Homelessness affects the entire family; we work with adults and children.

We believe that families need individualized plans for long-term success. First and foremost, they are homeless and their priority is securing permanent housing. But, they have individual issues, needs and barriers to address so that once they find permanent housing; they will be able to keep it. We help each family to identify their specific needs, goals and work with the residents to break down the steps needed to meet their goals.

Services offered at Dakota Woodlands

Services for adults...

• Support, listening and caring. 
• Recognizing the families many strengths and successes. 

• Helping to seek out job opportunities, fill out job applications, follow up on leads, practice interviewing and address personal barriers.

• A responsible renter series…R.E.N.T (Raising Expectations for Next Time) The curriculum includes: Finding a Place to Live, Rental Application Process and Rental Agreements,  Home Care and Healthy Home Issues Budgeting and Financial Education.

• On-site GED preparation

• Parenting Education,

• Addressing health related issues
• Helping residents to develop healthy relationships, feeling good about yourself despite your circumstances, dealing with shame and guilt, taking care of yourself, and setting goals. 
• We assess independent living skills and help residents plan for living on their own. Some residents have never lived on their own and need a lot of individual skill building, support and counseling. We assist families with improving their skills in nutrition, cooking, cleaning, parenting, time management, building support systems and accessing resources.

Services for children...

From babies to teens we address their needs. We provide daily childcare and regularly scheduled opportunities to teach little children basic skills. Often, the young children here have never been away from their parents. Many haven’t learned the skills that other young children learn about separating from their moms and knowing she’ll be back. They often haven’t learned pre-school skills such as sharing, helping to clean-up, accomplishing tasks with other children, learning about friendships and simply playing with others. 

We help children to get enrolled in special education pre-school services, Head Start and other services.

We have incorporated “Drop Everything and Read” as a regular part of living and working at Dakota Woodlands.  Periodically, the education coordinator declares it is now time to “drop everything, everyone and read.” It is a great way to role model reading enjoyment. We give away books and magazines to everyone and celebrate the importance of reading.  It is a simple educational opportunity that we all share. We also have activity packets to share reading games and dramatics with little kids.

School aged children have unique needs. Dakota Woodlands has a part time education coordinator who provides important educational services for school-aged children. Due to developmental issues and constant mobility, many of the children have had poor school attendance and performance. With eleven school districts in our county, our education coordinator has become an expert to access educational information and resources for children/families from many schools in a diverse county. 

• We provide at least one new school outfit, athletic shoes, other school clothing needs, complete school supplies, school fees, pay for school pictures and yearbooks.  We help them get to school events after school, evenings, and weekends.  We know that some of these things are available at schools but we want to assist our families in having one less way to need to ask for help, one less time that they have to disclose that they are struggling.  We want them to feel like they are on equal footing with their classmates. 
• After school and during the evenings, we have specific services for school-aged children.  We provide opportunities for children to tell their story to a concerned adult. We help children to realize they are not alone. It is important for children to set goals, dream, and achieve success. 

• Tutoring and homework help is provided each afternoon and evening. Tutoring has been so successful at Dakota Woodlands to help the children to excel academically.

• We assist children and their families to attend school related events and activities. We bring families to School Dances, Carnivals, Dairy Queen Nights, Science Fairs, Book Fairs, Choir and Band Concerts, Sports, Plays etc. These activities help children and families to feel a sense of community connection and less isolation. It also provides an opportunity for families to see the classroom teachers and other classmates outside of school time. 
• We have many supportive groups and activities to address children’s needs.