CCEH Newsletter
November 2019
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Dear Friends,
As Thanksgiving grows closer, I always find that people start asking the questions that members of our coalition ask year-round. How can we best help people on the street? How can we lend a hand to homeless youth? How can we help families struggling with homelessness?
You may have seen last week's exciting news about a new grant from Jeff Bezos’ Day One Fund that will significantly enhance our capacity to help local families struggling with homelessness. This grant is a testament to the hard work of our state’s providers to build a system to make sure that we are helping families remain housed whenever possible.
Of course, this is a big grant, but we know we need much more in the way of resources to make sure our providers have the resources they need to divert every possible family. Please make sure you consider who in your network could hold a Paddington bear-raiser drive to provide shelter diversion funds. You can reach out to Ryan Beach to order your own bear-raiser kit.
This is also the time of year when we receive inquiries from press about challenges our state faces in ending homelessness. We are already taking volunteer sign-ups for the January Point-in-Time Count and Youth Count and Outreach Project, which provide valuable data on people experiencing homelessness in our state. Please spread the word and direct people to the link below to sign up for this year’s counts.
Thank you for the work you do every day to help people remain home, and wishing all of you a wonderful Thanksgiving.
Sincerely,
Richard Cho
CEO
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CCEH receives $2.5 million grant from
Jeff Bezos’s Day One Fund
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CCEH has been selected as a Bezos Day 1 Families Fund leadership award recipient. The Day 1 Families Fund supports organizations that are moving the needle on family homelessness. We plan to use this generous investment to further support the development of Connecticut’s system for ending family homelessness and to increase the amount of diversion and rapid exit funds available. We are grateful to the Day 1 Families Fund for their support and look forward to continuing to make a positive impact for families in our community.
Stay tuned in coming weeks for more information!
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Commissioner Seila Mosquera-Bruno
hosts tour of CT’s CAN System
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On October 28, Commissioners and legislators joined Commissioner Mosquera-Bruno for a tour of Connecticut’s Coordinated Access Network system. Participants traveled to United Way’s 2-1-1 call center to learn about the system’s front door for people seeking shelter and then visited a diversion center and shelter before convening at the Legislative Office Building to discuss areas of growth for our system. CCEH extends our thanks to Commissioner Mosquera-Bruno for leading the tour and to United Way of Connecticut, Mercy Housing and Shelter, and South Park Inn for welcoming state leaders to tour their facilities.
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CT REALTORS Champion Ending
Family Homelessness
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On November 1, CT REALTORS(R) joined CCEH staff for their own tour of the CAN system to learn how funds their association raises through be homeful for the holidays helps families remain housed. The tour visited United Way’s 2-1-1 call center and then headed to New Britain to tour CHR’s diversion center and Friendship Service Center before reconvening at CCEH to discuss how we can work together to advance work to end homelessness for families.
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CCEH launches Data Quality Webpage
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CCEH is excited to announce the launch of its new Data Quality page at
cceh.org/data-quality.
This page is meant to be a ‘one-stop shop’ for providers to access key information and resources related to data quality. Currently, there are how-to guides for running an Annual Performance Report (APR) and an Annual Assessment. In addition, the HUD guidelines for the upcoming coordinated access changes in April 2020 are posted. We envision this to be a key resource that providers will visit often to get information about how to improve their data quality as well as share HMIS updates.
This is a work in progress and we welcome your feedback on how to make this a valuable resource for you.
Contact Linda Casey at
lcasey@cceh.org
with your ideas and comments.
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CCEH Participates in Council on Collateral Consequences
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CCEH is leading the Housing Subcommittee for the Committee on Collateral Consequences of a Criminal Record. The task of the subcommittee is to study the barriers that individuals with a criminal record face and make recommendations before next year’s legislative session about how to lessen and eliminate these inequities. The Council is in the process of researching the impact of a criminal record on housing and employment with hope of ensuring that individuals that are returning home to their communities are able to find housing and employment. In the coming weeks, the subcommittee will be reviewing and making recommendations to the Council the Department of Housing, private owners, and other subsidized housing on the current Connecticut policies and practices that are governing criminal history screening for housing authorities.
