Roots of Community: Best Practice

This document is a proposal that Flipped Table co-founders Christie Love and Holly Madden developed while they were leading at The Connecting Grounds church in Springfield, MO. This was a concept for the creation of two campuses of supportive transitional housing that could help to reduce the instances of individuals struggling to survive without stable shelter in that community.

We consider this a best practice that has never been implemented. The research on this project is sound and many experts agree that projects like this one could radically transform communities in our country. Therefore, we are sharing it in our resource library as an idea that could be explored by other communities of faith and communities of context to address growing numbers of unsheltered individuals and a national lack of affordable housing.

If you have any questions about this proposal or adapting it to your community, please contact Christie Love for a conversation!

Trauma Training Takeaway: Helping people overcome the barriers created by traumatic circumstances requires trauma-informed approaches. This transitional housing program was designed with an understanding of the types of coping strategies, mental health issues, and need for supportive community connections that people working to overcome homelessness many need support around.

One of the biggest things that tried to take into account is how communal that life often becomes living on the streets. Something that many people do not realize is how traumatic the isolation can be when someone gets into housing after camping, eating, and fighting for survival with others each day and they are suddenly cut off from their support group and friends. I have seen people leave housing- because they were lonely. This model takes this struggle into account and strives to help individuals reorientate to housing while not requiring them to sever all of their social ties at the same time.