Often, SAS Participants cannot count on the family support, which many people in society can count on when life takes an unexpected turn. Participants involved with SAS over the year's access SAS services when life's challenges beco overwhelming.
The Follow-Care Program offers relationship-based support and opportunities to past Participants of the SAS Programs as they continue to build healthy lives. SAS staff, live-ins and volunteers are in regular contact with approximately 80 past Participants in any given month. Past Participants in contact with Followcare receive assistance with recovery issues and direct support in housing-related problem solving, childcare issues, scholarships and support in making plans to return to school, employment planning. A strength of Followcare is the commitment of SAS alumni, who consistently jump in where needed and when asked.
Me and my three kids live in the SAS independent housing and I call SAS for Follwcare alot. I feel really supported when they call to see where I'm at, good or bad. I know I can ask for help if life takes a surprising turn.
- CA
When my roommate took off with the rent, me and my kids were standing on the sidewalk last winter with not even our coats, me very pregnant. The next day I got an SAS Transitional Apartment until I got my feet on the ground. We did goal-work, I got help with my budget, help getting a job, and finding a way to get my own place for me and my kids.
- CS
For me, Followcare has been so much about the emotional support I receive and the knowledge that I can talk to people who know me, who can encourage me when I am struggling. The problem-solving and conflict resolution skills that I get help with continue to give me hope when I am feeling hopeless. For example, when I am struggling with parenting my eldest daughter, who was deeply hurt by my previous lifestyle, I know that I can hear another person's perspective, and get ideas on how to continue to parent her in a healthy manner, without having to constantly carry shame and guilt about the past.
- ST