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Fairfield County’s Race and Equity Summit
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On October 29th, CCEH’s Tashmia Bryant served as a panelist at the Opening Doors Fairfield County (ODFC) Advancing Equity conference. The purpose of the event was to spark a system wide collective impact approach around embracing opportunities for racial equity, with specific objectives of creating a racial equity collective impact effort based on strategies for recruitment, hiring and promotion of persons of color to positions of leadership, creating and maintaining a system wide race equity culture, and identifying strategies and solutions for implementation that will create a more equitable system in regards to access to affordable housing and resources. The conference concluded with a small working group session to produce goals and action steps toward accomplishing them.
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CCEH and CAFCA Announce Collaboration
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CCEH and the Connecticut Association for Community Action (CAFCA) are joining forces to strengthen partnerships between Community Action Agencies and the Coordinated Access Networks. This is an exciting development and we look forward to announcing a webinar series designed to equip both CAN and CAFCA staff with tools for leveraging each other's strengths to address the needs of clients facing homelessness.
Stay tuned for more information in our next newsletter.
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SAMHSA Announces Grant Opportunity
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SAMHSA has announced a significant grant opportunity to reduce homelessness resulting from substance abuse. The grant could provide up to $2 million over five years. Please share the application information below with any agencies that might be interested:
SAMHSA is accepting applications for
Grants for the Benefit of Homeless Individuals (GBHI). The purpose of this program is to support the development and/or expansion of local implementation of a community infrastructure that integrates substance use disorder treatment, housing services, and other critical services for individuals (including youths) and families experiencing homelessness.
SAMHSA plans to issue 13 grants of up to $400,000 per year for up to 5 years.
Application Due Date: Monday, December 16, 2019
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Order Your Paddington "bear-raiser" Kit to Help a Local Family Remained Housed!
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Thank you to everybody who has started a drive for this year’s
be homeful for the holidays
campaign! This will be our fourth year holding this very special campaign which has raised more than $200,000 for the
be homeful
funds over the past three years and made it possible to give holiday gifts to every child in a Connecticut shelter over the past three years.
Between now and Christmas, for every $25 you donate to the
be homeful
project, we will donate an adorable Paddington™ plush, book, or baby gift to a child in a local shelter. The best part is that thanks to underwriting from our funders, all donations go directly to help local families.
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2020 Point-in-Time Count -
January 21, 2020
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Each year, hundreds of volunteers throughout Connecticut make a difference by taking part in the nation’s annual count of people experiencing homelessness. There are thousands of individuals and families in shelter at any time, and hundreds more without shelter. Only by knowing who, where, and how many people are experiencing homeless in Connecticut can we plan and identify the resources needed to best serve the most vulnerable, and ultimately move families and individuals into permanent housing.
To learn more about how to be involved, volunteer and see previous Youth Outreach and Count results visit:
www.cceh.org/pit/volunteer
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Youth Outreach and Count -
January 22-28, 2020
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The 2020 Youth Outreach and Count 2020 is taking place from January 22 to 28. This volunteer-led effort to survey young people statewide about experiences with housing will be in its fifth year in 2020. It has matured to be both an important data collection exercise and equally important community awareness and partner- building event. Ending youth homelessness requires partners and collaborators in every corner of the state! Regions of the state are currently meeting and mapping out plans to conduct the count now.
To learn more about how to be involved, volunteer and see previous Youth Outreach and Count results visit:
www.cceh.org/youth-count
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Communications Coordinator
CCEH is seeking a talented, motivated Communications Coordinator to coordinate external communications for the organization. The successful candidate will work with colleagues to shape and coordinate communications to different stakeholder groups. This position will play a critical role in supporting the organization’s messaging in the press, through marketing materials, proposals and advocacy materials, in social media, and through major flagship events including the organization’s annual conference.
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Upcoming Trainings & Events
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Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness
Connect with us
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