Library & Tools

Here are some tips you should consider as you look towards supplementing your SOAR funding with crowd funding. 

Connecting Veterans with Social Security Administration (SSA) disability benefits is a critical step to increasing income stability for Veterans and their families, particularly for those Veterans whose work activity is limited by disabling conditions. The SOAR model helps individuals obtain SSA disability benefits while they are pursuing their vocational goals through the HVRP Program.

Projects for Assistance in Transition from Homelessness (PATH) and SOAR are two key programs administered by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) that work together to end homelessness. Both programs serve adults who have serious mental illnesses and/or co-occurring substance use disorders who are experiencing or at risk for homelessness and assist them in gaining income and housing stability.

The Youth Homelessness Demonstration Program (YHDP) is an exciting funding opportunity from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for communities to design and implement a plan to prevent and end youth homelessness.

SOAR programs across the nation are looking for attention-getting ways to communicate with government officials, community providers, potential volunteers, and funders about the work SOAR is doing to help people who are experiencing or at risk of homelessness access Social Security benefits. Most of these stakeholders will look online to find information about your program.

SOAR programs can be funded through a variety of sources, including foundations, private donors, and businesses operating in your communities. 

Is your agency looking to hire a SOAR Benefits Specialist?  Take a look at this Sample Job Description!

The SAMHSA SOAR TA Center has created a toolkit to provide helpful suggestions and key considerations when hiring and supervising SOAR case workers.

This toolkit, updated and re-released in August 2019, contains extensive resources on how to integrate the SOAR model into community planning efforts, for serving both Veterans and non-Veterans.

This article explains how you can promote SOAR with your Social Security Administration (SSA) Office of Hearings Operations (OHO) office to help ease their backlog and workload issues, while at the same time, improving access to expedited decisions for SOAR applicants.