Holy Family Shelter: How We Serve

What Makes Us Different

Holy Family Shelter provides emergency residential shelter, three meals a day, hygiene supplies, access to telephones, laundry facilities, and transportation. All services are free of charge. Families residing at Holy Family Shelter meet with case managers who provide advocacy and referral for community services, jobs, training, education and housing. Our families also receive supportive services such as parenting classes, nutrition classes, medical services, counseling, and legal assistance. The children have the opportunity to read, learn about other cultures, and do artistic and musical activities. The children also get to go to museums, the zoo, and other community social activities.

Holy Family Shelter practices a shelter-based, “housing first” model, which is centered on the belief that families have an improved chance of achieving and maintaining self-sufficiency once they are situated in transitional or permanent housing that is safe and affordable. Comprehensive case management services are the cornerstone to the program. Over the course of their stay in the shelter, families participate in housing assistance, GED preparation programs, employment training, domestic violence counseling, mental health services, financial literacy/recovery plans, addiction treatment, legal counseling, and recreational programs.

Holy Family Shelter case managers develop a case plan with each family, outlining steps to identify and meet the needs of each family member. The case manager assists the family to work through the plan and refers family members to social service agencies for help with specific needs. The case manager typically has 30 to 45 days to work with each family before permanent housing is secured. There are two case managers; each has a caseload of 11 families, which allows them to spend concentrated time helping families as they develop and implement their case plan.

A network of agencies, designed to prevent families from falling back into homelessness creates a support system beyond emergency shelter that is essential as families complete their case plans. Coordinating services with other agencies avoids the duplication of services and allows our homeless families to connect more efficiently with local resources. Holy Family Shelter works with a group of collaborating partners in the Indianapolis area to implement holistic case plans and provide the resources to help families achieve and maintain self-sufficiency.