Choose Help is designed to meet clients where they’re at and help them truly transform their lives. Because for most of our clients, there are far greater issues than just experiencing homelessness.

Why Choose Help

Choosing help is a critical step for our clients and the foundation of true life transformation. Without choosing help, there is no trust and it becomes harder to fix the foundational crack.

Allowing our clients to choose help means we aren’t forcing anyone to do anything they aren’t comfortable with. We are allowing them to decide that they want a change in their lives.  

We build steady, caring relationships with our guests that inspire long-term transformation.

How Choosing Help Works

The critical element in Choose Help Services is building relationships. We begin our relationships with men and women by simply asking, “How can we help?” Through this and subsequent conversations, we begin to build trust and hope. This leads clients to choosing help.

Our Transformation Model looks like this:

This process cannot be rushed and is never the same for any two clients. We have ambassadors that create an environment in which clients feel safe to share their stories, process their options, and are gently encouraged through hardships and roadblocks they encounter. Our social workers oversee the assessment process, lead classes and groups, and make outside referrals for clients to service partners and programs.

What Our Leaders Say About Choosing Help

“Choose Help Services at The Shepherd’s Inn gives homeless men an opportunity to grow spiritually, socially, and emotionally by participating in classes taught by staff and volunteers. We also give men the dignity that we all need by providing laundry service, a clothing closet, and showers. We are always trying to figure out new ways to establish relationships with the men we serve because you cannot expect them to trust us if we make no attempts to know them.” Michael Shepherd, Choose Help Leader

“When these women walk through our doors and are greeted by an Ambassador who genuinely cares about them and their children—someone who desires to know them and serve them—they begin to feel a sense of belonging that in some cases had been missing from their lives for years. God made us to live in community and that is what our Ambassadors provide. They contribute to sowing the seed that empowers these women to choose help.” – Jennifer Hutchinson, Choose Help Leader

The men and women who come to our doors for help with immediate needs often discover hope for the very first time. Our Transformation Model to end homelessness is personalized to each client’s individual circumstances, and that starts by choosing help. Once a client has made a decision to choose help, he or she transitions to our Make Progress Services.

From there we see lives changed. And these stories of transformation are what keep us motivated. They are why we do what we do. You can see them all here.