| Name | Sarah |
|---|---|
| Last Name | Quattrochi |
| Home Address | 502 Hillcrest Avenue Chattanooga, TN 37411 United States |
| Organization Name | Welcome Home of Chattanooga |
| Describe Your Role In The Organization | I am the Director of Development. |
| Organization Address | P.O. Box 4247 Chattanooga, TN 37405 United States |
| Website | https://www.welcomehomeofchattanooga.org |
| Best Phone Number To Reach You | (423)653-0091 |
| Alternate Phone Number | (423)486-4001 |
| Email Address | sarah@welcomehomeofchattanooga.org |
| Alternate Email Address | sherry@welcomehomeofchattanooga.org |
| Please Describe Your Project In Detail | Welcome Home of Chattanooga creates a community of hope, healing, and compassion for those who are facing a serious illness or death and need safe shelter. Many individuals do not realize that hospice care takes place in a person’s home or in a nursing home. When a person has no home, no family members to take them in, and no access to nursing home care, it is likely that they have nowhere to go to receive end-of-life hospice care. We fill a gap in services, especially for those who are experiencing homelessness. Welcome Home envisions a community who works together to provide all people the opportunity to live life fully in the face of serious illness or death through compassionate care, reconciled relationships, and restored dignity. Creating a safe home with shelter, access to home-cooked meals, appropriate medical care, and love through family-style care is how Welcome Home works to make this vision a reality for our residents. Due to the nature of deep work that Welcome Home does with each individual, we are not a high volume care center. Since 2015, we have cared for 87 individuals. We served 22 people in 2021. Almost half of these residents had a cancer diagnosis. Due to this fact, we have recognized the need for medical respite services so that people who are diagnosed with cancer and have no shelter can obtain shelter and, in turn, receive medical treatment before they are so ill that they need hospice care. This can be lifesaving and we view it as a social justice issue. Lack of housing should not be a reason for lack of healthcare. Welcome Home is now open for both cancer respite and hospice residents. We opened our doors in 2015 and have served 5 residents at one time at our previous rented home in Brainerd. The State of Tennessee will allow us to care for five people at one time under one roof, but we often have a waiting list, as the need is much greater. Our leadership had the vision to create an entire community of care and we spent several years looking for property because we knew if we had more space and more buildings, then we could care for more people. Why expand now? The pandemic and increased unemployment continue to exacerbate the realities of poverty and homelessness in this region, as shown by the data released in early 2021 by the Chattanooga Homeless Coalition, which showed a more than 80% increase in unsheltered individuals, from 201 in 2020 to 364 in 2021, based on their annual point-in-time count. Data from January 2022 shows that the number of people experiencing chronic homelessness increased again to 489. Welcome Home’s program has proven to be efficient and effective - changing lives for the better, while also saving money in our community due to decreased incidence of unnecessary hospital and ER visits. One day in a local hospital can cost more than $1,500. One day at Welcome Home costs our organization just over $200. We are grateful that our community has helped us build a firm foundation from which we are able to operate, and the means by which we purchased 4.72 acres of beautifully wooded property in July 2020 at 3131 Quiet Creek Trail in East Chattanooga. The property holds 3 buildings with almost 6,000 square feet of space. Building 1 has recently been renovated into a beautiful 4-bedroom home with administration and education spaces in the basement. Our operations moved from our rented home in Brainerd to Quiet Creek in early October 2021. Buildings 2 and 3 will be renovated into smaller 3-bedroom homes during 2022 and will expand our capacity of serving 5 residents in our previous location to serving 10 residents at Quiet Creek with even more room to grow. We recognize that our vision for creating this community of care on an entire campus is a bold one. In addition to the three existing structures on the property, we would like to build three tiny homes and two additional three-bedroom homes at Quiet Creek. After years of providing end-of-life care, we have recognized that some of our residents do not thrive in congregant housing and they would prefer more independent living situations, which the tiny homes could provide. The additional three-bedroom homes will provide more spaces for both cancer respite and hospice care. In addition, we'll have enough bedrooms to provide some transitional housing space, which is necessary because some of our residents experience improved health and are able to leave hospice care. When this happens, we provide social work services so that they can find permanent supportive housing and then we follow up with them for at least one year. We are requesting ARP funds so that we can complete renovations of Building 3, initiate road and site work improvements, some landscaping, installation of three tiny homes, and the construction of two additional homes. We'll continue our capital campaign to round out the project with additional landscaping, outdoor spaces, and a trail system, which could be shared with the community and the Humane Educational Society, which is located just across the street. We are grateful for the consideration and would love for anyone with questions to reach out to Sarah Quattrochi at (423)653-0091. |
