Strive aims to deliver best practice community services through strong policy and procedure. This is driven through healthy organisational culture and strong staff, client and strive community services consultation.
Our New York site serves individuals from every single borough, focusing on neighborhoods that have been negatively impacted by discriminatory housing and economic development policies. They are struggling to overcome a legacy of poverty and unemployment.
Employment Services
STRIVE’s Career Pathway program teaches job-seekers the skills they need to find and keep a stable, secure position. The program includes a four-week CORE readiness workshop and skills training that results in industry-recognized credentials. The program also helps participants with job placement assistance. Some of the people STRIVE serves have previously been homeless, incarcerated or on public assistance.
In addition to job-related activities, the program offers a variety of community support services for participants. These include cooking, money management, art, Qi Gong, drama, yoga and relationships classes. Participants choose the groups they want to participate in based on their goals and interests.
Each step in a child or young person’s progression with Strive is designed to be a safe space for them to form relationships with their caregivers. This is guided by the CREATE model of care, which is rooted in Contemporary Trauma Theory. Through a process of repetition, patterned and rhythmic exposure to time together, the neural pathway associating that time as comfortable, safe and joyous will be strengthened.
Supported Living Services
Strive offers a range of community-based living arrangements catered to the needs of each individual. Options include supervised group homes, primary host homes (residences where families or singles willingly shelter and care for a STRIVE client) and congregate apartments with minimal support staff.
Depending on the needs of each person, we offer various programs that allow them to participate in activities and events in their communities. Whether they are at an extremely low developmental level and require multiple people to help them function or at a higher level and can work with just a few supports, these services try to give individuals the quality of life experiences they seek.
Adult Habilitation - offers supervised activities for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities that provide enjoyment through socialization, exercise and recreation. Our program also owns and operates Alida's Fruits, which provides a "real" operation where adult clients can learn job skills such as bagging groceries, simple sewing, packaging and janitorial tasks.
Behavioral Health Services
We provide specialised habilitation services and supports to individuals with complex disabilities in their own homes or communities. These are adapted to each person’s individual goals and needs.
At Strive we believe that everyone deserves opportunities. It is our duty to make these opportunities available. This is a key focus of our work, especially in the most marginalised and under-served neighborhoods.
We offer a one-stop shop resource fair where community organisations and agencies come together to support the people in our neighbourhoods. This includes a wide range of support services, from food and shelter applications to psychiatric care. Our New York site operates in some of the most underserved communities in the country, which have experienced discriminatory housing policies and are prone to poverty and unemployment. However, history does not have to determine the future of these areas.
Residential Host Homes
STRIVE Residential Host Homes offer a safe and stable living environment to youth who have been in foster care and may be facing significant barriers to success, such as lack of education, drug abuse or homelessness. The goal is to help these youth get back on track and achieve the life they deserve.
The STRIVE Transitional Living Program and the Promoting Safe and Stable Families program serve youth ages 17-21 who are leaving foster care to live independently. Youth self-refer or are referred by their county DFCS caseworker.
The STRIVE New York site assists individuals from all five boroughs, with an emphasis in East Harlem and the South Bronx. These neighborhoods have long been
underserved, but STRIVE believes that their residents’ pasts do not have to determine their futures. Our programs connect individuals to opportunities and create jobs in their communities. We also provide housing and support services. A comprehensive treatment plan is developed for each individual upon their move-in.
