I am excited to share insights on the impact the Lex End Homelessness Continuum of Care (LEH CoC) has made on ending homelessness in Lexington. The CoC is a community-wide initiative to offer a wide range of services to folks in need of stable housing and attention. We’re working hard to achieve our goals and the data shows that homelessness in Lexington is continuing to decrease.
This work relies on our members and their commitment to the CoC system. When we all work together with one vision in mind and utilize proven strategies and systems, our impact is exponentially increased. Throughout the Lex End Homelessness campaign we’ve been sharing the data of this impact. However, I want to share personal notes from our members (see below). Our partners are truly the backbone of our efforts, and we are incredibly grateful for their commitment to ending and preventing homelessness for all.
I look forward to your continued support in achieving our mission.
Sincerely,
Polly Ruddick
Manager, LFUCG Office of Homelessness Prevention and Intervention
“Partnership with the Lexington-Fayette County Continuum of Care has furthered our organization’s mission of serving the city’s most vulnerable population, persons with serious mental illness, by providing quality, recovery-oriented, permanent supportive housing services. The CoC has provided continued guidance on navigating the complex housing system and facilitated funding opportunities allowing us to help our clients escape chronic homelessness and improve their quality of life. Our organization has been able to build strong, collaborative relationships with other community partners thanks to the CoC to ensure no person falls through the cracks in our collective pursuit to eradicate homelessness.”
– Christina Ellison, Director of Homeless Services at New Beginnings Bluegrass
“Beginning with operating the Emergency Shelter built in 1993 to provide a safe place for homeless and at-risk persons in Lexington, the Hope Center has grown and built seven additional facilities to serve citizens of Lexington who are vulnerable and in need of life-sustaining and life-building services that are comprehensive and address underlying causes . We now provide a continuum of housing facilities including those for emergency shelter, transitional, permanent housing, and a mobile unit to provide street outreach. We have been an active member of the Lexington-Fayette County Continuum of Care since its beginning, and are appreciative that it has helped provide an organized approach for the Hope Center and the other community partners that work with the issues of housing and services to those who are homeless. Through partnerships with other agencies in Lexington and the provision of on-site services, the Hope Center is able to assist a person and meet them where they are and help them move from being homeless to self-sufficiency. These services include meeting basic needs, case management, substance abuse disorder, physical and mental health, domestic violence, GED attainment, employment readiness, employment attainment, etc. We have made great progress in our mission and in meeting the needs of this community. We have done this by adding services when we see there is a need and by partnering with many organizations in our Continuum of Care to provide comprehensive services and resources. We join our partners in the Continuum of Care goal to ensure everyone in Lexington has access to housing and services/resources to provide a path to self-sufficiency.”
– Janice James, LCSW, Chief Operating Officer at The Hope Center
“Lexington Rescue Mission is so grateful to be a part of our local Continuum of Care. The partnerships we have formed through this network enable us to meet critical client needs that otherwise would not be met and provide more holistic care. For example, if a client comes to the mission’s Outreach Center and is having a mental health crisis, we can call one of our partners that sends a mobile unit with mental health professionals to respond. We are also able to learn from one another and lean on each other for support. When we launched our street outreach team this year, we were able to connect with two other street outreach teams through the Continuum of Care to learn best practices from them and help support one another in the work. Now, we are able to send our team to another partner every week to connect their unsheltered clients with housing assistance, IDs, medical care, and supplies. We all need each other in this work to prevent and end homelessness. Each partner is critical, and working together is how we can truly leverage our strengths and make a real difference.”
– Laura Carr, Executive Director at Lexington Rescue Mission
“As a relatively new organization to the Lexington area, being a partner with the Lexington Continuum of Care has given us not only knowledge of the other services available in Lexington, but also vital relationships with the other service providers. These relationships have given us the tools to provide much more comprehensive and efficient services to our clients. On an organizational level, working within the CoC has given us a clearer understanding of the system of services and helps us to ensure that when introducing new services we are not duplicating existing ones.”
– Jacqueline S. Long, Director of Housing and Grants at Mountain Comprehensive Care Center
