Inspiritus (LSG)

In fy2023, Inspiritus programs significantly expanded, while continuing to safely meet the needs of the highly vulnerable populations Inspiritus serves through the following program areas: i. Refugee and immigrant services, ii. Disability services , iii. Disaster relief, iv. Children and family services, and v. middle Tennessee empowerment programs. Please see sch o for further details on refugee and immigrant services (ris). Inspiritus refugee and immigrant services (ris) offers a wide array of services designed to empower refugees from arrival to self-reliance as they create new homes in Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee. The Inspiritus team helps refugees transition from arrival, when refugees often have very few possessions, to economic self-reliance. This is accomplished through resettlement services, social adjustment programs including extended cultural orientation, youth after-school and summer programming, and the Inspiritus financial opportunity center which provides employment services, income supports, and financial literacy enrichment and coaching. Inspiritus provides support and supplemental services to the atlanta and savannah refugee communities through its ga department of human services employment contract and philanthropic support. In addition to a higher number of refugees served in fy23 as a result of an increased presidential determination of the number of refugees to be welcomed in the u.s., Inspiritus partnered with the u.s. office of refugee resettlement through a contract with lutheran immigration and refugee service (lirs) to welcome and serve an influx of refugees in fy2023. Inspiritus also partners with lirs and the u.s. government to offer finger-printing services for relatives and individuals who plan to become sponsors of unaccompanied children across Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee, as well as post-release case management to ensure that unaccompanied children, who have been released to sponsors and are identified as needing additional support, safely and successfully integrate into their new homes and communities. Inspiritus offers group instruction and 1:1 digital literacy coaching to provide individual, needs-based digital literacy coaching for refugees seeking employment. In fy2023, Inspiritus continued to provide the trafficking victims assistance program (tvap) in atlanta, which empowers foreign national survivors of human trafficking through trauma-informed, person-centered, comprehensive case management services. Tvap facilitates timely access to vital services, such as emergency assistance, housing, safety planning, basic needs, health, legal, education, employment, and language, that survivors need to stabilize and re-establish their ability to live independently. In 2023, Inspiritus continued to partner with the u.s. administration for children and families to provide services and infrastructure to support all refugees in Alabama as the state refugee coordinator, operating as the "Alabama office for refugees". Additionally, Inspiritus expanded its services to include a program called "team libertad" which assists asylum seekers recently released from immigration detention navigate the atlanta hartsfield international airport as they await reunification with family. In fy23, Inspiritus also expanded its microenterprise lending progam to launch officially as "thrive community lending (tcl)." Tcl plans to seek certification as a community development financial institution (cdfi).

Please see sch o for further details on disaster response services. Inspiritus disaster relief programming has provided disaster long-term recovery services since 1994 in the southeastern united states. In recent years, the Inspiritus disaster relief program has expanded to provide emergency disaster response services during the first 2-12+ weeks after a disaster. These services include assistance such as: volunteer coordination, clean up & debris removal services, and local disaster response capacity building. In fy2023, Inspiritus disaster response teams supported local communities following tornados, floods, and/or hurricanes in Mississippi, Georgia, and Florida. Inspiritus continues to provide disaster long-term recovery services to communities in need during the 3-48+ months after a disaster. These services include: case management, construction management, volunteer management, and local long-term recovery capacity building. In fy2023, Inspiritus long-term recovery services supported local communities in Tennessee, Georgia, Kentucky, and Florida, partnering with local long-term recovery collaboratives to meet unmet needs that support home repairs and rebuilds for the most vulnerable survivors, including vulnerable homeowners who cannot recover without further assistance due to disabilities, low-income, under-insurance, and other extenuating circumstances. In fy2023, Inspiritus sustained and expanded collaborative partnerships with nonprofits and corporations such as lutheran disaster response, home depot foundation, american red cross, the community foundation of middle Tennessee, rothrock foundation, tunnel to towers, americorps, and founding partners, the southeastern synod of the evangelical lutheran church in america and the florida-georgia district of the lutheran church-missouri synod, while continuing to build collaborative partnerships with local and national voads to help ensure the communities we serve are able to successfully recover and build increased local capacities.

