July 2018 is the 1 year mark of La Casa’s partnership with the San Francisco Human Services Agency (HSA). Working in conjunction with HSA, La Casa provides tailored support to individuals that receive CalWORKs and are currently waived from the traditional welfare-to-work program due to domestic violence. Survivors in this program face barriers in their return to work and stable income. La Casa works to help these individuals heal emotionally and overcome financial obstacles that may have been created or exacerbated by an abusive partner and violence in the home. In our first year of this partnership we engaged with 169 survivors and their families.
Our co-located advocates are a key-piece of La Casa’s mission to increase survivors’ connection to care. While our programming has expanded to meet the evolving needs of survivors, we operate with the same high standards for client outcomes, and use the same survivor-centered, trauma-informed approach to our advocacy and support work. Clients across programs like CalWORKS have access to shelter, case management, therapy, support groups in two languages, economic empowerment programming, housing advocacy, court accompaniment and our 24 hour hotline.