Urban Triage opened its doors to the community to get a look at its new transitional home for adults who aged out of foster care on Feb. 27.
The home on Madison’s North Side is an effort to address instability and lack of support for adults 18-23 who have aged out of the foster care system. Urban Triage is working in partnership with Dane County Human Services to provide temporary housing with a range of support services. Residents of the home can live in the home for up to two years, but ideally Urban Triage hopes to cycle them through within 9 months.
Urban Triage will provide services in navigating housing, trauma recovery, mental health support, obtaining vital documents like birth certificates and social security cards, education, personal finance and job readiness programs. It also has partnered with Madison College to bring students into programs to become a certified nurse assistant and phlebotomist.
The house features seven bedrooms for residents across its second and third floors along with a bedroom on its first floor for its live-in program director. Rooms are single occupancy with ample space, fresh carpeting, beds, sizeable closets and locks on bedrooms to keep each one private. The home is conveniently located near bus routes and there is a company car that can take residents back and forth to work.
It simultaneously has a rustic feel with its earthy tones throughout the house with modern touches. There is ample space throughout the house with its living room, dining room and a movie room on its second floor.
(Photos by Omar Waheed.)
The house doesn’t have an institutionalized look to it — which is far too common with typical housing assistance programs, said Brandi Grayson, Urban Triage’s CEO.
“I’m really into making sure, whether it’s our office or any space that we are in, that it feels like home and it doesn’t feel institutionalized or it should feel safe,” Grayson said. “It should feel like a place you can value.”
To capture the feeling, Urban Triage said it’s all about hiring the right people. It brought in a designer that Grayson knows can complete its vision from previous projects. The designer picked everything from dishes to the color of the walls and art hung throughout the house.
But it’s not just a place to sleep. Every day of the week residents will be embroiled in its programs to prepare them for life after the transitional home.
“You can’t just come in here and sleep and live,” said Jenise Judon, Urban Triage’s director of programming. “Every day there’ll be some type of structured activity that’s setting you up for success. So there’s no just sleeping in till 12 o’clock. You gotta get up. We got something to do.”
While the home is intended to set up residents for future success, it still wants to create a comfortable environment. It plans to have two family-style meals — one breakfast and dinner — twice a week. Urban Triage hopes to recreate a communal environment that has been lost, Judon said.
The first resident will potentially move in today. Other applications are still being processed and reviewed. Currently, the four bedrooms on the second floor are completed. Third-floor bedrooms are planned to be completed sometime between summer and fall.
