Family Mentor

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As of now, we desperately need family mentors in Palm Beach County and Dade County. We have four great mentors in Broward County although we may need more.

Our Homeless family program primarily helps single mothers with young children. As a result, we are looking for women, ideally women who have been single mothers and managed a household, a job, and children. There is nothing that can prepare you for how difficult this is except doing it. Not all people who want to mentor families will be accepted. We will give you a quiz and meet with you at your home. We have to make sure that you can help these moms (often young) learn how to maintain housing so that neither they nor their children become homeless again. We also need women with enough street smarts to know when someone is just trying to get a little extra that they don't really need and when they really need help. The first week is the most difficult because will need to find housing they can afford which is almost impossible in South Florida. The first week you will try to help the mother find something she can afford, get some furniture if needed, make sure the space is appropriate for the child or children, make sure the child or children are enrolled in school or child care, help the mother gather documents we need such as pay stubs, birth certificates for the kids, school records, pediatric records, make sure that mom has a social security number for her children, get more financial information from her, etc.

We have strict criteria for families experiencing homelessness. At least one adult needs to work full-time and it is even better if they have been working there for some time. According to the Federal Government, housing is only affordable when all housing costs (rent, utilities or mortgage, utilities, taxes, insurance) are 30% or less of your income.

That means that someone earning 3,000.00 a month can only afford to 1,000.00 for all housing costs and that is very difficult to find in South Florida. You cannot use a realtor to find housing this affordable. Ideally match your client with another single mother so they can share the space and costs. We allow our clients to go up to 40% of total net income to assist them in finding a place but this leaves them less for other costs.

After the first week, you are required to call the family and speak to them at least once a week. You must reach them. If they do not call you back, go over and see what is happening. Once a month you must visit them at their home for a scheduled visit and complete paperwork and make notes. Several times during the year you must also do surprise visits. There is a lot of training involved. It is important to be both kind and firm.

I can't really enter an address because it will be where the family lives so I am going to enter my address but ignore that. Some of the fields in this form may not be pertinent to this opportunity. Therefore the best thing to do is go to our website homelessfl.org complete the volunteer application completely and then email me a cover letter and resume/cv/bio/a doment that describes your education and work history. Please answer as manuy of the questions in the volunteer application as possible. We do not consider volunteers who can not be bothered to fill out the application or send me a bio.
The "Pay the Rent First" program is focused on helping homeless families get housed and more importantly, stay housed. Only a small percentage of homeless families are eligable for this program. They must have one adult working full-time and children under 18. Families that qualify have enough money to pay rent every month but they do not have enough for first, last, and security. Some low-income landlords may require an additional security deposit if the family has been convicted before or has a very low credit score. These families are easier to help than most homeless people but they often still have some problems besides poverty such as mental health, children with disabilities, etc.

A lot of work goes into qualifying the family, such as an application, a quiz, and a background check. One qualified the family must find a place they can afford to rent (30-40% of their income). So a family making 10,000.00 a month can afford rent of about $3,500.00/month. Of course, none of our families earn so much and it is often difficult and time consuming to find an apartment they can afford. We then provide them with about $3,000.00 towards first, last and security. This is insufficient and requires that the family has some funding of their own in order to get into housing.

Once housed, the real work begins as we mentor them for 12 months. We have additional funds available to help them stay housed. For example, if the car breaks down and they are barely making it, we can assist with repairs so that they don't lose a job. We are looking for a mentor who can go from reviewing the application, to helping them find an apartment, to providing ongoing assistance/education about how to stay housed and avoid eviction.

The volunteer would start by attending some of our client services committee meetings, and perhaps shadowing another volunteer for a while. Some families want the money and then want nothing to do with mentoring. Other families call constantly wanting a volunteer to solve all their problems from paying for prescriptions, paying for child care, etc.

While this is a long term volunteer position, it does not require a lot of time on a weekly basis. Ideally the volunteer will bond with the family and we would not want to change volunteers half-way through the process. The goal is that at the end of 12 months the family is in position to stay housed for the rest of their lives.

The ideal volunteer is someone who is compassionate, not judgemental, and also realistic. We will help the volunteer find resources to assist the family in other areas (aside from housing) which most of them will require. The volunteer will work with the family and get to know them and their strengths and weaknesses. Each family will be different, needing help with different things depending on their strengths and weaknesses. Volunteers will have to pass a background check.

While this is not always easily, many volunteers find it rewarding and enjoy getting to know the families.