Student and Family Support Initiative

The Student and Family Support Initiative (SFSI) is designed to serve students living in temporary living situations, in “doubled-up families” in the Englewood neighborhood. Referrals for that program will come from 10 Englewood Chicago Public Schools. The HSSI project is a partnership between Heartland and Beacon where Heartland is the lead agency and Beacon being the co-lead. The program operates from 400 West 76th Street at a Heartland provided site. Beacons' clinical staff will be paired with Heartland’s senior case managers and specialists to provide intensive screenings and identified services indicated by the screenings including; housing, financial literacy, vocational/job services, mental health/family treatment and service integration. Liaisons and linkages with existing Englewood services will be promoted. The goal of the program is to provide housing options, stabilize families and improve student attendance and behavior for projected 500 families participating in the project over the next year. The program is funded by an ARRA/CSBG grant through CPS and the Department of Family Support Services. This is a pilot project with independent university research to evaluate the effectiveness of this approach for this population, with the eventual goal of service expansion.