Program

Arthur Cassell Memorial Transitional House is a transitional living facility for fourteen homeless men who have a desire to live independently in the local community. The Arthur Cassell House helps men through the transition from being homeless and jobless to obtaining employment and permanent housing. Each client learns the importance being accountable and responsible, money management, personal re-connection to a spiritual lifestyle, service to the local community, and healing interpersonal relationships. Clients receive case management, employment counseling, and assistance in obtaining permanent housing. Cassell House is unique in its approach to the process of helping men move from homelessness to permanent living arrangements; it is the only facility of its kind in the High Point area. We operate with the basic premise that each person we house is capable of success. We believe in the Disease Model of Addiction and implement Motivational Interviewing, and Ownership Strategies.

These strategies were put in place in February 2003. Some of the prerequisites of a client we can house are:

• Homeless according to the McKinney Act (please see the forms page to download specific criteria
• 30 days free from non-prescribed substances, including alcohol. This must be verifiable. If a client does not have this amount of 'clean time', we can arrange for a safe place for him to stay until he reaches this.
• Must be male, and a legal adult.
• Must be physically and mentally able to be employed full time.

Our approach in transitional housing is the following:

• We interview each client to assess his individual needs and aspirations, and if he is not appropriate, we refer him to other facilities that will help him with his situation.
• Once accepted, we begin with acclimating him to our community by assigning a more experienced resident to him as a mentor, and by making him familiar with the public transportation routes, employment opportunities, and local support groups.
• We help each client with employment readiness skills, commensurate with his abilities.
• Once employed, we work with him to ensure that he maintains his employment.
• Our program structure includes budgetary skills training, interpersonal relationship classes, and addiction recovery oriented didactic group sessions, spiritual re-connection and healing of familial and personal relationships.
• This eclectic blend of disciplines with each client creates a community atmosphere, which is most beneficial, as most of our homeless clients do not have familial resources available to them.
• The majority of our alumni participate in the Home front Alumni Association formed while in residence and substance abuse treatment at the Open Door Ministries men’s shelter. Alumni frequently come back to volunteer their time with our newer clients and provided positive reinforcement that the program does work. Alumni attend 1x/week alumni meetings at Arthur Cassell and we have seen this involvement grow tremendously.

Success
The single most important factor in our success is the individual approach to recovery rather than compartmentalized treatment of a population, which makes the difference. The degree of respect that residents receive along with person centered treatment plans, are our program. Without this approach, we would not have the successful outcomes we are presently enjoying. Since the implementation of Motivational Interviewing along with implementing the Disease Model of Addiction, our long term success rate has increased. We define success as a person leaving our program and acquiring permanent housing, while maintaining an active program of recovery in his life, along with continued interaction with this program, and assisting others in their quest to change. Since February 2003, we have discharged only one client for non-compliance. We have had 116 Residents since 2003 which is an average of 10 residents per day. We have referred (7) clients to another facility that would better suit their physical and psychological needs. The beds are designated as 8 regular homeless beds and 6 Veteran beds. This has demonstrated itself to be 43% of beds are used by veterans and 57% of bed use is homeless males. 36% of residents have relapsed and 12% have returned to treatment and a residential stay. 64% have managed to remain successful in the recovery process and stabilize their lifestyle over a 2 year period. Arthur Cassell transitional house believes that the combination of modalities in treatment is the main reason for our success. It is imperative the resident develops and trust the support structure in place before venturing out in the community to implement what he has learned and knows works. The homeless have a much lower rate of success mainly because of the lack of familial and social supports within the homeless population. The High Point community is very supportive and has become an active ingredient to Arthur Cassell transitional success.