Impact and Programs
Accomplishments
In 2016, Ascension Place, Inc. served 587 women and children. Ascension Place provided transitional housing to 71 women. St. Anne’s Place provided emergency shelter to 170 women and 308 children, and Next Step Housing provided permanent supportive housing to 11 women at our site based program and 20 women and families in scattered sites.
Current Goals
In 2015, Haven Housing implemented trauma-informed care at St. Anne’s Place emergency shelter, and we have begun to introduce trauma-informed practices in all of our programs. In late 2016, we conducted an agency-wide internal assessment of our trauma-informed care. We are currently evaluating the results of this assessment, identifying gaps in our services, policies and staff knowledge. In 2017, we intend to address the gaps discovered through the assessment, and ensure that all agency-wide practice are firmly rooted in trauma-informed principles.
Ascension Place: Our fundamental goal is to meet the basic needs of women in transition, and to allow them safety and support while they work to overcome their barriers to stability. While they stay at Ascension Place, women are equipped with the tools, skills, resources and community connections needed to pursue a more hopeful future.
In 2017, we plan to continue to increase health and wellness programming, including: blood pressure screenings and smoking cessation support from Broadway Clinic, empowerment workshops with Twin Cities Rise, in-house healthy cooking classes, a new chronic condition support group, and diabetes education and screening from Pillsbury United Communities.
St. Anne’s Place: Our key goals are to provide families with basic necessities – shelter, food and personal care items; identify and address the issues that led to crisis and any lasting effects of trauma; ensure that children are enrolled and supported in school or childcare; strengthen the family bond, and; connect the family to community resources (chemical health programs, school or job training for mothers, family healthcare, children’s developmental assessments/support, etc.).
In 2017, we will continue to grow our aftercare services and increase our support of alumni families. We also hope to develop a new partnership with a local mental health agency to provide on-site mental health services. We plan to increase in-house presenters on a variety of topics, like housing and health. Finally, through staffing and volunteer recruitment, we hope to provide more positive male role models for the children at St. Anne’s Place.
Next Step Housing: We serve our NSH clients with the primary goal of helping them maintain long-term stable housing.
In 2017, staff at NSH will be working to meet the new Hennepin County Coordinated Entry requirements. We also hope to maintain housing stability for all of our current clients, as we successfully did in 2016, and add new clients in our scattered site housing option. Finally, we hope to increase client participation in groups and activities, particularly clients in scattered sites, in order to further build community and decrease the effects of isolation.
Community or Constituency Served
Ascension Place is a transitional housing program where women can stabilize, recover and rebuild their lives with support.
St. Anne's Place is an emergency shelter for women-led families experiencing extreme poverty and homelessness.
Next Step Housing is a permanent supportive housing program for women and women-led families working to maintain housing stability.
Geographic Area Served
We serve the greater Twin Cities region.
