Life is full of defining moments. In 2018, we decided to pursue a passion project called MHAB. Earlier this summer, we presented a report card to our partners and community leaders about the success and challenges of this innovative, transitional housing model. Our conversation this month’s issue of SB included a debrief on this defining moment. The journey of “Breakfast with Herb and Mike” continues…
Herb: I was moved by the presentation you gave at the recent celebration of the MHAB Life Skills Campus’ fifth anniversary. It was an eye-opening account of what has happened, delivered to an impressive turnout of human resource professionals and community leaders. That was your professional evaluation. Now I’d like to hear your personal evaluation. How do you feel about where we are?
Mike: I have to say this experience has been both rewarding and difficult. We’ve had fights, arrests, evictions, and yes, a few deaths and overdoses. but that is to be expected given the population we’re working with. On the plus side, we’ve had nearly 300 people go through the program at MHAB and about 40 percent of those who took advantage of what we had to offer left clean and sober and with a job and a new permanent place to live. That is an amazing statistic in this community.
Herb: What do you think has enabled MHAB to achieve that kind of success?
Mike: I’m proud of the range of services we provide. We have partnered with the Champlain Valley Family Center (CVFC) to provide a drop-in Recovery Center that is open six days a week. We have a Conference Center that turns out meals the residents can access and it also gives them job opportunities. There is a fully-equipped fitness center on site. Once a week a recruiter from an employment service comes to campus to talk to any resident who wants to go to work and a credit union provides financial counseling at no cost. We have weekly 12 step meetings, classes of all kinds and many different types of gatherings. And we have our own dog park that is open to the public. There is nothing quite like watching dogs run around to brighten our residents’ days.
Herb: With five years behind us, where do you see us going from here?
Mike: Currently we have two new initiatives in the works. In conjunction with CVFC we are about to begin renovation of one of our dorms to accommodate a 24-hour-a-day Crisis Stabilization Center we hope will be open by early 2025. And we are excited about a partnership with a group called Enlisted for Life that works with homeless veterans and is moving into its proof-of-concept stage with rooms in one of our dorms. We also have other exciting projects in the wings that I hope to be able to share with the public soon.
I leave you with this. MHAB has been a labor of love. We have experienced so much in a short time. It is so rewarding when you see the light go on for someone who has struggled most of their life and they begin the journey to their own version of the American dream.
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