Residential Services
Drueding Center staff partner with our families to find solid ground, helping parents gain the skills and confidence that are the foundation for their future independence and showing their children that success is possible in their lives. Hope for the future, a most precious commodity for these families, begins to emerge and gradually becomes real and attainable.
Meeting the many needs of our families ― who have suffered trauma and still face daunting odds on the path to independence ― calls for comprehensive trauma informed services.
Intensive Case Management: Every family has a Family Advocate, who works with the family to set and reach goals around housing, education, employment, health, and life skills, as part of a detailed Family Service Plan. Each Plan is specific to a family’s challenges, strengths, needs, concerns, and outside support, and follows a realistic timeline. The Advocate coordinates a Family Team, including a therapist, youth advocate and representatives from Education & Community Services and Youth Services, to work with the family to monitor progress, offer encouragement, and review the Plan monthly and revise it quarterly.
Empowerment is key to our work with families. Whenever possible, we replace rules and regulations with responsibilities and expectations.
Since money management and fiscal responsibility are essential skills, every family contributes 20% of their net monthly income to a savings account that is pooled to maintain Department of Public Welfare eligibility and 30% of their net monthly income for utilities and maintenance costs in the Residential Program. Drueding Center also directs these resources to pay down families’ utilities debt, a common barrier to living independentl
Housing Assistance: Whatever challenges they may face, every family views independent living as the ultimate goal and the leading measure of success. From running an initial credit report and helping each mother clean up past problems to eventually placing families in safe, affordable, convenient housing, Drueding Center calls on our vast array of partnerships and networks to open doors:
- We participate in the City of Philadelphia/PHA Blueprint program, providing Drueding Center with a minimum of 24 housing opportunities annually.
- We have long-standing relationships with the limited number of low-income housing providers in the city, including Women’s Community Revitalization Project, Dignity Housing, and Traveler’s Aid.
- We work with landlords and property managers interested in renting to our families.
- We assist mothers with all the necessary paperwork and application forms.
- We have developed specialized resources, such as a Housing Bulletin Board (updated monthly) and a Housing Resource Book, which feature the latest listings and resources to support homeownership.
Counseling: Trauma can never go away, but skill and time can start the healing process. Drueding Center’s two therapists focus on children’s issues and adult issues, respectively. Our therapists offer a variety of psycho-educational groups - S.E.L.F. (Safely Emotions Loss Future) Conflict Resolution, and Parenting.
Many of the children we reach cannot recognize emotions and deal appropriately with conflict. To better serve them, Drueding Center therapists and childcare staff are trained in the nationally recognized PATHS® (Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies) curriculum. Therapists conduct weekly PATHS® activity groups, backed up by teacher-led activities, to promote emotional and social competencies, reduce aggression and behavior problems and help children from preschool through elementary school become more receptive learners.
Life Skills: Basic life skills are often important areas of growth for once homeless mothers and their families. Working with each new resident family, we identify needs and devise strategies for addressing them. A Family Advocate also works individually with parents on new approaches to everyday topics, such as nutrition, food shopping, and cleaning, and a Life Skills Workshop series is offered to all resident families
