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Pretreatment Guide for Homeless Outreach & Housing First: Helping Couples, Youth, and Unaccompanied Adults (paperback/e-book) is now available
Order it today via Barnes & Noble ~ Nook E-book or Amazon ~ Kindle E-book
“This book is essential reading to both people new to the movement to end homelessness and folks who have been in the trenches for many years.”
-Michael Stoops, National Coalition for the Homeless– USA
Outreach clinicians, social workers, case managers, and concerned community members are provided with a pretreatment guide for helping homeless couples, youth, and single adults. Chapters explore policy and research accompanied by narratives that trace a person’s journey from homelessness to housing and beyond. The inter-relationship between Homeless Outreach and Housing First is examined in detail to inform program development and hands on practice. Pretreatment Guide for Homeless Outreach & Housing First shares 5 intricate stories from the field to elucidate effective ways of helping, while demonstrating how the most vulnerable among us can overcome trauma and homelessness.
- Check out an excerpt from Pretreatment Guide
- The UK’s Housing, Care and Support Journal vol 17, no 4 – (November 2014 issue) reviews Pretreatment Guide for Homeless Outreach & Housing First and discusses its merits – Reviews & Blurbs features the UK Journal review by Lynn Vickery, among others
Thus far more than 33% of book related profits ($2587) have been given to national (U.S.) charities that support the goal and ideal of ending homelessness. Please see Donations page for more details
- Northeast Public Radio Interview ~ Homeless Narratives & Pretreatment Pathways
“It looks to me like the bible for people who want to do this kind of work.” –Dr. Alan Chartock –Here’s the interview on WAMC Northeast Public Radio
The critically acclaimed book Homeless Narratives & Pretreatment Pathways: From Words to Housing is based on my many years of doing outreach counseling, advocacy, and developing housing alternatives for chronically homeless individuals throughout NYC, Boston, and Western MA. Stories of survival, meaning making and overcoming are shared along with an approach for helping those who are most in need.
E-book, paperback, and hardcover versions are available here, as well as online via Barnes & Noble, Amazon, and many other outlets.
This book (HNPP) was recommended by the following organizations:
- Massachusetts Housing and Shelter Alliance
- Western MA Regional Network to End Homelessness
- Health Care for the Homeless – Boston
ForeWord Digital Review
“Given the enormous and increasing budget cuts facing these historically tax-supported programs, this epidemic of homelessness forces us to care for one another in creative ways that are unprecedented in recent memory. For this pressing reason, Levy’s book presents a pretreatment model for action that is becoming necessary reading as narrative for improving policy, supervision, and outreach counseling services for the most vulnerable among us.”
-Pamela Harris Kaiser – ForeWord Review of Homeless Narratives & Pretreatment Pathways
Health Care for the Homeless Review
Levy crafts stories of characters who sear the memory: Old Man Ray, the World War 2 veteran who resents the VA system and regards himself as the de facto night watchman at Port Authority; Ben who claims to be a prophet disowned in his own country, crucified by the government and enslaved by poverty finds a bridge to the mainstream services and a path to housing through the common language of religious metaphors, including redemption and forgiveness; and Andrew who has been “mentally murdered” is helped to understand his own situation and gain disability benefits through the language of trauma; among others.
These stories are deftly interwoven with theory and practice as Levy constructs his developmental model of the engagement and pretreatment process. The outreach worker strives to understand the language and the culture of each homeless individual, builds a bridge to the mainstream services, and helps those providers to understand the special circumstances of these vulnerable people. Levy bears witness to the courage of these pilgrims who wander the streets of our cities, and his poignant book is a testament to the healing power of trusting and enduring relationships.
Jim O’Connell, MD – President and Street Physician for Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program. Dr. O’Connell is nationally recognized as one of the preeminent experts on homelessness and health care.
A full listing of Jay S. Levy’s publications and more than 70 citations of his published work are now available at google scholar.