Safehaven Public Ecovillage: Empowering Communities

As noted, it is mission-critical for SHPEV to involve key community members dynamically in our non-sensitive aspects of our clients and operations. These members will have advisory responsibility. They will often function as volunteers and mentors, review non-confidential reports, and make recommendations to the Executive Director. We anticipate that the key member will have knowledge of the client's culture, radiate a commitment to the community, and agree on the program's direction designed to enhance the program's standing in the community.

The involvement of stakeholders (people and organizations with a vested interest in the client's well-being) is mission-critical. The stakeholders will consist of individuals, community representatives, and tribal concern members or individuals serious about ensuring the client's well-being and the program's success. Their involvement will help boost confidence among clients' family members and friends while demonstrating our accountability and safe practices to official county and state representatives. impact.

The Board of SHPEV organizes partnerships into two main categories. One set of partners is those organizations and businesses providing direct and on-site services to our clients at our Public Ecovillage (Group Home). The other partners are those agencies and community programs that provide essential support services. The former represents our Internal Affairs Partners, and the latter is our External Affairs Partners.

At SHPEV, the Board will follow the Institute for Humane Education's Solutionary Approach to solve and address social and educational challenges. When "Solutionaries" seek to solve a problem, they identify all impacted by the crisis and the perpetuating systems. This solution includes all people, other species, and the environment. Once they understand the systems that create and support the problem, they devise a solutionary solution (Retrieved on February 5, 2022, fromhttps://humaneeducation.org/what-is-a-solutionary/).

SHPEV will maintain accountability and integrity by focusing on three levels simultaneously: (1) Fiscal Administration and Policy, (2) Internal Controls, and (3) Seeking Solutions. SHPEV will have an internal set of criteria to hold staff accountable to the policies and requirements of the grantor, county, or state. These elements will be integral factors throughout the organization's operations, from staff evaluations to fiscal management. 

The second significant leg of the accountability and integrity threshold is the program’s activities and participants' behaviors. SHPEV's internal controls of "Humacy" and Normative Culture are the face of our methods to help our clients have a meaningful and safe experience living at PE while on their pathways toward sobriety. This segment of accountability and integrity also includes having various plans designed to document and improve services, activities, and outcomes. These plans include Functional Assessments; Self-Assessment, Validations, Evaluation, & Strategies (SAVES); Individualized Life Plan; and the Supportive Sobriety Plan and Checklist (SSPC)—the results of these plans are submitted to the Executives Director and a summary report goes to the Board. Each plan’s purpose and a brief description follows:

The purpose is to ascertain clients’ strengths, ambitions, and aims in life. It Includes an organized and categorical listing of brainstormed items and skills needed to accomplish clients’ goals. 

  The rationale is for each client to make an inventory of their strengths, weaknesses, challenges, and barriers as a means of measuring their process, which staff will monitor and validation. As noted above, staff must engage in participatory observation for this process to be accurate and effective (see above for more details).

  This approach provides public ecovillage staff and management with how the clients is progressing in all the major aspects of daily living. Some of the items include chores, physical health and wellness, leisure and recreation, intimacy and relationship, mental health and character enhancement, and spirituality and ultimate concern attainment.

  This aspect of the planning elements is designed to prepare our clients to re-enter society as responsibility, independent, and working adults. The components of the plan include determining financial needs, develop responsible spending habits, and wealth planning, employment and business incubator services, education and vocation training, housing payments and rent payments, and plans to overcome potential barriers to attain their life goals.

  The purpose is discussed above. Nonetheless, the essential point is that this tool helps the client to personalized their progress while informing staff that they need to professionally observe clients throughout the course of their time in the program.

 The SI & SOAR (see the glossary) is part of the self-assessment validation management education, and strategy tool that the clients and staff use to document and support the clients' progress. At the core, it represents a series of action plans to identify and remove barriers by empowering our clients and key stakeholders to take responsibility for their successes while learning from their failures. It is central to our program’s wellness toolbox. We will schedule group planning and workshops based on the information generated from SI & SOAR.