| Please explain how your project meets the requirements of the American Rescue Plan | Welcome Home has always served some of the most vulnerable people in our community. These people have been disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. An increased number of individuals have experienced homelessness since the start of the pandemic. And our staff has been working nonstop throughout the pandemic as frontline workers who continued to provide excellent care for each of our residents. Welcome Home's project would be "enhancing health care capacity through alternative healthcare facilities." We would be providing a place for people who are too immunocompromised to live in other congregant housing with a safe landing pad. Under Public Health Uses, we "address disparities in public health that have been exacerbated by the pandemic" and we "provide housing services to support healthy living environments and neighborhoods conducive to mental and physical wellness." The ARP funding provides an amazing opportunity for the City of Chattanooga to invest in infrastructure that will remain in place for decades to come and can form a foundational safety net to serve the most vulnerable people in our community. Welcome Home wants to be a part of this. The timeline for our project would fit within the Period of Performance and could be completed well before December 31, 2026. |
| Where would your project take place? | 3131 Quiet Creek Trail, Chattanooga, TN 37406 |
| How much will your project cost in total? | 4000000 |
| Do you have any matching funding sources from other local governments, private entities, non-profits, or philanthropic entities for your project? | Yes |
| Please describe the source and list amounts of any other funding. | We have raised more than $900,000 to date for the first phase of the project, which included the purchase of 4.72 acres of beautifully wooded property and 3 buildings with approximately 6,000 square feet of space between them in East Chattanooga. We have owned the property since July 2020 and completed the renovation of the largest building (3,500 square feet) in October 2021. We moved our operations from Germantown Road in Brainerd to Quiet Creek Trail at that time. This building provides a home for four residents as well as administrative and education spaces in the basement. $475,000 was donated by a local foundation that prefers to remain anonymous, $25,000 was donated by the Weldon F. Osborne Foundation, and $50,000 was donated by the Bobby Stone Foundation. More than $350,000 has been donated by individuals, companies, and small foundations who believe in our mission and want to see our capacity to shelter more people through expanded cancer respite and a compassionate end-of-life care program. |
| What portion of the project are you asking the city to fund? | We are requesting that the City consider funding $2,420,000 of the project, which would include the renovation of home #3, roadway improvements, site work (erosion control, grading, storm drainage, and some additional landscaping), three tiny homes, and two new 3 bedroom homes. Renovation of House #3 (3 bedrooms) - $140,000 Roadway, Sitework, and Landscaping - $1,265,000 3 Tiny Houses - $160,000 (2) 3 Bedroom Homes - $800,000 Compliance & Reporting/Financial Analyst - $25,000 Project Management - $30,000 |
| If funded, when would your project start? | July 1, 2022 |
| How long would your project take to complete? | Approximately 2 years |
| What milestones would you use to measure your project’s progress? | We've already reached a huge milestone which was completing the renovation of Building #1 and moving our operations from Germantown Road in Brainerd to East Chattanooga. We should finish the renovation in Building #2 by the end of March and then we will be ready to start on the demo and remodel of Building #3. The completion of the first three buildings (and the doubling of our capacity to care for more people) will be a highlight for everyone. Road improvements and storm water runoff remediation are two of the biggest projects that are still yet to be completed. This will be some of the most complex work on the property and we will be happy to get through it with a great final product. Here are a few goals to measure success: more people will be housed, more people will receive the medical care they need, the community will save money on unnecessary hospital and ER visits, staff will continue to grow in proportion to the increased needs from an increase in the number of people we will be able to serve once the additional homes are remodeled and built, quality of care will remain high even as the number of residents grows, volunteer engagement will remain good as well. |
| How would you ensure accountability and transparency throughout the project lifecycle? | We will work closely with engineers and a CPA to make sure that we follow all guidelines necessary to the work and to the compliance requirements of the U.S. Treasury Department. We'll make sure that our CPA talks with us regularly throughout the process so that we will have a good understanding of what is required. We'll keep our Board of Directors up to date throughout the process and will work to create a communication plan to keep the public updated on our project through our website, e-mail newletters, and social media. We will also be glad to give tours to people in the community as they are requested. |
