The United Way of the Chattahoochee Valley will be honored this week for their work with area homeless veterans.  United Way was notified by Ron. E. Armstead, MCP,LSW, executive director of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Veterans Braintrust,  that their program,  Home for Good, the Alliance to End Homelessness, will be recognized.  The Congressional Black Caucus Veterans Braintrust, is an advisory group to members of Congress on issues related to African Americans and veterans affairs.  The award, which honors service to others and contributions to the community, was established in 1990 by General Colin Powell to recognize outstanding national and community commitment to black veterans.

The award will be presented Friday night, September 18^th in Washington DC.  Scott Ferguson, president & CEO of the United Way stated. “This is a wonderful honor that I am humbled to accept on behalf of all that are housing our local veterans.  There is a coalition of sixteen service providers that are making this happen. Home for Good is the organization working to coordinate the work.   I want to thank Congressman Sanford Bishop for nominating us, as well as Rep. Corrinne Brown (D-FL), Ranking Member of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, for this prestigious award.”

In January 2015, Columbus, GA and Phenix City, AL were selected to be one of only 76 communities in the United States and the only one in Georgia to participate in Zero: 2016, a national endeavor to end veterans and chronic homelessness within the next two years.  The initial goal is to house 86 veterans before December 2015.

By leading and working with a coalition of 16 area service providers, 71 veterans have been housed as of September 11, 2015.  “This puts us on track to reach the goal of 86 housed by the end of this year. This housing first model includes service providers “wrapping” services around the veterans to ensure that they receive support services that will help these people that gave so much to their country, survive and thrive,” said Scott Ferguson, President & CEO of the United Way.   He further stated, “The team has housed an additional 40 chronically homeless during this same time period.”

The Action Team that continues to work on this includes; American Work, Columbus Regional Health, Homeless Resource Network, House of T.I.M.E., New Horizons, Open Door Community House, Priority Veterans, Stewart Community Home, Salvation Army, Safe House, Veterans Affairs, Volunteers of America, Home for Good and United Way.

The United Way of the Chattahoochee Valley was asked by the City of Columbus to house and implement the Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness in 2011.  The United Way formed Home for Good, the Alliance to End Homelessness with a goal to make homelessness atypical, temporary and non-recurring.   The priority areas include increased access to affordable and permanent supportive housing, and increased coordination and collaborative efforts among service and system providers.