FURNISHING DIGNITY
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Mission Statement
Furnishing Dignity's intent is to maximize the impact of our clients move into permanent housing (as assisted by our partners) by providing furnishings such that each family can turn a house into a home and thus contributing to the goal of ending homelessness, one household at a time. We believe that this service helps reduce the likelihood of our clients returning to the streets or a shelter. We offer this simple image to give a glimpse into our experience serving this vulnerable population. We often see a pile of blankets in the corner where a child sleeps on the cold floor each night. Once we have delivered a new bed, leaving it assembled complete with bed linens and pillows, that child is beaming! Our volunteers experience this and see homelessness first hand and are sensitized to the problem in a way that contributes to broader community understanding of the policies, solutions, etc. Our volunteers are deeply gratified to find they are able to make a difference.
About This Cause
Furnishing Dignity's mission is helping individuals and families dwell in dignity by providing furnishings and other essential household goods to transform a house into a home. To fulfill our mission, we work closely with our Dignity Partners to identify individuals and families who are transitioning from homelessness into self-sufficiency. Our Dignity partners assist the transitioning households with affordable, permanent housing. Unfortunately, the clients often lack necessary household furnishings. A lack of furnishings and comfortable place to sleep is daunting and adds stress to an already untenable situation. We provide the furnishings necessary to remove the stress of funding furnishing purchases and improve a client's rest in an effort to open a pathway to better health, productivity and ultimately self-sufficiency for our clients. Furnishing Dignity accepts donations of new and gently used furniture and essential household items from the community. To protect the health of our clients, we exclusively use new mattresses on the beds provided. To that end, a Phoenix manufacturer has given us discounted pricing on new mattress purchases. To qualify for our program, a household needs to be transitioning from homelessness to affordable permanent housing, be referred by a Dignity Partner case manager and be without some or all needed furnishings. Our "typical" clients consists of a one parent household most often with anywhere from one to seven children. All are low income (by virtue of qualifying for our partner's assistance) with most participating in a rapid re-housing program, although a number of them have been chronically homeless and participating in permanent supportive housing. They have experienced homelessness due to a range of reasons including domestic violence, job loss, disability, incarceration, natural disaster or other traumatic event. Our 'Dignity' approach is to address basic, fundamental needs through personalized service. Helping the family furnish the house via a no cost/low stress way, enables them to quickly create a comfortable, safe and secure home environment. We believe this provides a foundation for them to focus on more urgent issues such as employment or health care concerns and contributes to their successful transition back into the community. Furnishing Dignity contributes to ending homelessness by providing furnishings in a manner that emphasizes our clients' basic human dignity in the belief that it strengthens our clients' ability to successfully transition from homelessness to permanent housing. We eliminate the financial burden and stress associated with furnishing the home, enhance housing security and stability, and 'free up' energy and resources to tackle other pressing impediments to success, such as employment or health care concerns. Improving the clients' success maximizes the investment in housing first programs (such as Permanent Supportive Housing and Rapid Re-Housing) to break the cycle of homelessness and mitigate the health and social costs associated with experiencing homelessness. Furnishing Dignity intentionally incorporates dignity in our client-centric program delivery approach by working with the household one on one, visiting their home and matching their fundamental needs with furnishings we can offer with home delivery including set-up. We provide beds for a good night's sleep, a dining table and chairs to eat and do homework, and living room furniture for family bonding activities; all strengthen families and an individual's dignity, self-esteem and sense of security.