- COPY - Family Mentor for homeless families needed in Palm Beach, Broward and Miami Dade Counties

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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 need more. Our "Pay the Rent First" program provides assistance to help get homeless families with children into permanent housing at a cost much lower than any other - due in part to our use of Volunteers to mentor these families.

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. We will also consider dedicated volunteers who have never been single parents but who have experience juggling a job and motherhood. Women who have had nannies, or the opportunity to stay home with their children would not be our first choice, but we may need them. Volunteers should have sufficient time to devote, care deeply about helping homeless mothers and children, and be responsible enough to work independently when needed.

There is nothing that can prepare you for how difficult single-motherhood with a full-time job 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. Many young mothers are a little naive. They want what they see on T.V., and explaining to them what they can afford, although necessary, is not always easy.

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 many 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 next Family Mentor training is scheduled for Saturday July 26, from 12:00 noon to 4:00 p.m. in Broward County. I do not know when the next training will occur so if you are interested please let me know as soon as possible. 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 income 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 anyone in the family has a criminal history, has been evicted in the past, or has a very low credit score.

A lot of work goes into qualifying the family, such as an application, a quiz, and a background check. Once 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 as much money as we can 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 initial application, to helping the family find any necessary documentation, to finding an apartment, to connecting families with existing community services such as food banks, discounted child care, free school supplies, etc. We will also train you how to determine if the family might qualify for certain government programs like food stamps. Your role will be to provide ongoing assistance/education about how to stay housed and avoid eviction. Mentors are provided with training as well as a casebook to use with the family. The first month may require up to 10 hours per week, by the second month, five hours per week, and if all goes well, the remaining months may require only five hours a month per family.

The volunteer would start by attending a family mentor training, and perhaps shadowing another Family mentor 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 also have to pass a background check. While this is not always easily, many volunteers find it rewarding and enjoy getting to know the families, and find it rewarding to see families go from destitution to well-being. Should we ever get an application from an in-tact family, we would then consider allowing men to volunteer but in three years that has not happened.

If you are interested in this volunteer opportunity, you may contact me directly at lh@homelessfl.org or complete the volunteer application on our website homelessfl.org.

Thank you for your interest. Time is the most precious thing any of us has, we appreciate your sacrifice and willingness to help others.