Clifton Sanctuary Ministries

When you live on the streets or are living on the edge of homelessness, proper vision screenings are the last of your  worries.  Thanks to a marvelous program of Emory University, “Unite for Sight”, in collaboration with Georgia Lighthouse Foundation, the men of Clifton are receiving vision screenings and prescription glasses, if needed.

Jonathan Lin, VP for Unite For Sight and Tiffany Ellerbee, our representative from the Georgia Lighthouse Foundation have facilitated Clifton’s participation in this program. Unite For Sight students/volunteers come to Clifton and conduct the vision screenings. They provide vision testing monitors and conduct individual examinations on each guest. Once the examinations are complete, our healthcare case manager, Brenda Gales, delivers the results and paperwork to the Georgia Lighthouse Foundation. They then process the applications and contact those guests who meet the requirements for prescription glasses.

This program has been tremendously successful and there has been such a large demand for the program services that the process of getting a referral for professional fittings takes about 4-6 weeks. It is not unusual for the guest being served by Unite For Sight to have left Clifton by the time the appointment for their glasses fitting becomes available. Guests provide additional contact information when making application for services and they are encouraged to contact the foundation for follow up. This is another opportunity for us to educate the guests about taking charge of their own health – if they don’t follow up, they lose the opportunity to have glasses.

Additionally, The Lighthouse Foundation also provides a variety of strengths and styles of reading glasses.  And being that the average age of a Clifton guest is 49 years old, those reading glasses surely come in handy for our guests.

We hope to expand our partnership to other agencies which would increae the number of sites where homeless individuals can obtain vision screenings. This program is yearning for additional collaborative partners to increase the number of sites where individuals who are homeless can receive this very needed service.

One of the goals of the Clifton Board of Directors for the past several years has been to implement a permanent housing program.  Recently, with the help of federal funding received through the “Federal Stimulus Plan” this dream has become a reality.  Clifton Living – kind of like Southern Living – has recently placed three men in their own homes.  The program works like this….to qualify for this program, a guest must have income that meets established federal guidelines (not too much, not too little).  An apartment is rented with the guest, along with Clifton, as the lessee.  Clifton Living pays the rent and utilities for a three to six month period of time.  During this time, the guest is expected to participate in all Clifton programs and at the end of the three to six months, Clifton’s name will come off the lease and the guest will have their own home!

In order to accomplish the goals of this program, we have hired Mayme Grant as our Clifton Living Case Manager.  Mayme’s responsibilities are to find apartments that are safe and affordable, qualify the guests into the program, and assist them in budgeting and other skills needed for independent living.

Congratulations to Robin, Mackie, and Quinn, and David for being accepted into the Clifton Living program and we look forward to hearing great things from you all in the future.