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<br />food to prepare a holiday meal, and a holiday gift program. Our comprehensive approach
<br />gives parents the tools they need to make lifelong changes that prevent future
<br />homelessness and provide stability for their children. The Prevention and Diversion
<br />Program works with families experiencing a housing crisis but who are not homeless, with
<br />the exception of families in transitional housing. Family Navigators work with these
<br />families to provide case management, direct financial assistance, supportive services, and
<br />referrals to outside resources. Our team provides initial screening, working with each
<br />household to identify barriers that have led to homelessness and developing goals to
<br />remedy each barrier. Our goal is to intervene before a family becomes homeless and
<br />provide the tools and resources needed to maintain their current housing or find
<br />alternative stable housing. Our supportive services provide access to our onsite food
<br />pantry, mental health counseling, career coaching, life skills education, acute health care
<br />services, and financial support for childcare and transportation. The program will be
<br />implemented by our Prevention team. This team is staffed by dedicated, experienced
<br />professionals with a passion for preventing and ending homelessness, and includes
<br />Prevention Manager Lisa Perez (4 years), Senior Family Navigator Briana Velazquez (4
<br />years), and Family Navigator Tania Liceaga (3 years). Resumes for these three staff are
<br />provided in this proposal. The Prevention Team is supervised by our Director of Programs
<br />Rosalinda Bermudez who has over 12 years of experience in the field. Our Prevention team
<br />will work collectively with other Families Forward teams who provide case management,
<br />counseling, housing resources, and career coaching. Many of our staff have decades of
<br />experience of dedicated service to helping families achieve housing stability.
<br />Families Forward has 40 years of experience applying for, receiving and administering
<br />CDBG, ESG, HOME, HHAP and other public grant funds (local, county, and federal) to help
<br />families achieve housing stability and financial self-sufficiency. Grants that Families
<br />Forward is either currently administering or has administered include Tenant Based Rental
<br />Assistance (TBRA), CDBG with 10 cities (Costa Mesa, Huntington Beach, Irvine, Lake
<br />Forest, Laguna Niguel, Mission Viejo, Newport Beach, Orange, Rancho Santa Margarita,
<br />Tustin) CDBG-CV for Costa Mesa, Irvine, Lake Forest, Mission Viejo, Rancho Santa
<br />Margarita, and Santa Ana, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development,
<br />Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG), COVID-19 Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG-CV),
<br />Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP), California Emergency Solutions and
<br />Housing (CESH), Emergency Housing Voucher (EHV) with the County of Orange, HOME
<br />funds, HHAP funds and various private grants.
<br />Many of these grants specifically focus on prevention. Currently, we work with the City of
<br />Irvine on their ESG prevention grant, the City of Costa Mesa on both their Tenant Based
<br />Resident Assistance grant and a new No-Fault Eviction Prevention grant, and the
<br />Emergency Food and Shelter Program grant administered by the United Way. We are in a
<br />collaborative of providers, including the United Way, who have been selected to administer
<br />EXHIBIT 2
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