Client Stories

Ms. Carolina O. is a single mother of three children who wanted to a home in the near future. She saw a flyer for the Individual Development Account (IDA) Program, which would give her the opportunity to save money for a down payment. 

For eight months, Ms. Carolina participated in the IDA Program, attended individual financial counseling sessions, and learned how to pay off her debts. Each month she worked on developing these skills to become economically self-sufficient. After attending a Financial Literacy class, Ms. Carolina said, "I learned how credit, homeownership, and financial literacy works." In addition, she said, "I learned how to discipline myself concerning my finances so I could make regular deposits into my IDA account."

PROCEED's trainings and classes in homeownership gave her the skills she needed to maker her dream of homeownership a reality. As a result of the program, Ms. Carolina raised her FICO credit score by 50 points with the tools she received from the credit class. Then in September 2012, Ms. Carolina requested her savings plus the matching funds for a total of $3,000 and used it to buy a house in Union County, New Jersey. Ms. Carolina states, "I was able to put the down payment funds together to purchase my home. I can't thank you enough for your help and support."

Ms. Janice J. is the proud mother of a child with special needs. However, she was feeling very frustrated since she felt misinformed and unknowledgeable about available services and her rights as a parent with a spceial needs child. She felt the school district wasn't giving her enough information or guiding her in the right direction to receive assistance for her child. She didn't know where to go to get her child re-evaluated or referred and navigating through the many hoops to receive proper information was becoming a burden and worrisome.

Ms. Janice spoke with the Director and the Family Worker at PROCEED, Inc. and they provided her with a Spanish copy of the PRISE (Parental Rights in Special Education) Handbook, which outlined her rights to special education within the school district and the location and contacts for departments that can provide her with the assistance needed to ensure the educational success of her special needs child. The PROCEED staff collaborted with Special Services of the Elizabeth Board of Education in providing Ms. Janice with the information and assistance needed to help with her special needs child.

As a result, Ms. Janice felt that her child would be better prepared at PROCEED's Early Childhood Development Center given the knowledge and help she had received from the staff. Her child began attending the Early Childhood Development Center and after several weeks, Ms. Janice noticed improvements in her child's behavior. Ms. Janice expressed her thanks to the PROCEED staff and stated, "I feel so blessed to have the help and guidance of the Family Worker. I am at ease knowing that my child is being properly cared for in an environment that will help my child succeed, educationally and personally."

Ms. Anne S., a senior citizen, first came to PROCEED through the Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP). The LIHEAP department forwarded her application to the Weatherization department and Ms. Anne was contacted for an appointment for an energy audit. At first, Ms. Anne was unsure but through client education, she was assured that weatherization servicves could be beneficial to her and ultimately lower her heating and utility bills by as much as 20%. Ms. Anne agreed to participate in the program and allow for an audit to be conducted.

The energy audit revealed that the heating system was running at 68% efficiency. A thorough home inspection was completed and a project scope of work was completed for Ms. Anne's home. The weatherization measures included insulating exterior walls with cellulose, insulating the attic, air-sealing the basement, replacing six windows, low-flow showerhead, compact fluorescent light bulbs and two carbon monoxide detectors. As a result of the work completed, the program was able to supply an 85% efficient heating system and the 20-year old water heater was replaced with a high efficiency unit at no cost. All of the work completed resulted in cost-savings but also ensured that Ms. Anne was living in a safe, healthy environment. Ms. Anne is very grateful to PROCEED for helping her in a time of need and stated, "Being on a fixed income is difficult but the Weatherization program has eased some of my financial concerns."

A Chicago-based Federally-Qualified Health Center requested capacity building assistance with a Program Collaboration and Service Integration (PCSI) intervention to determine their current level of cooperation across departments to deliver comprehensive healthcare and identify opportunities to improve service integration and patient health outcomes.  

Staff from PROCEED's National Center for Training, Support, and Technical Assistance designed and co-facilitated a program collaboration and service integration intervention assessment process with a focus on delivery systems, roles, relationships and communication. A work group was created to facilitate participation of key agency stakeholders. The process included utilization of a subject-matter expert for incorporation of the Empowerment Evaluation Model to increase the capacity of the organization to independently conduct PCSI assessment processes for enhanced service integration and ongoing continuous quality improvement (CQI).

Results of the capacity building assistance included development of strategies to achieve level-three (3) PCSI as defined by CDC; clarification of key roles and responsibilities in the internal referral process; increased cross-departmental communication; improved data- sharing platforms and documented increased effectiveness in addressing co-occurring health disorders; and, overall improvement on the delivery of integrated healthcare based on qualitative and quantitative data, which included measures extracted in patient records identifying multiple health screenings and expanded treatment provisions in a single visit.