In depth

 COTS’ KEY PRINCIPLES AND VALUES

In 2002, we asked ourselves this: how much more could we accomplish in years to come, if only we had the time and resources to undertake a focused, professional evaluation of motivations, processes, and measurements, to enable us to move to a higher level of effectiveness?  And how much more effective could other agencies become, if we were able to share with them what we learn in this evaluation?  Read more...

INTEGRAL THEORY
Integral theory guides COTS’ use of a substantial body of research, including a large-scale study on the relationship between adverse childhood experiences (ACE) and adult health and well-being conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Kaiser Permanente.

The ACE Study demonstrates a compelling relationship between childhood trauma and adult risk behaviors. Other research also implicates ACEs as a root cause of serious social problems such as homelessness and criminal behavior.  Integral theory supports integration of the ACE research with research on resiliency, which explains why some people bounce back from adversity, trauma and tragedy. Read more...

 

INTEGRITY HOUSES
Program Concept: self-managed, clean and sober, shared housing for single homeless adults. We gratefully acknowledge the pioneering work of Oxford House on which we base Integrity Houses.

A dear friend of COTS, a major donor, provided us with substantial funding for our program development, evaluation, training and export ("PDETE") project.  We did an in-depth review of 30 "best practices" for helping rebuild shattered lives and refined that, applying our own wisdom. Read more...