Our Programs

At Raphael House we provide each family with the personalized and family-centered solutions necessary to achieve long-term secure housing and financial stability. We provide a wide range of family support for parents and their children through our Residential Shelter, children’s programming, and Bridge Program. Partnering with parents, we seek to foster the holistic development of children, opening up around them a world to explore and experience. If you or your family are seeking shelter, please click here to learn more.

Residential Shelter Program

Raphael House was founded in 1971 to provide a temporary home to the growing number of single women and mothers with children who had no home or shelter—at that time there was no other place for them to go. 

Today, our stable home-like Residential Shelter provides families of all types a warm and safe family-centered community. Each family is provided with their own residential room, daily nutritious meals, and clothing. While at Raphael House, parents participate in a wide range of services that strengthen the whole family as they work toward achieving long-term stable housing and financial independence. 

Children in our program receive services that support—and engage their parents in supporting—healthy emotional and academic development. Once families move on from Residential Shelter they have access to an extensive continuum of support through our Bridge Program.

Our Residential Shelter Program offers families:

  • Private furnished rooms 
  • Nutritious family-style meals 
  • Intensive case management 
  • Housing search support 
  • Career Development Services 
  • Family Wellness Services 
  • Financial, parenting, health, and wellness workshops 
  • Financial literacy education and a comprehensive savings plan
  • Evening programming for children and families
  • K–12 academic tutoring
  • Scholarships for children for tutoring, extracurricular activities, and summer camps
  • Special events and giveaways for children and families

Our Residential Shelter serves an average of 51 families each year. On average, 85% of families leaving our shelter transition to stable housing.

Based on data from Fiscal Years 2017-2019

Bridge Program

In 1981, Raphael House expanded its services to include the Follow-Up Program—known today as our Bridge Program—to maintain contact with past residents and remain a support system.

Through our Bridge Program, we are committed to helping families reach and maintain long-term stability by supporting them with the resources and connections they need to move beyond poverty. Families in our Bridge Program have access to a variety of services that help overcome barriers to maintaining housing and achieving financial stability.. 

On average, more than 90% of families who actively participate in the Bridge Program maintain long-term housing and financial stability.

Our Bridge Program offers families:

  • Ongoing case management
  • Career Development Services 
  • Family Wellness Services 
  • Financial, parenting, health, and wellness workshops 
  • Financial literacy and wellness education
  • K–12 academic tutoring
  • Scholarships for children for tutoring, extracurricular activities, and summer camps
  • Special events and giveaways for children and families
  • Community partner referrals

Our Bridge Program serves an average of 216 families each year.

Based on data from Fiscal Years 2017-2019

Academic Enrichment

Integral to helping families break the generational cycle of poverty is ensuring that children achieve academic success. Raphael House supports educational achievement by helping kids of every age develop a passion and love for learning. Raphael House provides thorough K-12 academic support to our children to help ensure they achieve and maintain success in school. We offer extensive academic tutoring, enrichment activities, scholarships for extracurricular pursuits, and mentoring throughout the school year for both the children and teens in our Residential Shelter Program and those we serve through our Bridge Program. Our Academic Enrichment Program serves 100 or more children each year, and 90% of these children show improved academic performance.

Children's Program

Creating structured daily routines is crucial to each child’s development, laying the groundwork for achieving long-term success in their personal and academic lives. We encourage children in our Residential Shelter Program to cultivate their creativity and imagination through story-telling, songs, games, dance, and arts and crafts activities. Partnering with their parents, we seek to engage the minds and hearts of the whole child, opening up around them a world to explore and experience. Our children’s programming is an interactive model of engagement in which we work closely with both children and their parents, using a combination of structure, play, and parent education to foster each child’s development, reinforce healthy family bonds, and build self-confidence. Through the Children’s Evening Program we serve at least 100 children each year; more than 85% of these children show marked improvements in their social and emotional behavior.