Most weekdays around noon, Safe Harbor, West Chetser’s homeless shelter on S. Matlack Street, opens its doors and begins distributing brown bag lunches. Some of the meals go to residents who have popped back for a midday meal but really, they are available to anyone in the community who wants one. The lunches are donated by the 10s and 20s by church groups and neighbors. This public-facing community program unites volunteers, residents, and neighbors and seems to epitomize the role new Executive Director Jessica Chappell would like to see the shelter play.
“Safe Harbor fell off the map,” she said of the years since COVID hit. Jessica began in June. Former director Judy Jeffords-Homitz stepped down in January after leading the organization through COVID. From the start, Jessica has looked to shed that locked-down image. She has been busy meeting with other nonprofit leaders looking to build “collaborative relationships” with her peers. She also brings a very different perspective. Jessica has little nonprofit experience but a master’s degree in clinical psychology from West Chester University and a background in behavioral health.
“I sold myself on my transferable skills,” she said with a laugh.
Among those must be the ability “to build and lead a team.” Over the last six months, Jessica has hired a new case manager, a new volunteer manager, and a new director of development. “We’re powered up,” she said
Powered up, they are. There is an energy among the staff and Jessica sees this as a chance for growth, not only in staff but in mission. “I think this is an opportunity to impact poverty and homelessness in Chester County,” she said – and she has a three-point plan to do it.
Upgraded operations. Her first goal, asfor any good executive, was operational – modernizing aging systems and adding new operational protocols.
Improved case management capabilities. Indira Venero, who joined in May, will be a big part of that. Indira, Safe Harbors’ second case worker, will handle the women residents, freeing up resident case manager Gerome Gray to focus on the men. Jessica’s also working to train the whole staff to be ‘trauma-informed,’ an emerging healthcare practice that advocates taking in the entirety of a person’s life situation. “It’s like peeling an onion. It’s layer after layer of chronic trauma,” said Jessica of residents who seek shelter for all kinds of reasons from mental health to drug dependency to unaccepting parents or an abusive relationship.
And in her ideal world, case management does not end with the securing of permanent lodging. Jessica would like to see a “discharge success program” where caseworkers are on hand to help make sure the transition to full-time housing is successful. Sometimes something as small as a missed bill payment can put you right back on the path to eviction, said Jessica.
New day programming. Her third goal is even more ambitious. Currently, all residents are expected out of the shelter by 7:30 a.m. It’s an old rule, likely from another era when the thought was that those without employment should be out “pounding the pavement.” Not a common strategy of the digital age. Today most residents without places to go hang out in Borough parks or disperse to the downtown streets, according to Jessica. She would like to see that change.
She would like to see the shelter remain open to offer classes, job training or even provide complimentary spa treatments. “Anything to enrich,” she said.
She hopes her plans will bring success to current residents and open up more beds to those in need but she also knows it will never be enough but, then again, that’s why there’s Safe Harbor.
“There is always going to be chronic homelessness,” she said. “But we are always going to be here too.”
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With 40 beds, Safe Harbor is Chester County’s largest homeless shelter. Its $1.168 million operational budget is nearly entirely reliant on donations – and I mean individual donations. Each year they essentially build the budget anew. No easy task and one that’s only gotten harder. From 2021 to 2022, Safe Harbor saw a $200,000 decrease in donations or more than a 10 percent drop. Jessica is hoping to change that.
“The ask,” she said, “is we are here and we want to do good things.”
You can make a donation here.
Originally published, Nov. 17, 2023
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