Since 1993, the AfterCare Program has been providing comprehensive supportive services to families who have stayed in our shelter. When the idea for the AfterCare Program was conceived, there were no systematic follow-up services offered by any of the homeless shelters in San Francisco. Raphael House became the first to establish such a program.

For poor families, particularly those headed by single mothers (the majority of our clients), often what makes the difference between staying housed and periodic episodes of homelessness is having a support network and supplemental resources. Harder + Company Community Research Group performed an objective evaluation of the initial three year period of the Raphael House AfterCare Program. The full report of this study was published in 1997 and confirmed our initial premise -- families supported by our AfterCare services showed improvement in housing stability, gains in family income, greater community involvement and an increased sense of personal control.

Overall, the Raphael House AfterCare Program reaches more than 1105 parents and children each year. An indicator of the success of this program is measured by the fact that in our last three fiscal years, more than 95 percent of these families maintained stable housing and 80 percent made other substantial gains toward financial independence and family stability.