- Support for this program is provided by the Weldon F. Osborne Foundation, the Schillhahn-Huskey foundation, and viewers like you.

Thank you.

(upbeat music) - On our premier of Chattanooga: Stronger Together, we will learn about two Chattanooga nonprofits.

One provides services to homeless women and children.

The other offers end of life care to individuals without family support.

We're stronger together, Chattanooga.

So stay tuned to learn more.

(upbeat music) - Welcome to Chattanooga: Stronger Together.

I'm Tony Miles.

In 1988, a group of churches in our area got together to meet a specific need in our community.

They provide shelter and services to homeless women and children, building stability for the family and working to provide opportunities for independence.

Erin Creal is the Executive Director of Chattanooga Room in the Inn.

And I'm pleased to have her with us to talk about the work they're doing.

Erin, thank you for joining us today.

- Thank you, Tony, for having me.

- Oh, I'm so excited about talking with you today.

You are just touch my heart with the work that you do.

So share for our audience.

I'm sure there's not many people that don't know, but just share with them the mission of Room in the Inn.

- Okay, so our mission is to empower women and children who are experiencing homelessness to become self-sufficient.

We offer a temporary home and we offer the services and programs that they need in order to move on and move into permanent housing.

- Wow.

Now I understand that a lot of times people think the underlining cause of homelessness is joblessness, but we know there's a lot other critical issues out there that causes this.

- Right.

- So let's talk about those.

- Well, homelessness is mainly more of a symptom of other issues that are going on.

And, oftentimes it is because that person has experienced trauma in their life.

And if it was chronic abuse when they were a child, then their, their brain developed differently than someone who hadn't experienced homeless, or hadn't experienced trauma.

So, their coping skills were based on flight, fright, flight, freeze.

And so, that impacts how they learn how to cope and how they learn to survive that abuse, even though it's not always the most appropriate coping skills.

So, that leads to problems with relationships it leads to problems in school, it leads to problems staying employed.

And so, at Room in the Inn, we recognize that most everybody has experienced that trauma.

And if it was chronic abuse, then we really need to get to that layer of the individual, in order to address their issues.

So that those aren't what prevent them from maintaining permanent housing or maintaining employment or maintaining stability in their household.

We want moms to be able to keep their kids.

We don't want them to lose custody of their kids, and we want them to thrive socially and economically.

So we want them not only to be educated, to earn a living wage, but we want them to have the skills in order to keep a job and move up in the ranks.

- So what are all the services you all provide for these women as well as their families?

- Well, we provide shelter, first of all.

That offers them the stability of not having to worry about where they're going to sleep that night, where their next meal is going to be coming from.

And then we are working on the steps that it takes in order to get in a better position and maintain that stability.

So, if they have children and they want to work, then we need to arrange for daycare.

And we need, and the children might need immunizations in order to be eligible for daycare or to enroll in school.

So, we take it step by step and we don't expect them to get a job on the first day that they're in the program, because until they're equipped to maintain that job, then it's not going to be successful.

And we don't want to add another failure to their, their history.

And what we try to do is really focus on the relationships with the women and children, so that we can build trust, so that they feel like we have their best interests at heart.

And we are, you know, cause we could, they have been disappointed a lot.

And it's, it's very hard get through.

They've developed a tough skin and it's very difficult to break through that.

But, so, we don't expect miracles in the first month.

Women and children can stay.

As long as they're working on their goals, they can stay as long as it takes to get into permanent housing.

- Wow!

- And then we provide supportive services once they're in permanent housing so that they can stay in permanent housing.

86% of graduates from our program since 2006, have remained housed and they haven't re-experienced homelessness.

So that is huge for the community.

- That is so huge because that impacts the community in so many ways.

Can you speak to that?

- Right?

Yes.

A chronically homeless individual can cost taxpayers $42,000 per year, per individual.

So... - Say that one more time!

- Okay.

(clears throat) Excuse me.

$42,000 a year is what it takes to serve a chronically homeless individual for one year.

So when we are preventing chronic homelessness and them having to repeat that cycle, we are saving the community that much money.

They're not seeking out emergency room visits.

They're less likely to encounter the police.

