Henry Mayo Newhall Foundation provided a grant to Habitat for Humanity SF/SCV so that we can provide education and training services to our veteran families moving into our houses in Santa Clarita, allowing them to achieve self-sufficiency.
Habitat for Humanity SF/SCV wants to give low-income veteran families in their housing programs a chance to move up into the middle class and break the endless cycle of poverty. This is done through services and training provided through what Habitat for Humanity SF/SCV calls the Enriched Neighborhood® model.
In this model, Habitat SF/SCV partners with local non-profits, businesses, and association groups who are experts in providing training and services to our families. Training in this program includes financial education, safety in the home, obtaining insurance, “dress for success” and resume workshops, disaster preparedness and much more. Alongside this training, families in the veteran housing program will receive services that specifically address needs most common in veteran families. This includes PTSD counseling, art therapy for trauma victims, ensuring connections to all military-entitled benefits and more.
Funding from the Henry Mayo Newhall Foundation is instrumental in making this model a reality for veterans and their families in Santa Clarita Valley. We expect to see similar results in our veteran housing communities as we currently do in our non-veteran specific communities:
- In the city of Pacoima, where the average drop-out rate is 51%, children who grow up in a Habitat Enriched Neighborhood have over 99.9% graduation rates.
- Grade point averages among Habitat families are above 3.1.
- The average time Habitat homeowners have been at their current jobs is 7.18 years.
- Despite current trends, there have been no foreclosures among the over 220 families served.
- Over 13.9% of parents in Habitat households have returned to school for a degree or certificated program to advance employment.