The Resilience Group
The Resilience Group – Homelessness Recovery Firm: Implementing a Coaching Model for Sustainable Homelessness Recovery
Shoneen N. Brown | 2022
Abstract
The significance of this study is to mitigate the cycle of chronic homelessness by implementing case management practices in recovery and transitional efforts to afford individuals to achieve self-efficacy and live a resilient and abundant life. Many citizens of the homeless population can experience chronic displacement for decades. According to Dr. Cyrus Williams, a licensed counselor, professor in the School of Psychology & Counseling at Regent University, advocate, and active participant in homelessness recovery efforts, “for individuals who experience consistent or chronic homeless, homelessness becomes a lifestyle” (2021). For some, effortless access to government, local, and community assistance programs can cause individuals to become complacent, negating the desire for self-efficacy and sufficiency. Most programs are easy to re-enroll after failed attempts at re-acclimation to society (Williams, 2021). Personal accountability during the recovery process becomes nonexistent, and the cycle continues, passing along the mindset of homelessness from generation to generation (Bingham, 2021). However, accountability is not one-sided. Positioning well-trained, competent coaches ensure the recovery process is founded on a solid collaborative relationship.
This project is designed to review the coaching process and its proposed role in homelessness recovery to encourage impactful and sustainable change for the homeless. We will investigate the history and variables contributing to homelessness in the United States, then narrow our scope and discuss current trends of homeless and the services provided to individuals within the Virginia Beach, Norfolk, and Portsmouth communities of Virginia. Various shelter program managers, community directors, licensed counselors, and psychologists participated in this study through interviews to discuss the current climate of homelessness, the lasting traumatic effects of homelessness, current recovery initiatives, and the future of homelessness. “There is an immediate need for implementation of coaching modules within homelessness recovery cases as homeless people are often in survival mode, and unable to see past the here and now.” (Williams, 2021) Coaching is a springboard for changing the mindset of what is possible, empowering the homeless to move forward.