Programs...
Sierra House Transitional Program
“Did you know that on any given night 754,000 people in this country are homeless?” —U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
The Sierra House Transitional Program curriculum provides residents with learning activities that will transfer to lifelong independent living skills. Our Transitional Program plays a significant role in closing some of the personal, career, and academic achievement gaps that exist between homeless and abused youth and their mainstream counterparts.
The goal of this rehabilitative program is to teach and prepare homeless and runaway youth, and persons aging out of the foster care system, to live independently within the community at large.
Transitional Program participants learn: Management of daily activities; how to present themselves to prospective employers (including appropriate dress, hygiene, walking, talking, and eye contact); and how to open and maintain a bank account, among other things. Some of the expected program outcomes are for members to acquire stable housing away from people currently using drugs and/or in trouble, to be reunited with parents, to assume responsibility for managing time, and to get credentials in order and be ready to present themselves for job or school training.
Sierra House Neighborhood Improvement Program
The Sierra House Neighborhood Improvement Program works closely with residents, nonprofits, the City of East Orange, local banks, funders, and businesses in hopes to reclaim East Orange neighborhoods hit hard by foreclosure and abandonment.
Our goal is to support neighborhood stabilization by creating programs that provide working families with homeownership opportunities and affordable housing, as well as business owners' resources for building viable commercial districts.
Sierra House accomplishes this goal by working with community partners, building and renovating homes to create homeownership opportunities for working families, and working closely with residents to design a neighborhood plan. Together, our efforts are helping to revitalize neighborhoods in the City of East Orange and to pave the path to neighborhood stabilization through affordable housing, homeownership, affordable housing, and economic development.
Sierra House Entreprenuerial
Leadership Program (SHELP)
Sierra House Entrepreneur Leadership Program (SHELP)
is a community-based volunteer program that operates in partnership with urban schools to teach students business ownership and managerial skills.
The classes will be arranged to portray a business-like environment, and all lessons will use real-life business scenarios. Students will gain social, leadership, decision-making, and business-ownership skills. They will learn how to work together as a team and to develop a solid work ethic. SHELP will inform its students of productive options that are available.
This six-month program will accommodate up to twenty eleventh-grade students. Classes will be held once a month after school or on Saturdays for 1 hour and 30 minutes by arrangement of school personnel at the student’s current school.
The Sierra House’s staff has already coordinated with several schools who wish to offer this program.
Sierra House Family Support Services
Sierra House offers individual support services for eligible children, youth and young adults under age 21 with challenging behaviors and developmental disabilities. Services are offered in Essex, Hudson, Union, Bergen, and Passaic counties. The purpose of this service is to transfer skills necessary to achieve and/or maintain the outcomes of increased independence, productivity, enhanced family functioning and inclusion in the community.
Individual support services shall foster and increase the ability of the family, guardian and/or caregiver to provide the youth with needed support to remain home, in school, and in the community requiring minimal, if any, outside intervention.
Sierra House Individual Support Services Program is based on the principles of family-focused, accessible, need based, clinically appropriate, and outcome-driven individualized care for children, youth, adolescents and young adults. The program is outcome based and is designed to assist youth with moderate self-care and habilitation skills.
Sierra House is committed to providing these services based on the needs of the child and family. Each client receives personalized one on one services and an individual support plan designed just for them. Furthermore, our staff works closely with and trains parent/guardians in the implementation of the individual support plan to ensure success while increasing the ability of the family and/or caregiver to provide the support that the youth needs to function in his/her natural environment.