Through a partnership with the Women and Family Life Center in Guilford and the United Way of Greater New Haven, the Beth-El Center will now be providing shelter diversion services along the Connecticut shoreline from Milford to Madison.
Through its newly-formed shoreline diversion specialist staff position, Beth-El Center will be streamlining its efforts to prevent homelessness by identifying and supporting individuals and families throughout the shoreline area who are housing unstable and at the brink of homelessness. The diversion specialist will be assisting those who are at high risk for homelessness by identifying alternate housing arrangements and connecting them with services to help them return to permanent housing without entering into the emergency homeless response system.
“The collective impact of our three agencies working together to help vulnerable populations is significant,” says Jenn Paradis, Executive Director of Beth-El Center. “Homelessness knows no geographic boundaries so coordination and partnerships like this are important for the greater Milford community.”
This new position, which will be based at Women and Family Life Center in Guilford starting in mid-August, is funded through Connecticut's Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Program, also known as the Small Cities Program, which the town of Guilford helped facilitate.
According to Meghan Scanlon, Executive Director of Women & Family Life Center, "We could not be more excited and proud to partner with Beth El Center on bringing the housing navigator position to our Shoreline community. If there is one thing this uncertain time has shown us it is that in order to tackle big problems like housing insecurity, we need to be creative and collaborative. Now, more than ever, families are facing very difficult choices between rent and food. This is not a new problem, but the pandemic has made it worse. To the extent we can avoid them entering the shelter system, we want to, which is why this position is so critical right now.”
“The long term effects of housing insecurity from this pandemic and other factors are our focus and this position is one piece of the puzzle in the larger fight to end homelessness," says Scanlon.
For more information about Beth-El Center and its services, visit www.bethelmilford.org or call 203.876.0747.
About Beth-El Center
The Beth-El Center is a recognized leader in caring for and meeting the needs of those experiencing hunger and homeless in the greater Milford area. The Center serves individuals and families by providing shelter and case management services which provide support and assistance for achieving self-sufficiency. The Center’s soup kitchen offer hot meals to community members in need and feeds up to eighty persons daily. The Beth-El Center is located at 90 New Haven Avenue in Milford. Visit www.bethelmilford.org for more information.