Joseph’s Home One of 16 United Way Agency Partners Chosen to Receive $2.6 Million in Grants Through Basic Needs Program
Joseph’s Home is one of 16 agency partners of the United Way of Greater Cleveland to receive $2.6 million in grants as part of its Community Hub for Basic Needs program. Joseph’s Home will receive $130,000 for the new Mary’s Home, which will provide a safe place for single adult women who are experiencing homelessness and have an acute medical condition when it opens by the end of January.
Overall, the Community Hub for Basic Needs addresses the here-and-now needs of individuals in Cuyahoga and Geauga Counties. Through the hub, United Way selected the most innovative programs to combat poverty in the strategic areas of economic mobility, health pathways and housing stability. The grant for Joseph’s Home is part of the United Way’s housing stability investment strategy, which seeks to ensure Greater Clevelander’s have—or are on a pathway to—safe, stable and healthy housing and are able to access resources to meet their basic needs.
A thorough process of applications, interviews and input from community stakeholders guided its work to identify innovative programs to combat poverty that are aligned with United Way’s investment strategies. The 16 agencies will work together and report out results.
As an expansion of the work done for men through Joseph’s home, Mary’s Home will fill the gap between hospital and home by providing medical respite care to medically-fragile women experiencing homelessness, helping them heal, obtain housing and rebuild their lives.
“With our idea to provide women’s medical respite, we will show that integrated, whole-person, trauma-informed care can disrupt the tragic cycling in and out of hospitals, shelters and streets, and help vulnerable women stabilize their health and find, obtain and remain in housing,” said Executive Director Beth Graham. “Success is helping women who thought they might never be stable regain their health, reconnect with family and loved ones, obtain a safe, comfortable place to live, and begin thinking about their futures.”
With partners at Cleveland Clinic, Mary’s Home will conduct an evaluation comparing the outcomes and cost effectiveness of medical respite to standard hospital discharge practices. “We will build the evidence base to generate new investment into ending homelessness in our community,” she added.
Read more about the Community Hub for Basic Needs agency grantees on the United Way website and on Cleveland.com.
