Qlarant Foundation $20,000 Grant to Project ECHO Provides Hope for the Homeless

Project ECHO is Calvert County’s only emergency shelter providing a safe, sober, and stable environment for homeless men, women, and children for up to 90 days. They also operate four shared rent houses, for “graduates” of the main shelter, with a willingness to live together with other individuals.

As part of the most recent grant awards, Qlarant Foundation provided $20,000 to support Project ECHO’s Claire’s Program. Participants in this program receive therapy counseling, neurofeedback therapy for managing emotional triggers, life coaching, trauma group sessions, trauma-based yoga sessions, counseling, and dental work that is not covered by insurance or Medicaid.

“We operate 24-7-365 and we do so with four full-time employees and a large number of volunteers,” said Board President Kirk Swain. “Hot meals are provided every night by numerous local churches and service groups, on a rotating basis. Our residents are provided one-on-one lifestyle counseling, GED tutoring and education, and referrals to all local, state, and federal medical and human services providers.”

Over the thirty years of their existence, they learned that 100% of the people they serve have experienced trauma at some point in their lives. Homelessness and trauma are inextricably tied together.

“Left unaddressed, we believe that the cycle of homelessness, among the people we serve, will be very difficult to break,” added Swain. “Large numbers of our residents cannot get past their issues that relate to a former trauma and will return to our shelter.”

Clare’s Program strives to provide more order into the lives of its participants by helping them to learn to establish lifestyle routines that enable them to live independently. It is a subset of their total current and former population and is the brainchild of their former board president. “His dedication to the program goes far beyond the daily oversight that he brings to it’” added Swain. “All of the services are paid for out of his personal resources, every month.”

Project ECHO is a small nonprofit organization that only receives about one-third of the necessary funds from local, state, and federal sources to operate and keep the doors open. The remaining two-thirds must be raised through charitable contributions or the patronage of our thrift store.

“It’s a constant source of frustration to the board that, rather than focus primarily on ways to break the cycle of homelessness, we find ourselves having to concentrate almost exclusively on how to continue funding for our efforts,” said Swain. “Clare’s Program is relatively new but we’re seeing improved outcomes, especially to participants’ overall health and mindsets. We’re confident that by stabilizing the lives of our participants, and helping them to mend, we can restore them to more productive, independent lifestyles. We’ve committed to our current benefactor to find permanent funding for the program. We know that $6,000 per month is more than he can continue to spend.”

Clare’s Program serves women suffering from Developmental Trauma, which is determined by the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) study and an interview. They often, but not always, are or have been homeless. Applicants who score at least six on the ACE test are admitted to the program. Most people score between eight and ten. They live in adverse conditions, and all are poor. Absent our program, few of the participants would be able to locate or afford the services that we provide. This makes it important that the services are free.  They currently have six in the program and wish to expand to twelve.

“We are excited to provide this critical funding to Project ECHO and Claire’s Program,” said Qlarant Foundation Board Chair Lamont Thompson, DPT. “This grant will have a direct impact to improve the lives of several homeless people and hopefully lift them out of their severe circumstances. It is exactly how we want to spend our grant money.”