Gateway Center works to end homelessness in Metro Atlanta through therapeutic programs and community collaboration. Located at 275 Pryor Street in Atlanta, Georgia, the Gateway Center is a keystone project of the Regional Commission on Homelessness’ effort to impact chronic homelessness. The Gateway Center is designed to serve as the “gateway” to the community continuum of care that helps individuals move out of homelessness. GWC provides over 330 places for men who enter into programs geared to address the underlying reasons for their homelessness, such as unemployment, addictions, mental illness or domestic abuse. We strive to provide a supportive and compassionate setting where individuals can receive the tools they need to end their homelessness and achieve self-sufficiency.
Mission
Gateway Center works to end homelessness, and particularly chronic homelessness, by providing the support and framework people need to achieve self-sufficiency. Through therapeutic programs and services, Gateway helps homeless individuals in metro Atlanta move into transitional and permanent housing.
The core mission of the Gateway Center is to provide a supportive and compassionate setting where individuals can receive the tools, programs, and services they need to end their homelessness.
Vision
The Board, staff, partners, and volunteers of the Gateway Center are committed to ending homelessness in metro Atlanta through partnerships with like-minded individuals, service agencies, and business, civic, academic and faith-community leaders.
Philosophy
The Gateway Center philosophy rests on the guiding principle that homeless individuals can ultimately achieve permanent housing through their own dedicated efforts combined with a collaborative process built on a foundation of support from a skilled staff, intensive case management, and trained volunteers.
Gateway Center clients commit to programs designed to meet their individual needs – such as mental health support, substance abuse counseling, sustaining employment, or job-readiness and training. Everyone is required to set goals and demonstrate progress towards those goals in order to remain at Gateway.
Values
Our successful track record is rooted in the unwavering commitment of the Gateway Board, staff, volunteers, and partners to our founding principles:
- The worth and dignity of every person in our community
- The inherent value of providers, partners, volunteers, donors, and staff
- Hospitality
- Self-determination
- Respect
- Integrity
- Spirituality
- Accountability and transparency
- Efficient use of resources
- Approaching solutions with an objective and open point of view
- Achieving measurable, lasting impact
History
In 2002 Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin asked the United Way of Metropolitan Atlanta to study the issue of homelessness in the city, and provide recommendations on how to make substantive progress in moving chronically homeless individuals into permanent housing. The result was a Blueprint to End Homelessness in Atlanta in Ten Years.
A major Blueprint recommendation was to establish a central point of care in metro Atlanta to meet the needs of the homeless in a systematic and supportive manner. To that end, the *Commission oversaw the development of the Gateway Center, a self-managed 501(c)(3) organization that opened in 2005 as the primary portal in a continuum of care for metro Atlanta’s *chronically homeless individuals.
The United Way Regional Commission on Homelessness remains the core partner of the Gateway Center, which is one of the largest providers of homeless services in the Southeast and has been recognized as a national best practice in the area of community collaboration.
For more information on the United Way Regional Commission on Homelessness, please visit their site: United Way Atlanta – Homelessness.
*The United Way Regional Commission on Homelessness is a collective effort of the City of Atlanta and 7 metro counties to end chronic homelessness in metro Atlanta.
*A chronically homelessness individual is defined as a person with a disability who has either been homeless for more than a year, or has had at least 4 episodes of homelessness in the past 3 years. The disability that results in homelessness may be mental, physical, or addiction-related.
Location
Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Website
