All my experiences with DIAL/SELF staff were immensely helpful and I would highly recommend their services to youth struggling with housing. Thanks to their services, I moved into Orange Teen Housing and am now living independently in an area I love with parks, restaurants, a growing music scene, medical offices, and a reliable transportation center.
I’ve found all DIAL/SELF staff I’ve interacted with to be responsive, encouraging, and knowledgeable. I first reached out to the organization in 2017 in search of housing and I soon learned about the Teen Housing programs in my very first meeting with DIAL/SELF staff. The main solution to homelessness is housing and DIAL/SELF addresses this by managing several buildings to house at risk youth. These programs transition youth from a day-to-day struggle to secure shelter with a locking door until they either age out at 25-years-old or find long-term housing elsewhere. Having our own spaces allows us crucial reflection time to decide what we want in life and to seek it out. It’s much easier to make important decisions about school, careers, and growth as individuals when you’re not struggling to keep yourself safe, fed and clean.
These programs also offer resources like food banks, transportation fee assistance, list of medical centers with sliding scale copays and fees, and knowledge of assistance programs like SSI, EAEDC, RAFT, Section 8 and SNAP. I lived in the Orange Teen Housing program (owned and operated by the HRA of Franklin County unlike the other Teen Housing buildings) from the start of the pandemic to summer 2021 and couldn’t be more grateful for both the housing itself and the guidance from DIAL/SELF staff that helped me complete my application. I was fortunate in that my counselor answered my questions promptly, offered a listening ear, and encouraged me to finish and submit my application on schedule.
I recommend reaching out to DIAL/SELF if you’re in need of immediate housing including shelters as soon as possible. Good luck!
~ Recent OTH Youth 2021
When you work with Dial/Self I want you to really think about the name Dial/self and what that means? When you come to this program and meet these staff members, doors open up for you. And you get a chance to be a part of an honest hard working community. You get to work with people who genuinely care and want to help in any way they can. You just have to be ready to grow. Grow into the person you want to be. Know what it is you want for yourself when you enter this program or at least have honest reachable goals for yourself.
Working with the HRA, Think of them as your new best friends that you will be working with and sharing info with for as long as you live in OTH. Same goes with the Dial/self staff. I can’t express how important it is to make sure you are on top of all of your paperwork and info with the HRA. HRA works with so many different people on a day to day basis, which means they won't always be on top of everything. SAVE anything they send you through mail or email, and same with the things you send them. Keeping track of your interactions with the HRA is very important. And never be afraid to speak up for yourself!
~ Recent OTH and TFTH Youth 2021