First Church of The True Believers in Christ

    Ambassador for Children and Families

Who we are:

Organization/Agency Overview

First Church of The True Believers in Christ was established in March 1969 which also has established an 501(c3) non for profit status to advocate for and use its resources to further the dissemination of social and moral guidance, that is committed to community issues and needs along with equity change, transforming unacceptable conditions, focusing on helping to make a difference in peoples’ lives, and now to provide affordable housing rental assistance and related social supportive services to lower income residents of Chicago and surrounding areas.

Ambassador for Children and Families (ACAF) is a Community Outreach of First Church of The True Believers in Christ that provides social supportive services and housing rental assistance services to individuals, men, women, and families, homeless, and those who are at risk of homelessness. Our services guides participants in five key principles: commitment to personal accountability; improvement of parenting skills; advancement towards economic stability; compliance with lease and supportive service agreement; maintenance of a safe home and drug free community. Since its inception, it has co-developed over 100 units of affordable housing, operated as social supportive service connector, as well as one for Accessible Independent Living, and the Affordable Housing rental assistance for low-income residents.

ACAF will work with participants on a daily basis to create and ensure Social Supportive Service Agreements are followed and seek referrals for the wellbeing of participants as needed. ACAF agrees to create programming for community wellness at ACAF.

ACAF will report programmatic social supportive service goals and results to our funding sources, thus maintaining compliance with HUD, IDHS Rapid Re-Housing program guidelines, Continuum of Care, and ALL Chicago grant requirements.

Program Philosophy

Our service philosophy is strengths-based and client-centered, everyone who walks through our door is served with dignity and viewed through the lens of their potential and the goals they set for themselves. We provide a suite of high-quality social services that support and strengthen our local community and involve individuals, children/youth, families and others in community life. Develop the resources and capacities to achieve excellence in every service such as, youth and family guidance, case management, counseling, life coach, finance, credit consultant, employment training referral, housing support assistance, job readiness preparation, advocating for youth and families seeking their path to self-sufficiency, and other structural services.

Along with our community outreach services, Our Rapid Re-housing (RRH) is an IDHS HUD grant funded housing program that provides short-term (up to three months) and medium-term (4-18 months) tenant-based rental assistance and supportive services to households experiencing homelessness. The Department of Human Services, Division of Family and Community Services (FCS) is the development and expansion of our Rapid Re-Housing program in alignment with the Home Illinois, Illinois’ Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness funding.

Program Participant

1. Under our RRH Program participants must be currently homeless under the (HUD definition at 76 FR 75994).
2. Program participants must be selected through HUD local Continuum of Care’s (CoC’s) established processes for evaluating and prioritizing households for Rapid Re-Housing as is required by the Federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) grant.
3. Supportive Services – RRH program offers participants supportive services to help them achieve long-term housing stability. All eligible supportive services provided will help program participants obtain and maintain housing.
4. Program participants are required to meet with a case manager at least once a month and will have access to a broad array of additional services to help them maintain housing. In addition, services may be provided for up to 6 months after the rental assistance ends.

Rental Assistance -provide tenant-based rental assistance to pay a portion of the rent on behalf of program participants for individual housing units for RRH. Under rental assistance, the lease for the unit is between the program participant and the property owner. Rent must be reasonable in relation to rents charged for comparable units in the area. Rent may not exceed the lower of 120% of Fair Market Rent (FMR) or the rent reasonableness limit for the unit, but the rent can never exceed what is considered reasonable to support that unit.

We Are Committed

Under the organization of First Church of The True Believers in Christ, Ambassador for Children and Families is a community outreach-based agency to further the dissemination of social service and moral guidance. Our mission is to advance the interest for the support of building public relationship, day to day participants with services such as, youth and family guidance, case management, counseling, life coach, finance and credit consultant, employment training referral, housing support/rental assistant, job readiness preparation, advocate for youth and families seeking their path to self-sufficiency, and other structural services enabling them to quality outcomes surrounding their needs. Our service philosophy is strength-based, and participant centered, everyone who walk through our door is served with dignity, respect and viewed through the lens of their potential goals they set themselves. We are committed to innovative problem solving, shared accountability and relentless focus on achieving real sustainable, and measurable results for the participants we serve.