The Center for Transforming Lives: History and Police Impact

Provide A Brief History of The Organization Program and Its Mission Statement. Include A Brief Overview of Some of The Organizational Programs And Services

 The Center for Transforming Lives (CTL) started out as the first YWCA in Texas. The program provided housing for the homeless and other services for women in need. Funding sources and name changes through the years, eventually settled on the title, Center for Transforming Lives and the program’s primary focus is providing services that promote anti-poverty for women and children (Transforming Lives, 2017). The following programs/services have been designed to fulfill the overall mission for Center for Transforming Lives which is to to elevate women and children out of poverty.  Their Mission statement is “Center for Transforming Lives lifts women with children from poverty to possibility through: Safe Homes – an on-site homeless shelter for women and off-site homes for families. Early Childhood Education – providing free or subsidized early childhood education to impoverished and homeless families. Financial Stability – individual financial coaching and other programs to promote financial self-sufficiency” (Transforming Lives, 2017).

 The homeless service is called Rapid Housing for Families. In the program, emergency shelter is available for victims of abuse and crime then the service is extended to help women and children secure safe, permanent housing (Transforming Lives, 2017).  The early childhood development program offers free child care and access to the development program to homeless families. Low income families are also able to take advantage of the early childhood development program on a sliding scale pay basis. This means that they pay a small fee that is based on their income (Transforming Lives, 2017).  The financial empowerment program focuses on training/coaching mothers on how to manage their money responsibly (Transforming Lives, 2017).  The counseling service is provided a program named Healers of the Broken” (Transforming Lives, 2017).  The therapist in this program provide inhouse and off-site services that address many issues including but not limited to trauma and substance abuse(Transforming Lives, 2017).

Analyze Current Trends That Influence Social Policy And Social Change Relative To The Program/ Include A Description Of Current Trends That Impact The Program

 In Tarrant county Texas, 14,981 children in experience homelessness every year (Transforming Lives, 2017).  According to CTL. This problem will become worse over time due to a link between homelessness and trauma, and poor education, which lead to poor employment opportunities (Transforming Lives, 2017).    CTL seeks to change this trend providing what they describe as a two generational approach. They believe that this approach will ultimately break the cycle of poverty.  The cycle of poverty is that the hardships that the parent experience causes stress, and other financial issues. This in turn affects the children. They experience inadequate education, lack of health care and other issues (Transforming Lives, 2017).  Basically, the parent’s issues affect the children who then grow up maladjusted and experience that same hardships as their parents and so forth. The two generational model is designed to meet the needs of child and parent at the same time. The desired result being to stop this trend.

Describes How Those Trends Will Influence Social Policy And Social Change

These trends affect social policy and change by providing that conditions needed to intervene in the social problem. Kettner et. al., explains that if we want to change the problem we must modify or remove the factors that link to the condition. We must remove the cause that created a negative effect (Kettner et. al., 2017). This task can only be accomplished as a result of policy changes.

Center For Transforming Lives Part II

Describe Three Examples of Program Hypotheses

 Program hypothesis are statements that describe what you think will be the end product as a result of a certain action (Kettner et. al., 2017). For example, I hypothesize that if I apply pressure to a full balloon, it will pop. I then test my hypothesis by applying pressure to a full balloon to see if it indeed, does pop. In practice, this will look like “If I provide more food vouchers then we will eliminate food insecurity issues in our community”. Three examples of program hypothesis that are in play for CTL are:

1. If we provide free/subsidized early childhood education then parents will be free to work and become more self-sufficient.
2. If we provide classes on how to be financially stable then we will help eliminate homelessness caused by poverty.
3. If we provide trauma based counseling then we will eliminate homelessness due to abuse.

Provide A Thorough Description of One of The Researched Trends

Trauma is something that has cause major pain, distress, and fear. This can be mental, physical, or both (Bowen and Murshid, 2016). Service approach based on trauma realizes that trauma has a profound effect on many health and social issues. Though it is a sensitive subject, counselors understand that to focus on a client’s underlying trauma is important in the healing and recovery process. Social Policy regarding trauma based care has outlined the following categories or principles as the most important aspects of care: Trustworthiness, Safety, and Transparency (Bowen and Murshid, 2016). These three principles are paramount in the success of the Center for Transforming Lives Program.

Develop A Program Hypotheses for The Program You Selected.

CTL acknowledges that their homeless shelter is NOT a domestic violence shelter. If we establish a domestic violence shelter, then we will be able to fill that gap in services for women and children that find themselves homeless as a result of domestic violence. According to CTL, domestic violence and poverty go hand-in-hand (Transforming Lives, 2017).  The set of services needed, though similar, may be focused on victim services like protective orders, and developing escape plans. The facilities will be more secure and clients would have access to victim assistance funds to help with the transition. If we highlight these domestic violence services, then more victims will seek help through this program

References

• Bowen, E. A., Murshid, N.S. (2016). Trauma-Informed Social Policy: A Conceptual Framework for Policy Analysis and Advocacy
• Center For Transforming Lives (2017).  Retrieved from https://www.transforminglives.org/
• Kettner, P., Robert, M., & martin, L. (2017). Designing and Managing Programs: An Effectiveness- Based Appoach. (5^th ed.) Sage Publications