07 Jun reStart, Inc. Awarded a $166,300 Grant from Kansas City Consolidated Plan, Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS (HOPWA)

reStart, Inc. was recently awarded a $166,300 grant from the Kansas City Consolidated Plan, Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS Program (HOPWA) to provide shelter-based and off-site transitional housing and case management support to 50 households living with HIV/AIDS.

Although our clients come to us first and foremost for housing, having them onsite as residents in our facility-based programs enables our professional staff to introduce them to wraparound in-house supportive services (such as housing and employment counseling, substance abuse treatment, health and nutrition classes, and health benefits advocacy), as well as to connect them with community providers offering mental and physical health care services and specialized HIV/AIDS care. Because our HOPWA clients face all the challenges other homeless individuals encounter plus the additional challenges associated with living with a chronic illness, we have worked very hard to create a welcoming, supportive environment at reStart, where clients not only feel safe and supported, but where they can get help in accessing community resources and gain the skills they need to regain stability and reintegrate into the community.

Each year, reStart has seen an increase in the number of HIV clients receiving assistance. In addition to receiving housing, food, and shelter, clients and families in the HOPWA program are encouraged to participate in in-house, strengths-based case management and onsite supportive services, including mental health assessments and therapy, housing and employment assistance, substance abuse counseling recovery groups, parenting classes, and arts and recreational programming.  reStart serves clients with HIV/AIDS with high acuity needs as well as those that are stabilized and actively participating in medical treatment and ongoing case management. reStart has added additional off-site housing (studio and one-bedroom units) in a new building. This will allow the agency to move more stable clients into more long-term transitional housing. This, in turn, will ensure the emergency shelter bed spaces are designated for the clients with the highest acuity needs.

reStart’s mission is “to provide shelter and supportive services to help move homeless men, women, unaccompanied youth, and families toward independence and self-sufficiency with the goal of ending homelessness in our community.” We support clients with wraparound services onsite to help clients increase skills and income, improve self-sufficiency, and achieve and sustain permanent housing. We achieve our mission through strengths-based case management, mental health assessments and therapy, housing and employment assistance, substance abuse education and treatment, health and wellness programming, job skills and life skills classes, parenting and recovery groups, arts programs, and children’s programs.