In The Fight Against Homelessness, Employment Must Go ‘First’

A recent piece in the Huffington Post caught our eye here at Construct, so we thought we’d share it with you. In it, Jean-Michel Giraud, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit Friendship Place, draws from recent studies on homelessness in the nation’s capital to show that the best way for the city to combat the problem is to move to an “Employment First” model of thinking, similar to the “Housing First” approach of a few years ago. Once the barriers to employment are removed, individuals can use their wages to access job training for professional advancement and attain and keep housing more easily.

“The war is on poverty, not just homelessness, and employment is the only way up for many people living in homelessness.”
– Jean-Michel Giraud, executive director, Friendship Place

As Construct works toward creating and implementing effective programs to combat homelessness, pieces like this are important reminders that employment must be a cornerstone of our ideas for the future. By pairing employment-first services with housing initiatives already in place, we can lift individuals and families out of poverty, not only in D.C., but in our own community of the Southern Berkshires which cherish.

Read the article here