Our Purpose

We welcome members into the JOH community with hopes that they’ll do far more than graduate from one of our programs. As staff of treatment organizations, the opportunity to support members as they initiate and sustain their recovery is why we come to work every day. But at the JOH Project, we view treatment not as an end it itself, but as a cornerstone on which members build full and meaningful lives.

Linking members to safe and secure housing is central to our mission. We endorse a Housing First approach to wellness, which means we don’t expect members to “qualify for” or to “deserve” housing based on their recovery status. Although connecting members to permanent housing is an important milestone; it doesn’t mean our work is finished.

Helping members to start and sustain their recovery and to maintain permanent housing both serve our ultimate goal: supporting our members as they reintegrate back into their communities to pursue their hopes and dreams. Success, to us, means our members initiate wellness, sustain wellness, sustain housing, and participate fully in their communities.

This guide will help us be successful. We developed the content in part to ensure that JOH community members will have access to a full range of high-quality services no matter which program they join. Each JOH program is different. We serve different populations with a variety of needs, but we are tied together by common goals and a values-driven approach that guides how we achieve our service goals.

This guide organizes JOH services according to five phases of work, which roughly correspond to the members’ residential and continuing experiences with JOH. Each phase identifies several service goals, which are followed by ideas for meeting each goal. The goals and suggestions for achieving them were gathered from practices found in research articles; from the recommendations of JOH providers, members, and allies; and were adapted from Achara Consulting’s model for providing recovery-oriented treatment services that promote wellness, recovery, and fulfillment.

There are many ways to go about providing values-based support. The lists of ideas we provide are not intended to be complete. They’re just examples. The best approach to using this guide is to internalize the importance of each goal and to ensure your program’s approaches to meeting the goal reflect JOH core values.

Published 2020

Program Manager
Deanna.Lear@phila.gov

Project Assistant
Tina.Newstead@phila.gov