COTS

Creating Opportunities To Succeed: Breaking the cycle of poverty for the next generation and beyond.

For 40 years, COTS has been committed to serving the most vulnerable members of the Detroit community by providing emergency shelter, affordable housing, and more. Established in 1982, COTS is on a mission to create opportunities for families who are overcoming poverty to collaborate, thrive, and succeed in building strong and stable households, neighborhoods, and communities. 

COTS provides housing and support to nearly 1,000 people daily —and more than 60 percent of those served are children. Our Programs include family-only emergency shelter for families; supportive housing with assistance for addiction, disability, or illness; affordable housing; as well as children’s services such as learning labs to support academic success, drop-in child care to help working parents, and child development services for families experiencing homelessness. 

With the realization of poverty as the driver of homelessness and our need to address it came our theory of change for disrupting generational poverty. In 2015, COTS established a framework to support families in building stabilized environments to create a multi-generational impact and ultimately break the cycle of poverty for the next generation and beyond. This innovative approach is called Passport to Self-Sufficiency™. 

COTS Passport to Self-Sufficiency™ (PTS) assists families in reaching their housing, economic, health, education, and career goals through coaching, mentorship, and support, as they overcome homelessness and break the poverty cycle for the next generation — and beyond. ­ This trauma-informed, research-based, transformative, whole-family approach is designed to create poverty-resistant families and is the overarching framework for all of our work and all of our programs and services are provided within the framework of this theory of change. COTS uses a whole-family approach, providing mobility coaching not only to parents but also to their children.

We provide services through a network of partnerships aimed at building healthy relationships, which support the mutual growth and development of the whole family, while also supporting families in meeting their basic needs, as well as their households’ needs. Partners are critical to these services and are the heart and soul of all that we do.

 "Just as ripples spread out when a single pebble is dropped into water, the actions of individuals can have far-reaching effects.” – Dalai Lama 

Everyone plays a part in the success of children in our communities. Consider partnering with COTS as we partner with families on their journey to stability and self-sufficiency.  Visit us at cotsdetroit.org to learn more or to make a gift today. Together, we can help to break the cycle of poverty for families and “Create Opportunities To Succeed!”