And so the community, I don't think the community really understands the cost of homelessness to the individual taxpayer.

So, and not only that, we also provide the services to the children that are in our program.

Children who experience homelessness are at greater risk of getting behind in school, developing emotional problems and becoming homeless as adults.

So, we want to prevent that from happening as well.

And so, we have a child advocate on staff who is able to assess the child's educational progress.

Are they at their reading level?

What do we need to plug in, in order to get them at their grade level?

So that school failure isn't something that they experience.

We, we also work with the mom.

We coach the mom on how to advocate for their child.

So that going forward, they are empowered to be the advocate for their child and not just rely on other agencies.

- I really love that, that you work with the parents so they can take their rightful place as the mother, as you know, in terms of being the advocate, the caretaker of their children.

And, so, that is just really powerful.

I also noticed, I think you guys do some other community outreach?

- Right.

Last summer, we started an outreach program.

We have a case manager that goes into the homeless camps.

- Yes.

I want to hear about that.

- Yeah, and she takes needed supplies out there in order to avoid duplication of services.

What we do is we work with the other outreach providers to make sure that whatever they're getting from them, isn't repeated with us.

So, mainly we deliver food to the homeless camps because they are in need of that.

And what we want to do in the homeless camps is build relationships with those individuals who are interested in shelter and/or permanent housing.

And we can work with them on that.

We have homeless preference vouchers available to people that are literally homeless.

And so we're able to, you know, work with that person, get them their ID.

If they don't have an ID, we get their birth certificate for them And then we've, we've housed two men since we've started and they're in permanent housing.

- [Toni] Wow.

- [Erin] Yeah.

And we've got some other people in the pipeline that are headed to permanent housing.

So, we wanted it to be able to serve a broader population than women and women with children.

And along that same expansion, we also added a homelessness prevention.

So, we are able to help families who are facing eviction, who might, who definitely will be homeless if they are evicted.

For the people who are in our shelter, we want landlords who will work with us and not overlook evictions, but help us get help.

Help us, help that family get past the eviction and their poor credit.

And how, how can we make it work for that family in that unit?

- One more question.

- Okay.

- As a community, how can we get involved and help you to help them?

- Well, like I said, we could use landlords who are willing to work with us and willing to be a part of the solution.

Affordable housing is, is shrinking.

The inventory in our area of affordable housing is shrinking.

- [Toni] Yes.

- And so, landlords who are willing to work with us, we also utilize volunteers.

They teach life skills.

We have child advocates that come in the evenings, that work with the kids while the moms are in life skills classes.

We have office help.

We always need volunteers.

And then we also have a wishlist.

It's our current needs at any given time.

And because it's constantly changing, it's not on our website.

So they just need to give us a call or email us and we'd be happy to, to share it with them.

- Erin, thank you so much for coming here and sharing this important mission.

We really enjoyed having you.

- Well, thank you for having me.

It's been a blessing.

- Up next, Barbara Martyr talks to Sherry Campbell from Welcome Home of Chattanooga.

Stay with us.

- We want to know how you serve your community.

Send us photos or videos of you or your family volunteering.

And we might feature it on a future episode.

Email stronger@wtcitv.org, or use the hashtag #StrongerWTCI on social media.

I'm Barbara Marter.

Co-host of Chattanooga: Stronger Together.

And I'm here with Sherry Campbell.

Executive Director of Welcome Home of Chattanooga.

The group began when six friends from diverse backgrounds got together in prayer and mindfulness recognizing a need to serve those who are terminally ill in the Chattanooga area.

Sherry, thank you for being here with us today and talking about Welcome Home.

So, to start out, give me... what is welcome home of Chattanooga?

So that our viewers in the audience will find out what you are and what you're going to be doing.

- Yeah, well I'm grateful to be here and very grateful for this opportunity.

Thank you.

So, Welcome Home is one of two hospice homes in the state of Tennessee.

We opened to provide shelter and family type care for people that have a serious or life-threatening illness and have nowhere to go.

Many people don't know that if you are experiencing homelessness and you're diagnosed with a terminal illness, there's really no place to go with hospice.

You either receive hospice care in your home or you receive hospice care in a nursing home.

