A letter from Lisa
Tepper Bates
Dear Colleagues,
It's a challenging time in Connecticut, but we have reason to be optimistic about our work to end homelessness. We know that many of our colleagues in social services are struggling with severe proposed budget cuts. We know that more resources are needed to end homelessness once and for all in Connecticut, but we also know that the Governor's budget proposal largely honors his commitment to stay the course and continue to invest in ending homelessness. Please do your part to support commitment of these resources by participating in this week's 2015 Homelessness and Housing Advocacy Days (information below).
At the same time, and despite continuing resource challenges, providers are coming together to continue to build their teamwork and cooperation to use every resource we have as effectively as we can to end homelessness. Providers across the state launched 100-day efforts to challenge themselves to find new and better ways to work together and accelerate their efforts.
There is no magic solution, and no one-size fits all answer - but we know that drawing on the wisdom of our smart and talented front-line colleagues, we can find ways to expedite and improve our efforts to help the people in urgent need whom we serve. Congratulations to these colleagues for taking up the challenge!
Many thanks to each and every one of you, for all you do every day.
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Advocacy Dates April 1 & 2 at LOB
Wednesday, April 1 & Thursday, April 2, 9 a.m. - 2 p.m.
CCEH and the Partnership for Strong Communities are excited to host the 2015 Homelessness and Housing Advocacy Days on April 1 and April 2 at the State Capitol.
Homelessness and Housing Advocacy Days are an important opportunity for community providers and housing advocates to unite, and tell elected officials, about the important work being done to end homelessness across the state. Please use the below webinars in your planning efforts:
For more information, contact Sarah Fox ([email protected]) or Elizabeth Grim ([email protected])
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100-Day Efforts Launch Across Connecticut
On March 9 and 10, teams from Coordinated Access Networks (CANs) across the state converged in Hartford for two days of planning and preparation with the Rapid Results Institute to launch 100-day efforts!
The goal of these efforts - to accelerate work in each community to end homelessness, on person or family at a time. Lieutenant Governor Nancy Wyman, Commissioner of Housing Evonne Klein, and USICH Regional Coordinator Bob Pulster all participated to show their support (and blogged about the effort for USCIH).
Here are the goals the teams developed:
- Northeastern CT CAN: Lease up to 40 of the highest priority chronically homeless individuals on our list by June 16th, 2015
- Greater Hartford CAN: Lease-up at least 100 of the highest-priority households by June 16th, 2015.
- Fairfield County CAN/Individuals Team: Over the next 100 days ensure that time between assessment and allocation of resources for Individuals scoring 0-9 is no more than 10 days
- Fairfield County CAN/Families Team: By June 16th, we will eliminate the shelter waitlist for families through a combination of diversion and housing 100 families
- Southeastern CT CAN: House at least 75 of the highest priority individuals over the next 100 days
Many thanks to these colleagues for their investment of time and effort in innovating to create systems change in their communities through this effort! We look forward to hearing more from them about the process and results.
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Register now for CCEH's 13th Annual Training Institute
Registration is now open for the Annual Training Institute, CCEH's annual conference. The event will feature 18 workshops on topics such as Rapid Re-housing, using the VI-SPDAT and coordinated exit, plus a special conference within a conference on homeless youth. Iain DeJong of Org Code, creator of the VI-SPDAT, will present the keynote and 3 workshop sessions. Cost is $80 for CCEH members and $100 for non-members until May 1. After May 1, cost is $100 for members and $120 for non-members. Full details and registration link can be found here.
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Don't miss Motivational Interviewing Training
CCEH is in the midst of its popular motivational interviewing training series. Motivational interviewing is a person-centered technique for strengthening an individual's own motivation and commitment to change. This full-day training is designed to teach staff effective use of basic and advanced strategies of motivational interviewing. Participants will be taught how to apply these strategies to their day-to-day work, through the use of role plays, demonstrations and other experiential activities.
Participants can still register for the sessions on April 8 in Waterbury, April 13 and 20 in Hartford, April 27 in New Haven, and April 28 and May 4 in Bridgeport.
Registration links and full details here.
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Save the Date: Meeting the Needs of Young Children in Emergency Shelters
Please save the morning of June 16 for an important training session with Grace Whitney of the Head Start State Collaborative on meeting the needs of young children in emergency shelters. Grace will talk about the use of her self-assessment tool for family shelters and how to use the tool to improve services provided to young children. More information on this session coming soon.
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Get involved in the be homeful effort to end family homelessness in Connecticut
Calling all shelter executive directors, development staff, and other people passionate about ending family homelessness in Connecticut! Do you want to help be part of the team that puts Paddington to work to end family homelessness in Connecticut?
CCEH is recruiting a virtual steering committee of representatives for the Paddington Bear /be homeful project to end family homelessness. Contact Madeline Ravich at [email protected] or 773-339-3600 if you'd like to get involved.
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HUD Guidance on Transgender Individuals in Emergency Shelter
In February, 2015, HUD issued Guidance on Placement of Transgender Individuals in Emergency Shelterto recipients and subrecipients that place eligible persons in single-sex emergency shelters or other facilities receiving Emergency Solutions Grants (ESG), Continuum of Care (CoC) or Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS (HOPWA) funds. Facilities should place potential clients (or current clients seeking a new assignment) in a shelter or facility that corresponds to the gender with which the person identifies, taking health and safety concerns into consideration. The notice also provides guidance on appropriate inquiries related to a potential client's sex for purposes of placement in facilities with shared sleeping areas or bathrooms. CCEH will offer training on working with Transgender clients to emergency shelters and frontline case managers on a regional basis and at the Annual Training Institute May 14.
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The Office of Governor Malloy's Nonprofit Liaison, Terry Edelstein, communicates directly with nonprofit health and human services providers and advises the Governor with regard to policy initiatives and other measures to strengthen the partnership between nonprofits and the state. To help nonprofits access the most useful and current information with regard to state funds and policies, the Nonprofit Liaison issued in March the first edition of a CT Non-Profit Toolkit, a compilation of some of the information most frequently requested of her office. The Toolkit includes helpful information on state bond, grant, and contract opportunities, eligible uses of funding, agency points-of-contact for these programs, and other helpful information.
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RFP: Projects for the Assistance in Transition for Homelessness (PATH)
The State of Connecticut, Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services is seeking proposals to provide street and shelter outreach services in Connecticut for people who are suffering from serious mental illness; or are suffering from serious mental illness and from substance abuse; and are homeless or at imminent risk of becoming homeless.
The Projects for the Assistance in Transition for Homelessness (PATH) program is funded by the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)
Read the full RFP here.
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