Project Hope working to provide daytime access for families

Reservations to stay at Project Hope for the Homeless are required and handled by calling 211 in Lake County.

Project Hope for the Homeless announced it is working to close a gap in services it provides for families with children by keeping the shelter open all-day for these guests during weekday school closings during the coldest months of a school year.

The Families Moving Forward program serves up to 12 guests nightly and operates in a separate wing of Project Hope’s 25 Freedom Road facility in Painesville Township. It is open from 1 p.m. to 7 a.m. on weekdays and 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. on weekends.

Typically, Project Hope’s partners at Salvation Army in Painesville are open 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. and offer a hot lunch as well as other support, but there are occasions when they are not open on holidays, according to a news release.

And when schools are not in session during the week, there has not always been an appropriate place for the children to go with their family after they exit the shelter at 7 a.m. until 1 p.m.

Project Hope has worked as part of its strategic planning for 2020 to address this six-hour gap when children normally would be in school during a weekday.

Families Moving Forward remained open all day on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and President’s Day earlier this year and will do the same for an upcoming five-day spring break, two parent-teacher conferences, a two-day break for Thanksgiving, and a 10day Christmas break, the release stated.

“This is an initiative I believe everyone can get behind,” Project Hope Executive

Director Judy Burr said in the release. “Meeting the needs of babies, toddlers and school- aged children and youth have to be a priority for us to have a safe, successful community.

“The children do bounce back and are truly resilient once their parents feel secure.”

Upcoming plans for later in the year, likely to start in October, include expanding the hours the Families Moving Forward program is open on weekends. However, these plans are not yet finalized as Project Hope works to ensure proper funding and staffing levels are in place, the release stated.

Project Hope, which is the only emergency shelter in Lake County, is a 50-bed, year- round facility.

In 2019, the organization overall served an all-time high number of 476 guests at the shelter. The Families Moving Forward program served 117 individuals last year, including 71 children and 46 adults and provides these guests with greater consistency and routine in a child-friendly, familyfocused program to help build resiliency one family at a time.

Reservations to stay at Project Hope for the Homeless are required and handled by calling 211 in Lake County.