Community Partners
Caring for the homeless involves much more than fulfilling their basic needs. Our goal is to transform their lives and help them achieve and sustain self-sufficiency. In order to accomplish this we work diligently with other agencies in our community and higher education institutions to bring a holistic service recovery plan for vulnerable individuals.
Centro San Vicente
Homeless individuals in need of immediate medical attention can come to the emergency shelter on-site clinic funded and operated by Centro San Vicente. A class D pharmacy is also on-site so individuals in need of medication can start illness treatments as soon as possible. The clinic receives referrals from all the shelters throughout the community. Transportation to/from the clinic can be provided by Centro San Vicente. The clinic is staffed by a nurse practitioner and four licensed vocational nurses, contains its own pharmacy, and includes four examination rooms. About 270 people seek help in this program each month!
University of Texas at El Paso (Community of Learning)
The Opportunity Center for the Homeless, in conjunction with the College of Health Sciences at the University of Texas at El Paso, initiated in 2014-2015 the first steps and continues to develop and mature the “Community of Learning” on and for persons experiencing homelessness.
Through the Department of Social Work, the Opportunity Center has been incorporated into their curriculum. This serves two purposes – one to provide critical support of our existing staff and second to develop community resources through our students. This partnership has enabled us to implement improved service delivery through the addition of much need resources – the students.
This partnership further assists our community in serving the homeless, while providing students real-life experience in working with the homeless – thus an investment in systemic change at multiple levels. Incorporating students within the mix provides our staff, of which over half are homeless or formerly homeless, with evidence-based approaches that have improved the overall impact of our program to those that we serve within a supportive environment to include our emergency shelter, transitional, and permanent housing programs.
Our primary focus at this time is to strengthen this program through dedicated personnel and resources to expand and fully develop the initiative. https://www.utep.edu/chs/
ALIVIANE
Aliviane is the primary provider of prevention and treatment services in West Texas for men, women, and adolescents. Aliviane also coordinates a strong network of community support and an array of interagency agreements to provide a continuum of care in West Texas.
Their work at the Opportunity Center for the Homeless started in the summer of 2003 with a federal treatment grant called Las Puertas Abiertas, which ended in 2006. That same year the PATH program was instituted.
The Project for Assistance in Transition from Homelessness (PATH) has been an integral part of substance abuse recovery in our shelters. PATH provides eligible services to persons who are homeless or at imminent risk of becoming homeless, and who have serious mental illnesses, or may also have co-occurring substance use disorders.
PATH funded services serve as the front door to homeless services founded through the Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Continuum of Care and as a bridge to mainstream mental health services, primary health care, and substance abuse service system. Among the services offered are intense case management, referrals, service coordination, transportation and housing support.
Hogg Foundation
Workforce Solutions BorderPlex
Workforce Solutions Borderplex is helping us to implement the WorkFirst initiative. WorkFirst diverges from the premise of traditional employment services that individuals must be “job ready” in its underlying philosophy that “anyone is ready for work”.
WorkFirst incorporates three basic principles; the provision of services must be person-centered, client-directed, and strengths-based. Recognizing employment as one of the most effective strategies for preventing and ending homelessness, the goal is to assist individuals to pursue competitive employment.
The provision of a supportive environment, in conjunction with employment services, help a homeless person increase their net earnings and decreased reliance on public resources and entitlements. WorkFirst provides access to critical recovery tools for people with substance abuse, mental health histories, and physical disabilities and supports for their continued stability.