Mid America Assistance Coalition (MAAC) provides training and support for case managers who are helping homeless families. By identifying and building on existing strengths, case managers can help families secure the necessary resources to achieve their goals for returning to stable housing. MAAC's management of discretionary funds available to assist these families assures that all expenditures are appropriate to the goals necessary for self-sufficiency. This program is coordinated by MAAC’s Homeless Case Management Coordinator who works at an individual level to provide training and support to case managers and other agency staff.

What is Strengths-Based Case Management?

For the past twelve years, Kansas City has implemented an effective program to address the homeless situation--"Strengths-based homeless case management."

Strengths-based case management is a process of developing a team--a team that includes the consumer, the case manager, and the community. The consumer is a person(s) with wants, needs, hopes, dreams. The case manager is a person with wants, needs, hopes, dreams. The community is persons with wants, needs, hopes, dreams. Each member deserves to be heard, to be taken seriously, and to be treated with respect. Each member needs the others in order to be an advocate for change. No one can break the cycle of poverty and injustice alone.

“I don’t allow anyone to put a limit on my dreaming, and I dream BIG. Always.” Gordon Parks, Photographer

“NEVER underestimate the power within any individual. Their limbs may be withered and useless but their spirit and souls are intact.”
Edward Roberts (1992) –Founder of the World Institute on Disability.

“I have never been contained except I made the prison.”
Mari Evans

“We must always attempt to lift as we climb.”
Angela Y Davis/Civil Rights Activist

This program has a significant impact in providing stability to the homeless or those at greatest risk of becoming homeless. A professionally-trained case manager works intensively with a relatively small number of individuals or families to provide the resources and support over an extended period of time to enable them to secure and sustain permanent housing.

The relationship between the case manager and the family is one of advocacy and collaboration. The individual family's strengths and goals are identified. The case manager works with the family to achieve short- and long-term goals, helping them access the necessary services available. Although housing is usually the primary goal, this cooperative relationship addresses counseling, education, employment, and life skills goals.

History

In response to a growing community concern about homelessness, a joint committee was established by the Heart of America United Way and the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation in 1986. After examining the issue and determining that the most effective means of addressing the situation was strengths-based case management, the committee began implementing this approach.

In 1993, the Joint Committee recommended that an existing social service agency maintain the case management program on a permanent basis. MAAC assumed the oversight of the Homeless Case Management Program with a grant from the Jackson County Housing Resources Commission in January 1994.

Since January 1994, MAAC has provided training for over 500 representatives from social service agencies on the strengths model of case management. These trainings have been done locally and for regional and national conferences. In the Kansas City area, MAAC's Homeless Case Management Coordinator conducts monthly groups for case managers with the focus on support and networking among the agencies to find the best possible solutions to the problems of homelessness.

Results of Strengths-Based Case Management

Since 1994, multiple agencies have received Jackson County monies for use with families in Homeless Case Management. Case managers record expenditures and goals in MAACLink and are able to generate reports to show outcomes measurements. Over the course of the last ten years:

  • Approximately 13,000 homeless persons benefited from case management funds and support
  • 30 social service agencies received direct assistance funds, supporting 63 case managers and the families they served; and
  • Numerous additional agencies received training and support.

Due to the success of the Jackson County program Strengths-Based Case Management, MAAC has been able to secure funding from foundations and individual citizens to expand the strengths-based network to Clay and Platte counties in Missouri and Johnson and Wyandotte counties in Kansas.

Agencies Participating in the local Strengths-Based Network

  • BFMA
  • Catholic Community Services-Olathe
  • City Union Mission
  • Community Assistance Council
  • Community LINC
  • Guadalupe Center
  • Restart
  • Community Services League-Independence
  • Hillcrest Ministries-Clay County
  • Hillcrest Ministries-Platte County
  • Hillcrest Ministries-Jackson County
  • Hope House
  • Joyce Williams Shelter/Friends of Yates
  • Metropolitan Lutheran Ministry-Homeless Services
  • NEWHOUSE
  • Rose Brooks
  • Safe Haven
  • Safehome
    Salvation Army Crossroads
  • Salvation Army Supportive Housing
  • Sheffield Place
  • United Services Community Action Agency-Clay County
  • United Services Community Action Agency-Jackson County
  • United Services Community Action Agency-Platte County
  • Willa Gill Multi-Purpose Center
  • Mt. Carmel Redevelopment
  • Johnson County Interfaith Hospitality Network
  • Salvation Army Family Lodge-Olathe

