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| Recognizing the need to empower our clients, Friends House has never been focused solely on providing housing for people with AIDS. From the start, our model has been to provide services that promote clients' independence and develop their abilities. For someone living on the streets, or shuffled from shelter to shelter, this continuum of clinical and support services would be inaccessible. Our programs enable residents to gain stability in their lives, increase their access to necessary medical care, and allow them to reach their individual potential. |
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Friends House is a caring community a home in every sense of the word. The Friends House community is built on respect and trust, and values each person?s voice in its operation. |
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| Social Work Services |
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| One social worker is assigned to each resident and they meet weekly, working together to develop plans of action. Depending on a resident's situation, his or her service plan may include support with maintaining compliance with pharmacological regimens, advancing their education, addressing abusive relationships, supporting sobriety, and disengaging from high-risk behavior. Case managers currently make a wide range of referrals to outside service agencies for residents. |
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| Nutrition |
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| Daily meals are an essential service provided to the residents at Friends House. Dinner and bag breakfast are served 365 days a year in our dining room. Staff members work to ensure that the Friends House food program meets the special nutritional needs of people with AIDS. Despite advances in HIV treatment, malnutrition and wasting continue to be a significant. The new drug treatments also raise other nutritional challenges; many HIV medications have special dietary needs for their absorption in the body and some have side effects that can be alleviated in part through dietary management. |
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| Recreation |
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Friends House provides recreational programs each month as a way for residents to come together, have fun, and build community. The schedule includes outings to the movies, or city sites. Recreational programs are also held on-site, such as a monthly party to celebrate residents. Seasonal programs bring residents together for holiday celebrations, spring flower plantings, and the annual AIDS Walk. On-going activities include 2 monthly community meetings, monthly BINGO, a computer lab and a proposed art studio. Other on-going groups at Friends House include an NA and AA as well as knit and sit. Family Tree, the in-house newsletter, describes monthly events and outings. |
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| Vocational |
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Many residents of Friends House face barriers to employment, including: |
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- Lack of experience with the job application process
- Gaps in work skills
- Difficulty in returning to the workforce after a health crisis or unemployment
- Fears that income will result in a cutback of social security payments and other benefits
- Employers reluctance to hire people with AIDS
- Difficulty in maintaining a job because of health status
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Social workers work with clients to pursue their educational and vocational goals, and make recommendation referrals to appropriate training programs, and service agencies. Friends House has on-site programs, including a computer lab to help residents develop work skills. We have also created an innovative program to train and provide stipends to SOME residents for public-speaking work as part of a program of HIV/AIDS prevention (PHANG).
Cooking for Life --- a culinary arts training program for Friends House residents, funded by the MAC AIDS FUND. This pilot program will begin in the Spring of 2009 and is designed to help Friends House residents secure gainful employment in the thriving New York City restaurant/food industries. |
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