Welcome Home Kits Update

By Linda Horn

The Welcome Home Kit program at St. Stephen’s continues to thrive under Sharon DeHaven’s dedicated leadership.  The goal of this program is to facilitate successful transitions from emergency shelters to more stable housing by providing essential household supplies at move-in time.  Requests for the kits come from Ingrid Pixley of the Housing Solutions consortium.  This group holds weekly meetings with representatives from housing-related social service agencies including Charter House, John Graham Housing and Services, Women Safe, Counseling Service of Addison County, and many others.  Working together the Housing Solutions clinicians determine clients who need a Welcome Home Kit and confirm the timeline for move-ins.

Sharon and Fred DeHaven are currently preparing made-to-order kits for each referral.  The kits vary depending on how many persons there are in a household, what size sheets are needed, number of mugs, plates, and glasses, etc.  Completed kits are taken to the United Way of Addison County where the referring caseworker picks them up and arranges delivery.  To provide accountability, the case workers sign out each kit with the date and name of the agency so we can document the total number of kits distributed and track where they are going.

Many of the supplies for the kits come from The Dollar Store in Middlebury, whose owner has been extremely helpful with this program.  Other sources for supplies are Goodwill Stores, Costco, and donations.  Some items must be new such as the new pillows provided for each member of the household.  Donated items can be new or in some cases “like new” – meaning they must be sparkling clean and in good condition.  Please contact Sharon for more information about donations.

The United Way has been extraordinarily helpful by providing some initial funding, unloading deliveries, and facilitating pick-ups by the case workers.

Because of the dearth of affordable housing available for people to move into, the demand for the kits right now is low.  One agency has a waiting list of 60 people hoping for a unit to become available.  Rest assured we’ll be ready to provide a Welcome Home kit whenever we can help someone make the transition from emergency housing to a more stable alternative.