Flourish Initiative

The Flourish home ('flome') - transitional housingin 2020, the Flourish home opened for operation with capacity to provide up to 6 youth (ages 16-19) emergency shelter and/or transitional living services, depending on their individual housing needs. Policies and procedures are in place for client referral, intake, assessment, case management, and discharge. Residents participate in other flo and/or community program activities as those are applicable, based on their case management goals. Goals are developed based on bio-psycho-social assessments and with input from youth and their other support systems. Each resident has their own bedroom and is assigned chores to help maintain a clean, safe, structured environment with supervision from qualified, caring house parents. In 2023, with lower-level renovations complete and thanks to a yhdp joint component grant for transitional housing, the flome staffing and units were expanded to serve 10 youth 24/7, 365.

$aves the students achieving valuable educational savings ($aves) program consists of staff working with eligible students to earn deposits into a higher education savings account by participating and logging their positive youth development activities. In 2022, $aves eligibility expanded from only high school students to students in grades 5-12 and in 2023, flo ended the partnership with seed success/most 529 to manage the account tracking in our apricot system and transactions in our savings account, which is separate from our main checking account. Mentoringthe goal of mentoring is to match students with a trusted, caring adult who can support the growth of their social capital and help them develop life and career skills. Students participating in any other flo program are eligible to be paired with a mentor, but it is folded into scholarships and internships programming. Volunteer mentors are recruited, trained, and matched by staff for qualifying students who are participating in other flo programs. Mentors engage in various activities that can increase the likelihood of their mentees' post-secondary success; including some of those listed on their mentee's game plan. They also liaise with flo case managers when basic needs arise for their mentee. Mentors mentoring relationships are provided ongoing supervision and support by flo staff.

Scholarshipsflourish's first formal scholarship program began in 2020. Although there are multiple programs shaped uniquely for trade, technical, licensing, certificate, 2-year or 4-year degree-seeking students, the goal is the same--to reduce socio-economic barriers and increase access to postsecondary education Opportunities for students of color in the boone county area. In addition to scholarships, students are provided personal and professional development Opportunities made available through group meetings, one-on-one meetings, or virtual presentations. Some selected scholarship recipients are also paired with mentors to increase their professional support network and help them meet unique academic/career-related goals. Prep interns began to be awarded scholarship funds at the end of their program based on successful completion in 2022. Scholarship funds are allocated in line with 529-eligible expenses, with a certain portion potentially being made available for more flexible spending that falls into a basic needs expense category.

Emergency & basic needs assistanceflourish community support specialists and youth specialists help submit and process requests for emergency and basic needs assistance for Flourish youth participants and their families. Agreement plans are created with case management goals to prevent the needs from recurring, when possible. Most funding for this program comes from fundraising events. Needs categories include education-related, employment-related, food, medical/physical/mental health, shelter/housing, technology/communication, and transportation. Meeting basic needs through this program helps address barriers to participation in flo's other programs, often begins or increases the depth of engagement, and enhances wellbeing outcomes overall. Internships Flourish internships have grown into two stepped-programs, prep i and prep ii, and are offered to rising juniors and recent high school graduates experiencing barriers to higher education or employment. The interns work either part-or full-time and receive personal and professional development in a real-world, corporate setting. Prep i interns work part-time and apply their learning to complete a service project while prep ii gets more hand-on experience at 40 hours a week with only one programming day weekly. Interns in both programs walk away with an employment portfolio, interview outfit, a future career or higher education plan, and enhanced soft and hard employment skills. Their performance is managed and evaluated along with their final presentation. Upon successful completion, each intern receives a scholarship for costs associated with higher education programs. Case managementcase management is a wrap-around service woven throughout all Flourish programs. Qualified youth specialists and community support specialists engage, assess, intervene, refer, monitor, evaluate, discharge, and follow-up long-term with Flourish program participants and sometimes their families, to ensure basic (physical, environmental, social, emotional, and behavioral health needs) are met and that services are coordinated and across programs of Flourish and its community partners. Boone county youth moveflourish prep interns, with the support of boone county community services, initiated a local chapter within the membership network of youth move national, in summer of 2022. Boone county youth move is a youth-led effort, with up to four youth leadership committee chairs who are eligible for stipends, responsible for engaging other community youth to participate in its activities and monthly meetings on a voluntary basis. Staff from Flourish and its community partners serve as supportive adults to help youth identify and implement strategies to lead change on issues that matter to them. The youth's priority strategies include providing peer-led life skills workshops and fun, safe activities for youth as a means of preventing youth violence. As flo transitional housing expands with yhdp, flo is slowly beginning to transition this collaborative effort of maintaining the local chapter to community partners who have more capacity for youth-led advocacy/organizing. Housing stability program the housing stability program was established in 2022 with community partners of the boone county coalition to end homelessness (bcceh), which was led by the fte coordinated entry specialist funded under flo initially for bcceh. The hsp fund was established in collaboration between local funders and the built for zero national movement to end homelessness. Flourish helped get the program off the ground by serving as the fiscal agent, providing financial incentives to landlords who accept low-income housing vouchers, until july 2024. The landlords whose applications are accepted are also eligible to apply at the tenants move-out for money to help cover costs of repair to properties rented by voucher holders. This program has increased the number of units that may be rented by low-income individuals and families who receive housing subsidies such as section 8. In july of 2024, flo transitioned the role of fiscal agent to its yhdp and bcceh partner, love columbia. The specialist role was also transferred to the city of columbia in 2023, as was the intent since inception. Project homeless connect project homeless connect is an effort of the boone county coalition to end homelessness (bcceh). Flourish served as the fiscal agent for the project through 2023 until transferring the pot for this event to bcceh partner, vac. This event serves individuals experiencing homelessness in our county and helps them access diverse resources/services at one, in-person event. Funds gathered from partners for the event are used for hygiene supplies and meals provided to participants. This event helps our community complete its hud-required annual point in time count and supports the goals of coordinated entry for the bcceh, and although flo ended its time serving as fiscal agent for the event funding, flo staff still help plan and coordinate the event with the other bcceh partners.