Our nursing homes are overwhelmed and full, and many of them aren't able to take people if they have a criminal background or a history of mental illness or substance abuse.

So that leaves many of us that need shelter and care, at the end of life, or when we're facing a serious illness like cancer.

We firmly believe at Welcome Home that no one should die alone.

No one should be facing death alone.

It doesn't matter who you are, or where you've been, or what you've done.

All of us have the same needs all around the world.

We have the same needs at the end of life and that's to be happy and free of suffering.

And to know that someone cares about us.

- So, where do your clients come from?

Where do you get your referrals?

- We have really collaborated with the hospitals and the hospices in our area.

We have good partnerships with them.

The majority of our referrals come from the hospices.

We've also recently developed a partnership with a Chattanooga tumor clinic and we've opened one of our rooms.

We have five rooms.

We've opened one bed for cancer respite.

So we can provide shelter for someone who needs chemotherapy or radiation, but they can't get it unless they have a roof over their head.

So we're very glad to be providing, have one space available so we can keep someone from coming to hospice early or prematurely, just because they didn't have shelter to get the care that they needed.

We also have a good partnership with the Homeless Health Care Clinic and the Community Kitchen and the Homeless Coalition.

So we've done a lot of work building relationships with these agencies.

That's very important for us at Welcome Home, is building relationships and the belief that if we all work together, we can solve this problem.

- So, end of life.

But it's my understanding that when people do come to you, not everyone passes on.

You've actually been able to give them that health care, you know, physically, mentally, and spiritually that they needed, so that they can actually go back out into society.

And haven't you already in the past, reunited some family members and things like that?

Could you kind of, tell us a little bit about that?

- Yeah.

That's one of my favorite parts of Welcome Home, and something I didn't even consider when we were dreaming about Welcome Home that people come, they're very sick, but the people we serve are incredibly resilient.

And once they have their basic needs met, and they're reminded that they are valued people and that they are lovable and that people, that they're important, that they're cared for, their health does improve.

And that's been beautiful to watch.

Or, many I've watched start feeling safe as they spend their time at Welcome Home.

And they feel, they start feeling brave to reach out to a family member.

They might not have talked to in years and it's an honor to sit with them when they ask me or one of our staff, our volunteers to sit with them when they make that phone call to that relative they haven't talked to in a year and just to be able to sit with them and, and hear that reunion on the phone.

And then, many of the families have shown up and been with the person towards the end of life.

Or, we've had a few who have gone back to live with their family.

And I, I really think that's one of my favorite things about Welcome.

- Yeah.

That's kind of like the icing on the cake.

That's the blessing that comes out of it and everything.

You've got such a heart and a passion for this, and as I had mentioned earlier, it started about six years ago.

Why did you start Welcome Home of Chattanooga?

- [Sherry] Yeah.

- I, I don't know.

I, it was, it was just, I was a social worker at hospice of Chattanooga.

I do know, but it's hard to explain because I don't feel like it was my vision.

I feel like it was a vision that was given to me by a higher power.

And, but I was a social worker at hospice of Chattanooga for 12 years.

And I was meeting, all of us were meeting many people that were dying and very dispiriting circumstances.

They were either, didn't have roof over their head, or if they did, they didn't have anybody checking on them.

So they were facing dying all alone.

And many of them would wonder, you know, if anybody would find them, if they died in their sleep or if anyone would care.

And as I said earlier, everyone needs to know how valued and important they are and that they matter at the end of life, All of us.

That's a human experience, not just with the people we serve, but for you and I, and when we think about our last days, who would we want to be with us?

How would we want that to be?

And I don't think many of us would want to be alone and wondering if anybody cares if we take our last breath.

- [Barbara] Right.

- So we all have that same desire.

- [Barbara] Is this true.

- Yeah.

- [Barbara] And I love your story and your passion and your heart for, for what you're doing, but you can't do all the work by yourself.

You use a lot of volunteers, right?

- [Sherry] Yeah.

- What kind of volunteers do you look for?

Do they have to have sort of skillsets or could they just be, you know, grandma and grandpa coming in and just loving on somebody?

What do you look for?

- All of that!

