Friendship Place

On a single night in January 2013, there were 610,042 people experiencing

homelessness in the United States, including 394,698 people who were homeless
in sheltered locations and 215,344 people who were living in unsheltered locations.
The capital of United States is not exempt of this issue, in terms of percentage per
capita in 2013 Washington DC had higher levels of homelessness than New York.
Somebody has to do something about it, government is interested on this issue but
is not alone, and some organizations around the country are really concern and
worry about the future of the people living on the streets. One key strategy is
nonprofit helping to decrease this rates, one of them is Friendship Place.
Friendship Place is a leader in Washington, DC, in developing solutions to
homelessness that have demonstrable results and a lasting impact. Our innovative,
customized, person-focused programs empower participants to rebuild their lives,
find homes, get jobs and reconnect with friends, family and the community,
permanently.
Mission
Our mission is to empower individuals and families experiencing or at risk of
homelessness to rebuild their lives with the involvement of the community. Our vision
is a DC community and a nation in which every person has a place to call home.
History
In 1991, the District of Columbia government proposed opening a 50-bed emergency
shelter for homeless men at the Guy Mason Recreation Center in Glover Park in
upper Northwest Washington, DC, the wealthiest area of the District.
Many in the area reacted negatively to the proposal. They argued that there were no
homeless people in upper Northwest, so services for them were not needed.
But other neighbors thought it was time for the residents of upper Northwest to do
their part to find positive solutions to homelessness in our city. A small group of these
concerned citizens convened to look for ways to make a difference. They hired a
graduate student to go out and answer the question once and for all: Were there
homeless people living in their midst? In a one-night survey, the student found
among the stately homes of Ward 3more than 100 men and women living in the
parks and alleyways.
That was all it took. The group mobilized. Within a few years, working with local
congregations who had come together to address the issue from a faith perspective,
they opened a drop-in center on Wisconsin Avenue in Tenleytown and five small
congregation-based shelters.
This was the grassroots beginning of Friendship Place, which operated in its early
years entirely on private donations from caring neighbors and with an all-volunteer
staff.
Current programs

Friendship Place has different programs focus on the needs of people experiencing
homelessness; the first and most important; Housing. As the mission of Friendship
Place says Ending homelessness, rebuilding lifes that is the major goal of this
organization in consequence they have other programs to help people in more than
giving a warm night, they know that being homeless involve more situations like job
emplacement, medical care, psychiatric help and much more, the idea is make
individual changes step by step in order to accomplish better rates of stability to
those people that are helping and make a long term change. The principal
programs are:
Housing
Called PSH (Permanent Supportative Housing), Our permanent supportive housing
(PSH) programs are designed to empower people with serious mental health
challenges, addictions, physical illnesses and/or disabilities to transition into housing
and rebuild their lives. By the time we connect with them, many have been living on
the streets for years
AimHire
Being jobless and homeless is a vicious cycle. You cant get a job when you dont
have a place to live, and you cant get a place to live without a job. AimHire offers a
way out. This privately funded program empowers people who are experiencing
homelessness and unemployment to find jobs and housing at the same time.
Veterans
Friendship Place is a leader in the Washington D.C. Metro region in the national
campaign to end homelessness among veterans. Friendship Place is a recipient of
the Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF) grant from the Department of
Veterans Affairs.
Drop in and Clinic
Living on the streets can age someone 10 years in just one year, yet many homeless
people wont seek medical care if they have to go through a lot of red tape to get it.
At Friendship Place, theres no red tape, no appointment needed. Participants can
walk in off the street and see the doctor or nurse on a walk-in basis.
Street Outreach
At Friendship Place, we connect with our homeless neighbors out on the streets;
meeting them right where they are in parks, alleys, store fronts and church parking
lots.
Shelter and transitional Housing
Friendship Place partners with five area congregations to provide shelter and
transitional housing in comfortable, homelike settings. These are truly win-win
collaborations the congregations host the shelters and provide caring volunteers,

while Friendship Places case managers help the residents establish and achieve
goals for rebuilding their lives.
Youth and Young Adults
Before Thirty is a person-centered case management program targeted to youth and
young adults 17-29 experiencing or at risk of homelessness.
Board Members and Staff
The Chief Executive Officer Friendship Place is Jean-Michel Giraud, for more than
8 year has served the District of Columbia community since he join the organization
and has won recognitions for his labor on cost-effective, permanent and rapid
solutions to homelessness.
Today, Friendship Place has a paid staff of more than 60 and serves throughout the
DC Metro region, with successful, award-winning programs that have a lasting
impact on the lives of more than 1,200 people a year: street outreach, drop-in, free
medical and psychiatric clinic, case management, transitional housing, permanent
supportive housing, rapid rehousing, job placement, and specialized programs for
veterans and their families. Because of our outstanding outcomes, our program
models are studied by government and nonprofit entities all over the country wishing
to replicate our success.
Fund and partners
A nonprofit organization cannot do anything without the support of public and private
funds, those funds has to be good administrated in order to accomplish all the
activities of the nonprofit. Friendship Place uses both kind of help, public and private,
the first is by the District of Columbia and the U.S. Department of veterans affairs,
and private by people and business donations, the most important by the amount of
help are stratus consulting, at&t, Courtyard Marriot and more, demonstrating the
community engagement of the funders.
Other important help is the partnerships with others organizations like churches,
schools and other nonprofits that makes a network of people ready to help because
all of them have a clear objective; community development. Friendship Place has
been doing a really good job in all this years in Washington DC, all the staff is
engaged with the purpose, and the continuous research for better practices and
programs has demonstrated results that could be a good example for other places
in United States and also other countries like Mexico. We do not know what is going
to happen tomorrow the life is a Russian roulette you we are here today but maybe
tomorrow we will be in that conditions and is probably an organization like Friendship
Place will help to make a better life.
Friendship Place - Ending Homelessness Rebuilding Lives. (n.d.). Retrieved February 21, 2015,
from http://friendshipplace.org
Henry, M., Cortes, A., & Morris, S. (n.d.). The 2013 Annual Homeless Assessment Report
(AHAR) to Congress. Point-in-Time Estimates of Homelessness, 64-64. Retrieved February 21,
2015, from https://www.hudexchange.info/resources/documents/ahar-2013-part1.pdf