The City of Irving and Irving Bible Church partnering to serve residents in need

By:  Jackie Hardy, NDG Contributing Writer

Irving’s Department of Housing and Human Services (HHS) and Irving Bible Church (IBC) are defying the rules of separation of church and state through their partnership and development of its Services to Empower People (STEP) Program. This program provides one-time emergency financial assistance to Irving residents over an eight-week period using the church’s benevolence funds established by their benevolence fund guidelines.

The STEP program is a short-term assistant program providing financial assistance for a maximum of two months of rent with the client receiving a second month of assistance based on them demonstrating a good faith effort in meeting the action plan requirements set by the client and their case manager.

“We feel like there’s this niche population that is not able to get help and that is where the church needs to step in and really care for these people,” said Heil.

IBC is taking a different approach towards common issues like unemployment, poverty, and homelessness that local communities may have. This partnership and program began last month with a mission to provide for the physical, spiritual, and emotional needs of Irving residents by equipping, encouraging, and empowering each individual to improve their current situation.

“It’s a very unique program, as you don’t hear every day about churches giving money to their local city government to manage for them and it’s a model that can be picked up and taken from city to city,” Anna Heil, Global Partnership Director for Irving Bible Church (IBC) said. “That’s what we hope will happen, being able to fill that gap obviously as city government has lost a lot of funding.”

Despite the decline of the City’s unemployment rate, as reported by the Texas Workforce Commission, from seven percent in January 2012 to 6.3 percent, Irving citizens are still struggling to pay their bills or rent.  According to demographical information provided on the City of Irving’s website, the city has over 91,000 household units. The 2010 Census shows 55.8 percent of those households are renter occupied. The STEP program organizers, along with other homeless assistant programs strive to help Irving residents facing the pressures making ends meet.

HHS has a trained staff that is able to understand and identify the client’s needs and work with them to develop an action plan.  The goal of the STEP program is to ensure that people who are seeking assistance from the church are provided with the tools to retain self-sufficiency and enhance their ability to overcome financial hardships.

The Department of HHS utilizes a holistic approach in the assistance, training and resources they offer to clients. They include:

• Counseling (i.e. budget, credit),
• Education (job training/career transition, GED, citizenship prep classes, and ESL programs), and
• Financial assistance (rent/utility).

With the STEP program in its infancy stage, they are working with limited funds because there is not a new internal source for funding this program other than what comes from the faith-based organizations.  Irving Bible Church (IBC) is the primary funder for the program as they committed $90,000 for fiscal year 2012-2013.

According to Heil, IBC is totally committed to the success of this program and developing additional fundraising initiatives through scholarship funds, pursuing grants and creating marketing strategies and tangibles to promote the program to other church organizations.  IBC hopes all churches, big or small within Irving, will want to get involved with the program.

“If other churches are looking to revamp their benevolence as well we are looking at packaging and marketing this and take it to the inner city to train and pass it off to other cities around the area,” Heil said.

The department is hopeful that other faith based organizations will see the benefit in joining IBC by becoming partners in the STEP program to allow the department the opportunity to maximize all its contributing funds for homelessness prevention as 100 percent of donations will go toward financial assistance for its clients.

Chris Hooper, director of HHS, said he is excited about the program and hopes the response from other faith-based organizations will be positive. His department recognizes it will take a collaborative effort from everyone within the community to increase awareness and solve the problem of poverty and homelessness in Irving.

Heil said she hopes also other churches and local governments  will want to get involved with the STEP program and come together t to bear the burden of helping those in their community who are in need.

“It’s a great testament to be able to serve those in our community because it is just for Irving…,”she adds.

For more information about the STEP program and/or to learn more about becoming a partner contact Anna Heil of Irving Bible Church at 972-560-4600 or via email at aheil@irvingbible.org.

STEP Program Overview:

A church and city partnership created to provide one-time emergency financial assistance to Irving residents over an 8 week period. Numerous churches in Irving have partnered and designated funds to the City of Irving Housing and Human Services department to be used for rental and utility assistance. While providing financial assistance, we also seek to provide people with the tools necessary to improve their current living situations through specific classes. The client advocate will provide the individual with an 8 week action plan tailored specifically for that individual and will encourage them through this process. The individual will attend classes such as Life Skills, Budget Coaching, ESL, Career Transition Workshops etc. at the different churches in the area and will also be provided with an option for free medical care and counseling, if deemed necessary by the client advocate. Our goal is to approach the problem in the most holistic way possible and to empower people to better themselves so they can provide for their family in the future.

Client Approval Process:

• Partner Churches will refer the individual into the program.
• The individual is responsible for calling the Housing and Human Services department to schedule an intake interview.
• Once the intake interview is complete, the client advocate will then approve or deny the individual.
• Once the individual has been accepted into the STEP program, the client advocate will provide an action plan for the client that they are responsible to complete over the next 8 weeks.
• Housing and Human Services will work directly with the apartment/landlord or utility company to work out payment arrangements. Payment will be made directly to the apartment/landlord or utility company.
• If the client refuses to comply with the outlined plan, he or she will no longer be eligible to receive the financial assistance.
• Any disputes will be directed to the referring church whereas all matters will be resolved and/or handled.

Program Eligibility:

• Applicants MUST BE Irving residents
• Applicants must provide basic information and necessary documents (i.e. lease agreement, utility bill) to be considered for financial assistance
• Applicants are required to participate in any necessary training and/or counseling as determined in their action plan developed by the Housing and Human Services Case Manager
• Applicant must be committed to becoming self-sufficient once assistance ends

NOTE:  ELIGIBILITY IS BASED ON FUNDS AVAILABLE WITHIN THE STEP PROGRAM, if unable to provide assistance applicants can dial 211, an information hotline that provides information about critical health and human services available in their local community, and/or be referred to other homelessness prevention agencies.

SOURCE:  Irving Bible Church and Department of HHS