Services

Friendship Service Center provides a continuum of services to community members at risk of or experiencing homelessness in Central Connecticut. Read below to learn more about specific programs!

Food and Interim Housing

COMMUNITY MEALS PROGRAM

The Tomasso Family Community Kitchen provides lunch Monday through Friday to any community member in need, and three meals per day, seven days per week, to emergency shelter residents. More than 225 meals are served each day. We are recipients of TEFAP. The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) is a federal program that helps supplement the diets of people with low income by providing them with emergency food assistance at no cost. USDA provides 100% American-grown USDA Foods and administrative funds to states to operate TEFAP.

EMERGENCY SHELTER:

Our 39-bed emergency shelter for individual adults, couples, transitional-age youth, and families with children is located in our Virginia C. Davis Building. This short-term intervention offers meals, laundry facilities and case management services. Each resident develops a case plan that may include: counseling, crisis intervention, goal setting, housing assistance and referrals to community support services; e.g., substance abuse treatment, education, job training, childcare or a combination thereof. We have served 120 individuals from 87 households in Fiscal Year 2024 through this program.

TRANSITIONAL LIVING PROGRAM:

Our Transitional Living Program (TLP) is a 6-to-24-month program for 10 homeless youth (ages 18-24). Each participant is provided a room, case management, and an individualized case action plan to learn the skills needed to stabilize and maintain long-term independence. We served 43 youth in Fiscal Year 2024 through this program.

Community Outreach and Emergency Response

HOPE CONNECTION CENTER:

Hope Connection Center (HCC) is a drop-in center for people at risk of or experiencing homelessness in Central CT at 61 Arch St, New Britain. The project is a community partnership with a number of agencies in the region to offer leveraged services like financial literacy, substance use recovery support, mental health, and employment, supplementing the resources HCC offers, such as showers and laundry. If you have any questions on the HCC click here.

DIVERSION:

Our Diversion program is housed within the HCC and allows for people at-risk of or experiencing homelessness to walk in and receive an assessment to determine resources available to quickly resolve their episode of homelessness outside of the homelessness response system, or to quickly verify and prioritize them for shelter placement. We served 302 individuals from 292 households in Fiscal Year 2023 through this program.

COLD WEATHER DIVERSION:

We are the annual seasonal provider for overflow shelter and extended triage hours from December 1st to March 31st to ensure people experiencing unsheltered homelessness are not left to defend themselves on the streets. We served 213 individuals from 164 households in Fiscal Year 2023 through this program.

SSI/SSDI OUTREACH, ACCESS, AND RECOVERY (SOAR):

SSI/SSDI Outreach, Access, and Recovery (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.” We served 36 individuals from 35 households in Fiscal Year 2024 through this program.

STREET OUTREACH:

We engage in grassroots street outreach to connect with unsheltered individuals, aiming to establish relationships and facilitate access to services. Our goal is to minimize the duration of their homelessness through a Harm Reduction strategy, mitigating the risks associated with exposure to natural elements, such as cold weather.

FRESH START INITIATIVE:

The Fresh Start Initiative (FSI) focuses on helping those exiting homelessness with furnishings for their new place to live, or supporting participants who have transitioned into housing with housing longevity. Most housing subsidies do not offer furniture procurement, and because of a lack of storage space, furniture donations are a balancing act. Fresh Start Initiative provides move-in assistance and furniture acquisition for households transitioning out of homelessness into housing, and ensures housing longevity for program participants by addressing apartment restoration and maintenance.

Supportive Housing

SUPPORTIVE HOUSING:

Our Supportive Housing program operates under a Housing First Model, in which clients 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. All referrals for our Supportive Housing programs come through a coordinated referral process. Our Supportive Housing programs and its intensive case management services are offered to 43 households in scattered site supportive housing and 32 households in site-based supportive housing.