Home! That little one-syllable four-letter word has a great sound to it, doesn't it? Longing for a home is the subject of many poems and stories. One of the most well-known that reflects our culture is Dorothy's quest for her home in The Wizard of Oz. This story resonates with us on so many levels, but perhaps the strongest connection is related to the “American dream” of having a home.

Sadly, having a home of one’s own has not always been the experience of many people who have a mental illness.  During the early days of deinstitutionalization, which in almost every instance was really re-institutionalization many received the very same things offered in institutions but now under the new names of continuums of care, group and boarding homes, supervised living homes, and etc.  We have somehow been under the belief that having a home is a reward for recovery when actually it is part of recovery!

Successful housing outcomes require having the person at the center, not the staff or program. This is different from earlier approaches that used “placing” as a way of distributing people to various residential places.

To build a more person-centered program, we at Recovery Innovations needed to ask people what would help them be successful in living independently. The answers we received guided us in developing a recovery-centered approach to our training. We then used an educational approach by facilitating the learning about how people can reach their own housing goals without “pathologizing” or dictating the process.  The training program that we designed is called. “Home Is Where the HEART Is.”  We are using this training program in our recovery based housing services, and now other agencies around the United States are now using it as well. 

Training Design & Delivery.  (Identifying the Real Experts)

Many independent living training programs start with a focus on deficits, assuming that people who have no home lack expertise about having a home. The “expert” trainer typically begins by teaching independent living skills. The training is centered on the instructor's idea of a home rather than the participant's.  Conversely, a recovery approach always starts with the person's strengths and expertise. We all have an internal blueprint or vision stored away in our hearts and minds of what our home can be. The Home Is Where the HEART Is Workshop is person centered training program that first acknowledges the person's hopes, expertise, strengths, and skills while building upon that foundation with key information and skills for successful community living.  Some of these key concepts and skills are as follows:

• Develop an ideal or vision of what home can be.
• Identify things that can help move that vision forward and things that hinder it.
• Establish a plan to implement the wellness-centered vision of home.
• Take action on the plan.
• Assess what is working, what is not, and adjust as necessary.
• Develop skills to enhance wellness centered relationships in community living.
• Understand how to read a credit report, as well as how to establish, maintain, and/or improve credit.
• Understand how to increase financial strength by economizing and using a budget and resources.
• Understand the rights and responsibilities of a tenant and/or homeowner.

Participants will receive a 100 page Home Is Where the HEART Is Workbook; a personal HEART Plan for acquiring and maintaining their wellness-centered home and additional value added material.

Target Audience      (Recipients and Providers of Housing Services with the Behavioral

                                       Health System)

The Home Is Where the HEART Is training program serves people, receiving services in the behavioral health system and who are looking to acquire and/or maintain a wellness centered home.  The uniqueness of the training program is that it not only serves the receivers of housing services, but it also prepares the providers to deliver recovery based housing services. 

The four-day Home Is Where the HEART Is Workshop serves as an important orientation program for staff members who provide recovery based housing services within the behavioral health system.  Staff members will learn first-hand about how recovery based housing services are best delivered from a person centered approach.  Staff members will prepare their own HEART Plan right along with their fellow students (people receiving services) within the workshop. And the housing staff members will ultimately learn to not only value themselves as the experts when it comes to planning their wellness centered home, but they will also gain an even deeper respect for the expertise of their fellow students who receive housing services.

Everyone will gain hands-on experience of how a recovery based housing program is both person centered and strength based.