Please see sch o for further details on disability services. Inspiritus disability services helps individuals with developmental and intellectual disabilities (idd) live active, meaningful lives by gaining independence and becoming contributing members of their communities. The disability services program develops host homes where support services to qualified individuals with idd are provided in a family environment. Inspiritus collaborates with support coordination, the Georgia department of behavioral health and developmental disabilities, state hospitals, dfcs, families, advocates and other stakeholders through a referral process. Indivduals and host homes go through an intense matching process. Individual choice and participant decision-making is prioritized so that individuals served are able to exercise their input in planning how they spend their time. Once matched, support services are provided to help individuals meet their goals, maximize independence, and develop meaningful relationships. Inspiritus provides case management and ensures compliance with medicaid guidelines for service provision. Inspiritus invested in fruitful recruiting endeavors that increased the volume of potential caregivers available to provide host homes to those in need.

Middle Tennessee empowermentinspiritus' empowerment program in middle Tennessee provides services that support low-income communities with special focus on empowering vulnerable women, children, seniors, and adults living with disabilities. Inspiritus programs include: building healthy families, thrive studios, and healthy gardens. Building healthy families offers hunger relief and community group support for women living in poverty to empower them to break the bonds of isolation, develop positive parenting techniques, and introduce tools for improving mental and physical health. During the recent pandemic years, Inspiritus has operated one of the highest volume food pantries in nashville at its site in north nashville, in partnership with the second harvest community food bank. At this site, Inspiritus also has historically operated a community kitchen, providing warm meals to homeless and low-income women and children in partnership with the nashville rescue mission and metropolitan development and housing agency, though these services have been adapted to accommodate a building redevelopment next door at the nashville rescue mission. In fy2023, the building healthy families program has served more unduplicated individuals than prior years through its food pantry, particularly to families and individuals experiencing economic hardship. Inspiritus' thrive studios youth community arts program empowers youth living in low-income communities to develop healthy social emotional skills, self-esteem, and community resiliency through artistic creation and expression. In fy2023, thrive studios has continued to deliver an intentionally relevant curriculum including projects that partner with local artists to help youth process their fears and anxieties about the world around them. Inspiritus' healthy gardens program provides all materials and education necessary for families to plant and harvest their own nutritious vegetables right outside their door, enabling communities struggling with food insecurity to attain food sustainability and promoting mental and physical health. In fy2023, healthy gardens has increased staffing and planted new gardens, providing a sustainable and affordable source of fresh produce in designated food desert communities and helping provide hunger relief during a time of need. During fy2023, healthy gardens has received accolades from vanderbilt university and the us dept of agriculture for its innovative approach to addressing health inequities in tennessee.in 2023, Inspiritus launched a comprehensive program & capital campaign to redevelop its property in north nashville into a multilevel complex that will include 80 units of affordable housing and a ground floor space for Inspiritus offices and social service programs. The campaign will operate for multiple years, with construction anticipated to begin in 2024 and to complete in 2025-2026.

Children and family servicesinspiritus' children and family services assists the Georgia division of family and children services (ga-dfcs) in placing children at risk and with special medical and behavioral needs into safe and quality foster care homes through Inspiritus' specialized foster care program in Georgia. Foster families receive full support from Inspiritus staff, including case management, respite, and ongoing training. Inspiritus has a proven history of accomplishment, providing high quality services to foster children and families. Inspiritus works in collaboration with the ga-dfcs to ensure that the safety, well-being, and permanency goals for children are met, including reunification with birth families or adoption as appropriate. Inspiritus focuses on meeting Georgia's need for specialized services for children and youth in foster care who have complex medical and behavioral health needs, concentrating in the atlanta metro and northwest Georgia regions. In fy23, Inspiritus increased its digital recruitment activities and partered with raise a child to help increase the number of foster homes available to serve children most in need, continuing its expansion efforts to serve more children each year. Inspiritus also received an award from the u.s. administriation for children and families (acf), office of refugee resettlement (orr) to expand its services to unaccompanied minors to ensure their safety and well-being while awaiting reunification with appropriately vetted family or sponsors.