Library & Tools

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.

The CARES Act included additional Emergency Solutions Grants (ESG) funding for communities. There is an opportunity for ESG recipients and Continuums of Care (CoCs) to use some of this funding to support dedicated SOAR case workers.

When employers recognize the value of SOAR case workers and coordinators by offering them equitable salaries, the benefits go beyond the individual case worker.

The Social Security Administration now offers a video option for Administrative Law Judge appeal hearings.

Highlighted below are some of the ways peers from around the country have incorporated their lived expertise into their SOAR work.

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 and housing goals through the GPD Program. 

State and Local Leads spearhead and coordinate the implementation of SOAR initiatives. These leaders identify and engage stakeholders to participate in steering committees whose goal is to create and implement a SOAR action plan and process for adult SSI/SSDI and/or child SSI application submission. These committees meet regularly to collaborate, report on progress, and troubleshoot challenges.

This toolkit will help you to develop a SOAR referral process for your community or agency that helps ensure that potentially eligible individuals are connected with SOAR-trained providers who are available to assist.