Surf Groups

  • Support and Resource Focus Groups are held monthly in Jackson, Clay/Platte, Johnson, and Wyandotte Counties
  • These groups are facilitated by MAAC's Homeless Case Management Coordinator
  • "All participants bring resources to share with the group."
  • A particular emphasis is on “mainstream resources” which includes an array of providers of public benefits such as social security, TANF, food stamps, disability, vocational rehabilitation, veterans services/benefits, etc.
  • This is also an ongoing opportunity to provide MAACLink data entry training as well as other training related to working with the homeless population.
  • The Homeless Case Management Coordinator prints data reports from the MAACLink system to review with case managers and to provide added support for entry of vital client info such as case management goals, program entry and exit information. These reports provide valuable outcome information for funders and the community. It will also help the service community identify gaps or barriers within their agencies and the community that prevent homeless clients from achieving their goals.

Strengths Based Case Management Training

  • Training is provided by an experienced MSW
  • Training is 2 days and a certificate is presented to each participant upon completion
  • Areas covered:
    • Different Models of Case Management
    • Why Use the Strengths Model of Case Management
    • The Elements of the Strengths Based Case Management Process
    • Strengths Based Case Management Assessment Tool and Personal Goal planning Tool
    • How to utilize strengths based questions during the engagement and assessment process.
    • Working with a culturally diverse client population and what developing cultural competency means.
    • Discussing the philosophy of assessing the Person in their Environment (PIE) and working as partners with our clients to become naturally interdependent within the context of the family and the community.
    • Crisis Intervention (brief overview)
    • Working Professionally, Responsibly, and Ethically.
    • Finding balance between work and personal life and maintaining clear boundaries.

Strengths-Based Case Management Forms:

1. Strengths Assessment Form

2. Strengths-Based Assessment for Youths Form
3. Personal Goal Plan Form

4. Life Domain Rating Scale Form

 

Support For Case Management Participants

There are two other programs related to the Homeless Case Management Program: Back-to-School Project and Family-to-Family Program. The "Back-to-School Clothes for Kids" effort supplies homeless students with new clothing. The Family-to-Family Program provides other funds for essential needs of homeless families in the case management system.

Back-to-School Project

The Back-to-School Project provides new clothing to homeless children in the Kansas City area. This program complements Strengths Based Case Management by addressing one of the most basic needs of homeless children in our community. The mission is very clear:
"To raise the self-esteem of the homeless school-age children in the Kansas City area by providing NEW clothes at the beginning of the school year."
Our goal is to clothe every school-age child in families in homeless case management. Case managers are asked to submit the names and pertinent information for each of the children with whom they are working.
Sponsoring a child means purchasing a minimum of the following for one child:

  • three complete outfits (shirts, jeans, blouses, shorts, dresses)
  • three pairs of socks
  • three pairs of underwear
  • one pair of shoes
  • one winter coat
    Options include doing the shopping for the elementary-age children and/or providing cash contributions for case managers to take the teenagers shopping for clothes. An approximate cost to clothe an elementary-age child is $135.00, and each teenager will have $200.00 to spend for their three outfits.

"To contribute time or money to the Back-to-School program,
please email Shelly Stroessner at: sstroessner@maaclink.org
or call (816) 561-2727."

Family-to-Family Program

The Family-to-Family Fund was established in 1990 by MAAC to meet the needs of homeless families in our community. Family-to-Family is a flexible fund which is distributed to homeless families through area case managers.


Case Manager Retreat
Each year MAAC’s Homeless Case Management Coordinator also plans and host a retreat for the case managers who are working with the homeless in the five county area. This is usually a day about how to take care of themselves, avoid burnout, and have fun! This event is usually held in October.

Trainings

For details, dates and registration, contact Shelly by e-mail sstroessner@maaclink.org or call (816) 561-2727.