| If successful, how would your project benefit the community? | The completion of this project at Quiet Creek Trail will help us create a vibrant community of care that will transcend the property. Welcome Home makes sure that no one dies alone. We are a community of compassionate care and the work that is done has a ripple effect that extends beyond our residents to our volunteers, community partners, staff members, and the families of the residents we serve. Welcome Home is a trauma-informed residence, which means that our staff has been trained to understand the needs of people who have experienced trauma throughout their lifetime. This trauma can impact the ability of people to trust others and receive care. It’s a beautiful thing to witness the evolution of trust and to help connect our residents to former friends and family members so that they have a chance to reconnect, reconcile, and share in healing or experience the end-of-life together. Sometimes, when people receive adequate care and continuous love, they get better. When this happens and residents stabilize or are released from hospice care, we work to help them find long-term housing options. Our social workers help residents secure benefits and look at options that will serve them for months or years to come. We maintain social work case management for at least one year after residents leave Welcome Home. We are a place of life-long learning and we have a goal to educate at least 150 volunteers and community members in 2022 about issues related to end-of-life care and trauma-informed practice at the end-of-life. To meet this goal, we have pursued opportunities for outreach and education through online platforms. In 2020, we conducted a survey of 111 Welcome Home constituents. 95% expressed interest in receiving education about end-of-life care through Welcome Home. We hired a part-time education coordinator in response to this demand and are partnering with UTC's Continuing Education Department to offer opportunities for learning. If more people in the community-at-large are aware of how to support one another during the end-of-life or through a serious illness, then more people will be equipped to care for friends, family and neighbors as the need arises. We connect people to resources, to one another, and we take care of each other as we all learn to walk each other home. This compassionate care will make our community a stronger, better place to live. |
| How will you attract community buy-in for your project? | Welcome Home has been built on the strength of solid collaboration and we are getting better and better at reaching out to the community through local media outlets including TV, newspaper, social media, and radio to talk about our move to Quiet Creek. We've received wonderful support from approximately 200 donors during the years leading up to the purchase of the property and throughout its renovation. The outpouring of excitement when we moved to Quiet Creek in October of 2021 was very encouraging. Even though we have been open for seven years, there are still many people who do not know about us. However, when we tell the Welcome Home story, we find the people are compelled. Our residents are so courageous, our volunteers are so compassionate, and we find that people feel a sense of common humanity when they engage at Welcome Home. Our organization provides a home and family-style care for residents, but hospice partners provide professional medical care. We partner with each of the local hospice organizations in our region. Our volunteers are our best ambassadors. They often share stories about the people that they have loved at Welcome Home and the life lessons that they have learned. We receive patient/resident referrals from Erlanger, Memorial, and Parkridge Hospitals in Chattanooga, as well as referrals from hospitals in North Georgia and Knoxville. Sometimes, after our residents move to Welcome Home, they get better and are discharged from hospice care. When this happens, we provide social work services and work with them to create a housing plan. The Chattanooga Housing Authority partners with us. We also work with the Chattanooga Regional Homeless Coalition, Homeless Healthcare Clinic and Chattanooga Community Kitchen. We began partnering with the Chattanooga Tumor Clinic in 2021 to provide shelter for those who need cancer treatment such as chemotherapy or radiation. The Tumor Clinic is one of our key referral sources and partners with us in planning for their patients' care. We work with colleges and universities to provide opportunities for nursing, medical, and social work students to learn about death, dying, and compassionate end-of-life care. Partner schools include UTC, UTK, Dalton State, Southern Adventist University, Lee University, and Northwest Georgia Technical College. We partner with local businesses and nonprofits on our educational outreach programs. In particular, we have recently partnered with The Chattery, the National Health Care for the Homeless Council, and UTC. Local faith-based organizations, donors, volunteers, and foundations provide an immense amount of financial and volunteer support that allows Welcome Home to stand strong. |
| Name | Sherry Campbell, Welcome Home Executive Director |
| Contact Information | (423)486-4001 |
| Name | Demarland Dean, Welcome Home Board Chair |
| Contact Information | (423)710-0824 |
| Is there anything else you would like us to know about your project? | The people that live, work and volunteer at Welcome Home are beautiful and this mission is so worthwhile. Welcome Home is way more than a group home - we are a true home, a chosen family, and for people to be able to experience this family at the end-of-life or while facing a serious illness is absolutely priceless. |