Hope House is a residential substance use disorder treatment center in Boston. Hope House and Project Place have both been serving Bostonians in-need for over 50 years and have been in partnership for almost as long, supporting each other in various ways over the years, mainly through referrals. When the pandemic hit Boston, both of our organizations had to adapt how we deliver our services to continue to meet the needs of the community.
Although Project Place and Hope House have worked together for many years, the pandemic was reason to launch a pilot program building on the relationship of the past and addressing current needs with great success. The pilot involves bringing Project Place’s SPARRC program to Hope House residents. So far we have served 45 Hope House clients in SPARRC since the pilot program began on June 23rd. The pilot involves bringing Project Place’s SPARRC program (Stabilization Programming Around Recovery & Resilience Coaching) to Hope House residents. We have served 45 Hope House clients in SPARRC since the pilot program began in late June. Currently the program is being held remotely using Zoom with a group of 15 clients, 9 of whom are from Hope House.
Project Place’s SPARRC program itself is new, launched in January 2020 in response to an increased need to help individuals reach stability. SPARRC provides clients with the resources and support system to address both short and long-term barriers and prepare them for success in job training programs, and ultimately stable employment and housing. The SPARRC curriculum focuses on support for mental health, recovery, learning disabilities, and housing instability. All clients receive clinical case management and connections to providers and community supports to enhance their work readiness skills. Zoom classes are run by Project Place teacher and case manager, Ally Fiske, who provides educational instruction, as well as facilitating therapeutic group discussions. Additional partner organizations such as Mass Hire and Tech Goes Home are involved in providing resources to the SPARRC clients.
Ally says, “This collaboration came about because of the pandemic but looking forward we are hoping it will continue to strengthen our ability to be adaptive and expand our services to reach more community members. We anticipate a great need for mental health and recovery supports throughout this pandemic as well as when we emerge from the other side of all this. As community partners, we want to work together to make access to care as easy as possible for those in need.”