Psychological Counseling: Counselors from Widener University are at AchieveAbility's counseling office five days per week, providing individual and family counseling services as well as developmental assessments for preschool and school age children and specialized educational assessments for adults. They also facilitate small groups at AchieveAbility's after school program.

Youth Enrichment Activities: AchieveAbility offers a number and range of activities specifically for teens, designed especially for this vulnerable age group to allow them to spend quality time with members of their peer group in positive, constructive activities with appropriate adult supervision. Activities include college exploration trips, a weekend young men's retreat, a weekend young women's retreat, community service projects, overnight camping, whitewater rafting and attendance at Sixers and Phillies games. AchieveAbility also holds monthly youth meetings, one for ages 12 to 14 and another for ages 15 and up, where teens learn about discuss topics such as college readiness, coping with peer pressure, sexuality, preventing drug and alcohol addiction, relationships, conflict management and other issues.

Teen Mentoring Program:
Young professionals, members of the On Your Feet organization, provide mentoring for AchieveAbility teens.

Family Activities: AchieveAbility offers educational, recreational and cultural activities for families, allowing families to spend quality time and enjoyable moments together, exposing children to a myriad of opportunities and experiences that they might not otherwise encounter and giving AchieveAbility social workers a chance to unobtrusively observe the interaction between children and their parents and offer constructive advice.

Client Employment Opportunities: 31 percent of AchieveAbility's current staff consists of current or former clients. One of AchieveAbility's social workers is a former client. Another former clients is now an AchieveAbility housing and community development associate. A current client, who has an associate's degree from Computer Learning Center, serves as an AchieveAbility's full-time computer coach and another current client is a computer center aide.

Client Leadership Development Activities: AchieveAbility believes that families have a range of strengths, talents and resources that can be tapped so as to facilitate decision-making and ongoing operations. Through the AchieveAbility Tenants Association and with their membership in AchieveAbility's board of directors, clients help AchieveAbility to make its programs more responsive to the needs and concerns of families, promote self-reliance and collective determination and allow  families to develop and hone the types of skills needed for self-sufficient living.

People Going Places:
AchieveAbility clients at advanced levels on the self-sufficiency scale participate in regular meetings throughout the year with successful professionals and business people and thus avail of additional mentoring and networking opportunities to position them for further success.