VTAB Service Strategy:
VTAB Community Center transforms the lives of Haitian immigrants and refugees, by employing a 4-point HOPE Strategy.

• Housing – Housing assistance and placement is affordable, safe and conveniently located to transportation, schools and shopping venues.
• Opportunities – Social and cultural development through arts, work readiness training, fieldtrips and connections to caring adults.
• Prayer – Spiritual guidance and prayer that encourages better living.
• Empowerment – Youth leadership development, community services, work experience.

Programs & Services
VTAB works collaboratively with a wide range of community-based organizations to offer strong post resettlement services to refugee and immigrant youth and families, that include: emergency nutrition services/food pantry, crisis intervention, school advocacy, youth engagement, housing placement for homeless youth and family counseling.
1. Food Pantry – VTAB Food Pantry provides food to underprivileged Haitian immigrant families and native-born individuals in Mattapan, Dorchester, Hyde Park and Roxbury. In addition to holding public food distributions one a week, we also provide health and nutrition classes in partnership with local health centers. Our emergency nutrition partner is the Greater Boston Food Bank. Beyond our regular services, we also distribute Thanksgiving holiday boxes every November and Christmas boxes in December. These boxes include a turkey and all the traditional trimmings needed to prepare a holiday meal at home. VTMC food program reaches over 14,000 people annually.

2. Keep Youth Connected (KYC) – Our critically needed youth development program that reaches at-risk Haitian youth ages 11-18 in Boston. KYC serves over 100 youth annually by offering culturally relevant support that includes: Housing placement, job placement, mentoring, life skills training, spiritual guidance, summer recreation, case management, academic support and community service. At the outset, KYC focused primarily on mentoring, but evolved into a highly structured support program that now delivers comprehensive services to immigrant youth in crisis. During the school year, the program meets weekly for social development programming and recreational activities.

3. Tabernacle Education Network (TEN) – ESOL classes, basic technological literacy, and GED classes to help immigrants and refugee build skills and prepare them to successfully enter the work force. VTAB technology classes help adults learn to navigate the web, draft documents, send emails, and understand the basic functions of standard software. Women are also offered basic literacy and GED preparation classes that designed to boost their reading, math and comprehension skills. These classes help adults improve their social functioning and work towards achieving their dream of completing high school.

4. Work Ready Express (WRE) – Work readiness is training is designed to aid immigrants and refugees in the process of pre-employment skills development, career exploration and job seeking. WRE offers career information and support that help adults who are out of the work force, discovering new career paths, assess their skill levels, developing areas of strengths, assess short-term job choices and/or long-term career plans, understand workplace behavioral expectations, prepare resumes and practice interviewing skills.

5. Street Outreach Success (SOS) – An 8-week summer component that provides at-risk youth 14-21 with part-time job in community settings, thought-provoking workshops, evening recreation, weekly group life skills sessions, snacks, mentoring and group counseling opportunities. This component is aimed at keeping youth connected in the summer months when youth are most likely to get involved in negative activities because many are out of the workforce because of limited teen job opportunities.

6. Housing Placement Assistance – The most critical of our support services to Haitian community is our housing assistance component, helps homeless immigrant and refugee youth ages 16-21 find rooms in community-based homes and cover the rent until youth are able to maintain the cost of their own shelter. This service is heavily utilized by youth who came to Boston after the Haitian Earthquake and could not find stable long-term housing in culturally connected communities. Most Haitian youth from across the city are referred to our program because of our success rate with placement.