Services

Since 1968, the Friendship Service Center has been a place where the hungry are fed, the homeless are sheltered, and everyone is welcome. The agency provides a continuum of services for men, women and children who are poor and homeless in Central Connecticut. Services range from outreach to those still living on the streets, emergency shelter for families and individuals, transitional living and permanent supportive housing options for those who are homeless. In addition, it offers meals for the community each day in the Tomasso Family Community Dining Room and works to prevent homelessness through the Emergency Needs Program.

Food & Shelter Community Outreach and Homelessness Prevention Permanent Supportive Housing

Food & Shelter

Community Kitchen

The Tomasso Family Community Kitchen provides lunch Monday through Friday to anyone in need, and three meals per day, seven days per week, to residents and former residents. More than 250 meals are served each day. Financial and in-kind donations of food from supermarkets, congregations, community groups and individuals allow us to stretch our food budget further. The soup kitchen is the primary way for volunteers to become engaged at the Friendship Center, and volunteers ensure that guests are served in a welcoming, friendly atmosphere.

Emergency Shelter

This program works to prevent homelessness through financial assistance and referrals. It can offer temporary cash assistance for housing, utilities, medication, clothing, transportation, education and other basic needs. Services often provide a hand up to those who face health and employment hardships or have fallen between the cracks of the social service system.

Transitional Living Program

The Transitional Living Program is a program for 15 single, homeless men and women which is currently prioritized for youth (ages 18-24). Each participant is provided a room, case management and an individualized case action plan with the main goal of obtaining housing. The program serves people with mental health and substance abuse issues as well as education and employment challenges. Habilitation (the teaching of life skills never learned) is a focus of this program, providing the structure and support essential for independent living. Five rooms are targeted for veterans.

Community Outreach and Homelessness Prevention

Emergency Needs Homeless Prevention Ministry

This program works to prevent homelessness through financial assistance and referrals. It can offer temporary cash assistance for housing, utilities, medication, clothing, transportation, education and other basic needs. Services often provide a hand up to those who face health and employment hardships or have fallen between the cracks of the social service system.

PATH Homeless Outreach

Five days a week, Friendship Center’s Mobile Outreach Case Manager travels throughout the Central Connecticut Coordinated Access Network in an attempt to connect with individuals experiencing homelessness or at risk of homelessness in order to provide services to those who have serious mental health needs or who have mental health needs with a co-occurring substance use disorder.

In an effort to build trust with individuals living in parks, along railroad tracks and under bridges, the PATH Outreach Case Manager also offers food, blankets and basic necessities. The goal is that through consistent visits, the Case Manager can establish a trusting relationship with these individuals and have the ability to make assessments and referrals to case management, health and counseling services.

SSI/SSDI Outreach, Access and Recovery (SOAR)

SOAR is a national program designed to increase access to the disability income benefit programs administered by the Social Security Administration (SSA) for eligible adults and children who are experiencing or at risk of homelessness and have a serious mental illness, medical impairment, and/or a co-occurring substance use disorder. SOAR directly addresses the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)’s assertion: “To recover, people need a safe stable place to live.”

Permanent Supportive Housing

The Permanent Supportive Housing program operates under a Housing First Model, in which individuals are moved from the streets and shelters directly into their own homes. Through this program, clients are also offered intensive and inter-connected case management services both at the office and in their own home settings. Research has proven that Housing First is the most cost-efficient housing model for people who have been defined as chronically homeless. Friendship Center believes that having a home is not a luxury, but a human right and a foundation through which fragile and vulnerable individuals can, with proper support, begin to focus on personal path of recovery. Currently, the Permanent Supportive Housing programs and its intensive case management services are offered to 77 households consisting of 114 men, women, and children housed both at Howey House and Arch Street Housing (ASH) in New Britain, and in scattered-site apartments throughout Central Connecticut.