- I smile so big when I think of our volunteers and our staff.

Our volunteers are the heartbeat of Welcome Home and we really wouldn't be where we are today without them.

So we have many opportunities for volunteers.

We have a, a dinner club and that's made up of many individuals and families and groups, or in churches, faith groups that bring a greeted, bringing dinner one night a month.

We have our companion program and our companions come in and help with whatever the resident needs.

They help with care or grocery shopping, doing laundry, or watching a movie.

We have Alan who comes and takes our guys fishing.

We had Lily help with a trip to the aquarium just a few weeks ago.

So our companions do a lot of work.

They, we ask our companions to commit to four hours a week for six months.

And we provide the training for that.

That helps respect and honor the relationship of the resident and the volunteer.

'Cause we just have someone coming in a few times, it, it doesn't really create a strong bond or help the resident feel like they can trust this person because what if the person never comes back?

So with our companions, we asked for a little bit more commitment and we've had some that have stayed for years.

My, my volunteer today had been, has been with us for four years.

And then we also have our volunteers who help with our education program and office work.

Rebecca helps every Monday entering data into our database.

So we have all kinds of beautiful volunteers.

- [Barbara] Well, the one thing that I really want our viewers to hear about is quiet Creek.

- Ah, yes.

- So can you kind of talk about that?

- Yeah.

I'm still just stunned by how we've grown.

So for the first six years, we we're in a five bedroom home in Brainerd, we're renting.

And in 2020, we went out and purchased four and a half acres of land.

We'd been on a long journey because we knew we wanted a permanent home.

So we found four and a half acres, right in the middle of the pandemic.

It was such good news in a really challenging year.

- Very excited about this property.

So, we've been renting a home in Brainerd, a five bedroom home there for our first six and a half years, but we've always had this vision to grow and to go bigger so we can help more people.

Last summer, the summer of 2020, we were able to buy four and a half acres of this beautiful property, and that's going to help us create a whole community of care.

So we're very excited about that.

The building behind us, this stays one.

- [Sherry] we are turning this into a four bedroom home and we'll be moving over in the fall and starting.

And then we have two homes up here that we'll be renovating and they'll each be three bedroom homes giving us a total of 10.

And then we have a dream house building that we'll eventually be building.

And the four homes altogether, we'll just create a whole community of care.

So, whoever pulls down that driveway or into the property, whether it's a visitor or a resident, our college interns, or volunteers or staff, where they, when they drive down this long gravel driveway, they know that they're coming into a safe place.

The place where they're gonna be cared for, where they can feel safe and comforted because many of the people that come to Welcome Have traveled a long road and they haven't always felt safe.

So we want to, Welcome Home wants to provide that.

We want to provide a place where you can feel good and take a breath.

- Eventually we'll be able to serve 14 people.

So our vision has gone from just having a home, one home, to really creating a whole community of care, acknowledging that this is not just for the residents we're serving, that everyone in our community wants to feel happy and free of suffering.

And so when anyone, our goal is for anybody coming to the property, a visitor, a volunteer, or a new resident, a staff member, that when they pull into, into quiet Creek, that they can feel safe and, and just know that they're going to be well cared for.

I think all human beings deserve that.

- So if our viewers wanted to know more about Welcome Home or how to volunteer and everything, how can, how can they reach you?

- Oh!

Through, we have our website: welcomehomeofchattanooga.org.

You can also call our phone numbers on their website at 3 5 5 - 5 8 4 2 And you can email us through the website, too.

- [Barbara] Okay, great.

Sherry, thank you so much for coming in today - It's been my pleasure - To talk to us about Welcome Home.

- Thank you for joining us for our premier episode.

We hope that Chattanooga: Stronger Together, serves as a trusted source of information for viewers like you, who are looking to make a difference in our community.

So let us know what you think.

Email us at stronger@wtcitv.org, or use the #StrongerWTCI on social media.

I'm Barbara Marter, for Toni Miles and all of us here at WTCI, we'll see you next time.

(upbeat music) - Get on demand access to even more of the shows you love with WTCI passport Support for this program is provided by the Weldon F. Osborne foundation, the Schillhahn-Huskey foundation and viewers like you.

Thank you.