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Catholic Charities of The Diocese of Palm Beach Samaritan Center Be PROGRAM NEED STATEMENT Entire Section B not to exceed one page) 1 . a) What is the unacceptable condition requiring change? b) Who has the need? c) Where do they live? d) Provide local, state, or national trend data, with reference source, that corroborates that this is an area of need. a) The unacceptable condition requiring change is that of homelessness, a lack of higher education, vocational skills training and parenting skills. In addition, there are typically problems of substance abuse, physical and emotional abuse, financial problems, legal issues, transportation difficulties, mental health issues, and a general lack of adaptive life problem solving skills. b) The need is realized by families that are homeless or living in unacceptable living conditions . Families must consist of at least one adult age 18+ with at least one child age 0- 17 or a pregnant female 18 years or older. c) They must be residents of Indian River County. Most are in the process of being evicted. Some have already been evicted and are living in cars, tents or on someone ' s porch for a limited time. In some cases the court mandates that a parent come into our program in order to be reunified with their child/children. d) Data : The National Mental Health Association reports some facts about families and children who are homeless : I /Families are now the fastest growing segment of the homeless population and account for almost 40 percent of the nation' s homelessness. On any given night, 1 .2 million children are homeless ; 2/Most children become homeless because their mothers and fathers are unable to find affordable housing. Traumatic events such as unemployment, illness, accidents, or violence and abuse further limit their ability to secure decent housing; 3 /The average homeless family is composed of a young, single mother and two children under the age of six; 4/ While one in five school aged children have a major mental disorder, children between the ages of six and 17 years old who are homeless struggle with higher rates of mental health problems; a) Almost half of children who are homeless have anxiety, depression or withdrawal ; b) And more than one in three children who are homeless manifest delinquent and aggressive behavior; 5/ Homeless children are hungry more than twice as often as other children, and 2/3 worry that they won 't have enough to eat; 6/ Homeless children are more often in fair or poor health, are four times likely to have asthma, and are four times more likely to have a low birth weight and need special care right after birth compared to children who are not homeless. 2. a) Identify similar programs that are currently serving the needs of your targeted population; b) Explain how these existing programs are under-serving the targeted population of your program. a) The only local program similar to ours is the Homeless Family Center. They served 33 families consisting of 73 children during the last year. In addition, they turned 30 families away . b) Underserving the targeted population is shown by the number of people turned away by HAC & Samaritan Center. Our records indicated that 120 families applied for residency at S . C . during the last calendar year. This consists of 141 adults, 206 children and 21 unborn children. Of these, one family was not an I .R. C . resident; therefore, not eligible for our program . 5