BRIDGES
Located in the Highland area, BRIDGES is a ten-bed “safe haven” designed for the mentally ill homeless, who are unwilling or unable to participate in mental health programs and community-based services. For those who have been living on the streets with a mental illness, the transition to permanent housing can be a shock. BRIDGES provides a small, highly supportive environment where an individual can find shelter and be subject to relatively few service demands. Eventually, once clients become comfortable and are engaged by staff and other program participants, they can participate in mental health, substance abuse and other treatment and supportive services.

REACH
A nine bed facility across from BRIDGES, REACH serves the most intractable of the homeless population. These clients are diagnosed with co-occurring disorders: 1) a mental illness, and 2) substance abuse such as drug use or alcoholism. Once at REACH, clients progress through a two-year, individualized program with four goals: abstinence from substance abuse, mental health stability, permanent housing, and attainment of entitlements and employment. The program also encourages clients to create their own personal goals – a crucial step toward independence.

PORTALS
As one of Northwest Louisiana's Family Resource Centers, PORTALS serves the families of abused and neglected children referred by the Office of Community Services (see OCS website here), foster families, and families referred by Families in Need of Services, or FINS (see FINS website here). PORTALS operates with two goals: to increase family stability and to reduce incidents of child abuse or neglect. For foster families, CSP offers support groups, as well as scheduled and emergency respite care. To families, CSP offers parenting and anger management classes, mentoring, couples counseling, and youth anger management classes. If clients require services not offered by CSP, such as domestic violence counseling or psychotherapy, CSP coordinates with OCS and FINS to ensure that the client gains access to a comprehensive range of services.

CASE MANAGEMENT AND CRISIS SERVICES

Many mentally ill, particularly those who have been homeless for long periods of time, require intensive, individualized attention. With funding from the Office of Mental Health, Community Support offers three services to the region’s mentally ill: 1) case management; 2) crisis response, and 3) transportation. In case management, clients receive individualized help in finding and keeping housing and employment, managing medications, meeting basic needs, etc. CSP’s crisis response, called adult mobile crisis, is a team of employees that responds to emergency calls filtered through the Office of Mental Health. Lastly, Community Support operates an OMH grant to transport mental health patients to their doctor’s appointments within Region VII.

TRANSPORTATION

Community Support Programs, Inc. realizes the importance of providing a continuum of care to our mental health clients. An essential part of that continuum is transportation . Through a grant from the Office of Mental Health, CSP offers transportation to mental health clinics for clients referred from the Office of Mental Health. Our two seven-passenger vans enable us to offer this critical service to both our rural and urban clients.

CSP HOUSING INITIATIVES

Virginia Place
Located in the Highland area, the Virginia Place Apartments are permanent, HUD-supported housing for those with chronic mental illnesses. The residents receive a 70% rent support for the fourteen one-bedroom apartments and supportive services from our case management staff.

Section 8
On behalf of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, CSP manages fifty-eight housing choice vouchers for the disabled (see HUD website here). These Section 8 vouchers allow individuals and families, all of whom would struggle to find housing on their own, to reside in safe, decent, affordable housing with rent support.

Community Housing Development Organization
As a certified CHDO with the Louisiana Housing Finance Agency and the City of Shreveport to build reduced-mortgage apartments and homes. To date, CSP has helped develop over twenty-five apartment complexes in single family neighborhoods for low-income and disabled residents throughout Shreveport-Bossier and northwest Louisiana.

Hearthstone
The Hearthstone program utilizes funds from Shreveport’s Community Development Department to build houses for families with an income at or below 80% of the state median (see the CDD website here). Once families complete homebuyer classes, City funds buy down a portion of the mortgage, allowing these families to live in safe, affordable housing in nieghborhoods targeted by the city.