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About RESTART
A division of Valley Restart Shelter, Inc.
Valley Restart Shelter started in 1989 as a daytime drop-in center and a cold weather shelter. Volunteer community leaders, along with leaders from Unity Church and United Methodist Church, came to the VRS house and staffed it to help the less fortunate of the Hemet-San Jacinto area. Four years later, VRS expanded into transitional housing operations with the purchase of a house on Menlo Avenue in Hemet.
 In 1975, Valley Restart, now a public, not-for-profit California corporation, acquired our current home, the old YMCA property on Menlo and State Street in Hemet. Continuing to grow, we added apartment transitional housing in 1997 and a year later began offering a full range of services at 200 East Menlo Avenue.
Mission Statement Our mission is to provide essential services to families, adults, and children who lack basic resources to sustain themselves within our community.
The goal is to provide emergency services to help the homeless and low-income families avoid homelessness, restart lives, and to break the cycle of homelessness.
To teach… to train… to restart lives…
A Full Service Community Agency Valley Restart provides both emergency homeless services to residents of Southwest Riverside County and on-going programs to the community.
Our 24-hour facility is open every day of the year to provide housing and food to those in need. This is a working shelter. The residents help support the program with the upkeep of the facility and their work in our community recycling program. When our Thrift Store is reopened, they will assist with services there as well.
As part of our goal of helping our residents to restart their lives, Valley Restart Shelter offers a number of programs: assessment, education, information and referrals related to gaining self-sufficiency and independence. Classes in Budgeting, Life Skills, P.R.I.C.E. Parenting, Understanding Anger, Relapse Prevention, Introduction to Computers and Introduction to Culinary Skills prepare our participants for a better life.
Our Case Managers work closely with our residents to see that they set goals for themselves and then help the residents to reach those goals. Goal-setting begins during the intake process, and progress is monitored daily. Our professional counselors help with crisis intervention. Because we are a drug and alcohol-free facility, we do random observed testing. Many participants take advantage of the services offered across the street at Riverside County Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse, as well as our daily NA meetings.
As part of our goal to return our participants to the community in active, self-sufficient roles, we offer supporting transitional and permanent housing in the Hemet and San Jacinto area. Our program teaches our participants how to function in society. We encourage saving of money earned while staying at VRS so they are prepared to meet the costs associated with living in our community.
A True Community Project Valley Restart Shelter is a partnership of the public, private and religious sectors of the Inland Valley. Many local businesses support our efforts along with a myriad of government agencies: The Departments of Public Social Services, Mental Health, Corrections and Probations, City of Hemet Police Department, Riverside County Sheriffs Department, and local service organizations. There is input into operations from the San Jacinto Valley Homeless Task Force, the Human Relations Council, Riverside County Homeless Intervention Team, and the Interfaith Council.
Leaders of area churches collaborate efforts to be certain needs are met. These include providing home cooked meals each night, fund raising activities throughout the area and donations to our participants as well as to the Shelter in general.
How the Center Works Valley Restart Shelter is governed by a 14 member Board of Directors. These are members from the community at large who give of their time to oversee the VRS facility with policy and procedures. Our Advisory Boards assist and advise the Board of Directors in their deliberations.
Policies and procedures are managed through the administration and staff at VRS. In addition, community members and VRS participant volunteers assist in the day-to-day operation of Valley Restart Shelter.
While the Operations Department manages the day-to-day facility activities, Case Management works with individual members of the VRS community to develop a restart action plan for independent living. Ultimately we hope to help our participants to break the cycle of homelessness. We assist our participants through our Thrift Store in obtaining clothes for their job interviews and daily life. We provide classes in life skills including literacy and job-finding skills.
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