Sybil Smith Family Village – Main Campus
Dumas Wesley Community Center’s Transitional Housing Program, Sybil Smith Family Village, (SSFV) was founded in 1999 to fill a void in housing services for single women and women with children experiencing homelessness. SSFV is a 18-unit facility that provides 24 months of housing for up to 150 individuals annually. The program credits its success to its focus on accountability, individualized case management, life skills, and behavior modification.
To-date, the program has served 2,630 individuals from Southwest and Central Alabama, coastal Mississippi, and North Florida. SSFV enjoys a remarkable average success rate of 88% among residents who exited the program successfully and transitioned into permanent housing. This figure is 45% higher than the national average, according to the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS), a data collection service which measures housing services and outcomes nationwide. In the last six years, 0% of SSFV graduates returned to homelessness, within 2 years of program completion, compared to the national recidivism rate of 19%.
Please contact Sybil Smith Family Village at 251-473-5526 for further information on eligibility requirements and application procedures.
Baldwin Family Village – Baldwin County
The Dumas Wesley Community Center and the Baldwin Family Village Foundation are proud to offer Baldwin County’s first transitional housing program, the Baldwin Family Village (BFV). The program is operated by the Dumas Wesley Community Center, modeled after its highly successful transitional housing program, the Sybil Smith Family Village.
The Baldwin Family Village provides 12 months of housing stability and wrap-around services for up to 100 single women and women with children annually. BFV seeks to break the cycle of homelessness and help women and children re-establish and maintain self-sufficiency by focusing on accountability, case management, life skills, and behavior modification. To-date, the BFV has served 70 individuals and 14 families have successfully transitioned into permanent housing.
According to United Way of Southwest Alabama’s crisis calls, in 2021, 1/3 of the calls received from Baldwin County are related to homelessness and/or housing assistance. Last year, the Baldwin County Public School System reported that 300 school-age children were homeless on any given night in Baldwin County.
Please contact Margie Walters, Director of the Baldwin Family Village at 251-210-4045 or email mwalters@dumaswesley.org for further information on eligibility requirements and application procedures.
Learn more about the Baldwin Family Village here.
Transitional Housing Program goals are:
- To meet the immediate need for stable housing so that residents are free to work on becoming self-sufficient,
- Help residents obtain job skills and educational skills so they can financially support themselves,
- Help overcome other critical obstacles such as lack of affordable childcare so they may work outside the home,
- Help single women and mothers with children recover from and avoid the trauma which homelessness and economic instability causes to their health, self-esteem and emotional development, and
- Help secure and retain permanent housing when they complete the program.
Basic eligibility criteria for admission into Sybil Smith Family Village and the Baldwin Family Village are:
- Must be at least 24 years old,
- Must be homeless or fleeing domestic violence (PFA must be obtained upon entry),
- Must be able to work and/or attend school (volunteer hours do not count),
- Must be drug-and alcohol-free,
- Must be willing to live in a drug-and alcohol-free environment (and take random drug tests), and
- Must be willing to participate in a case management plan.
Each resident is assessed at the time of entry into the program and a detailed case management plan is formulated. Each adult resident meets at least once weekly with the case manager to review goals and achievements. Mandatory life skills classes are provided in employment readiness and retention, parenting, budgeting, relationship skills, health issues and other skills necessary to live independently.
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