Texas Balance of State Continuum of Care News
January 2020
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Texas Homeless Network is the lead agency for the
Texas Balance of State Continuum of Care (TX BoS CoC)
.
The TX BoS CoC is a group of stakeholders that collaboratively plan and operate the CoC and a range of housing and services to prevent and end homelessness. The TX BoS CoC covers
215 counties
and includes 24 Local Homeless Coalitions (LHCs) that plan, deliver, and evaluate local systems.
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Complete a TX BoS CoC Strategic Planning Survey for a Chance to Win!
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Tell us the challenges that you believe should be addressed in the CoC's strategic plan by completing the
Challenge Statement Survey
.
CoC member input into the strategic plan is crucial so that the plan reflects the needs and priorities of people experiencing homelessness, homeless assistance providers, and BoS communities.
Everyone who completes a survey will be entered into a drawing for a $50 Visa gift card! Two gift cards will be awarded, so you have two chances to win. Winners will be selected during the February CoC General Meeting on February 12th. Register for the webinar
here
.
Please share the survey link with anyone who might be interested in participating. The more input received, the more representative the plan will be. Contact Mary Stahlke, CoC Manager, at
mary@thn.org
or 512-861-2180 with questions or comments.
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Be ready for Public Comment Round 2!
Even though Public Comment Round 1 ends on Friday, January 17, 2020, there are
TWO
more rounds of Public Comment. The TX BoS CoC is seeking public comment on proposed changes to Texas Balance of State Continuum of Care Coordinated Entry Written Standards. Any persons living or working in the CoC's geographic area and having an interest in preventing and ending homelessness can submit a comment.
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The TX BoS CoC has three newly created committees that are looking for people interested in lending their voice and taking a leadership position in the CoC. We encourage everyone, particularly individuals with lived experience, to apply.
1) Victim Service Provider Committee (VSPC)
The goal of the Victim Service Provider Committee (VSPC) is to coordinate, support, and strengthen the coordination between Victim Service Providers (VSP) and the TX BoS CoC homelessness response system. Victim Service Provider is defined as a private nonprofit organization whose primary mission is to provide services to victims of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, or stalking, including rape crisis centers, domestic violence shelters and housing programs, and other programs.
Complete this interest
form
.
2) Performance Evaluation Committee (PEC)
As the Texas Balance of State Continuum of Care works to increase input from members and improve the performance of our system, the Performance Evaluation Committee (PEC) will help provide input and guidance on project performance, evaluation, funding, and best practices. The TX BoS CoC is seeking individuals familiar with ESG and CoC projects as well as project funders, city and community development staff, and other stakeholders.
Complete this interest
form
.
3) Project Type Specific Data Sub-Committees: Emergency Shelter, Rapid Re-Housing, Permanent Supportive Housing,
The purpose of the Data Subcommittees is to provide data-driven insight and education to multiple groups/stakeholders about homelessness in the Texas Balance of State. One committee member from each Project Type Specific Data Sub-Committee will make up the membership of the Data Committee.
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JANUARY
How to Start a Police Homeless Outreach Team in Three Easy Steps
Tuesday 21 January 2020, 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM
- The building blocks of police homeless outreach
- How to start small and think big
- Making the leap from enforcement to outreach
- Integrating your team into coordinated entry and your local Continuum of Care
- Leveraging community partnerships to end homelessness
FEBRUARY
February 2020 General Meeting
Wednesday 12 February 2020, 02:00 PM - 03:30 PM
CoC RRH Peer Learning Webinar - February
Thursday 20 February 2020, 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM
CoC RRH projects will meet Monthly moving forward on the 3rd Thursday of each month at 10:00am to discuss best practices in RRH, review current policies and suggestions, and to discuss RRH struggles and strategies.
MARCH
*No CoC General Meeting in March
CoC RRH Peer Learning Webinar - March
Thursday 19 March 2020, 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM
CoC RRH projects will meet Monthly moving forward on the 3rd Thursday of each month at 10:00am to discuss best practices in RRH, review current policies and suggestions, and to discuss RRH struggles and strategies.
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Open Funding Opportunities
We are currently in the process of adding a new section to our website to help collect all funding opportunities made available to Texas including city, state, and federal programs.
In the meantime check out this PDF of all current available funding options
here
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Open VISTA Positions
Veterans Experiencing Homelessness Workforce Initiative
The TX BoS CoC is searching for two BoS communities to co-lead a project to connect veterans to employment. This project will work with rural and mid-sized communities (an agency or city department in the TX BoS CoC) to deploy a VISTA member in the community to build a network of volunteers who will assist veterans to gain employment and secure or maintain housing. The volunteer-based community support network will use the tools created by our VISTA members to guide their work connecting Workforce Centers with LHCs. Also, they will use community mentoring practices to support Veterans. If you are interested, please reach out to
samantha@thn.org
for more information.
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Data VISTA in Austin, TX
Want to use your expertise and passion for data to end and prevent homelessness? Through assisting with the coordination of the annual Point-in-Time and Housing Inventory Counts, analyzing quarterly performance grant data, and targeted technical assistance you can have a direct impact on the ways service providers work with data to help clients achieve housing stability.
Apply today
to be the THN Data VISTA today and work with us to make homelessness rare, brief, and non-recurring across the state of Texas!
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HHSC Rural Communities Mental Healthcare Survey
Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) would like your feedback on mental health care in rural parts of the state. By taking the
survey
, which should not take more than 5 minutes, you are helping HHSC better understand factors that impact mental healthcare in rural Texas communities. Survey responses will be analyzed and included in the comprehensive statewide analysis of mental health services that HHSC publishes on or before December 1, 2020.
This survey is a part of the implementation of Senate Bill 633, 86th Legislature, Regular Session, 2019. HHSC is calling the implementation of S.B. 633 All Texas Access. For more information about the implementation of Senate Bill 633, please visit the All Texas Access HHSC
website
or email the HHSC team at
AllTexasAccess@hhsc.state.tx.us
.
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These articles were gathered from Google Alerts and emails sent directly to us. If you have articles about your community's efforts to prevent and end homelessness that you want highlighted in our next newsletter, please email the articles to
txboscoc@thn.org.
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The following are resources TX BoS CoC Lead Agency staff have found that we believe would be beneficial to your local efforts to make homelessness rare, brief, and one-time:
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Kraig recommends -
New Housing and HIV Data Integration Toolkit
The “
Sharing and Integrating HIV Client Data Across Provider Organizations to Improve Service Coordination
” toolkit was designed to help organizations interested in sharing data across the HIV and housing sectors to improve care coordination and outcomes for people with HIV who experience housing instability. It was developed as a way to share lessons learned with others who are considering replicating similar efforts and highlights critical decision points and activities to consider in sharing data across service providers. The toolkit was produced by the RAND Corporation, with support from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program Special Projects of National Significance (SPNS) Program, HUD’s Office of HIV/AIDS Housing (OHH), and the Minority HIV/AIDS Fund.
Andrew recommends -
Integrating Persons with Lived Experiences in our Efforts to Prevent and End Homelessness
"SNAPS partnered with young people with lived experiences of homelessness to develop the Youth Homelessness Demonstration Program (YHDP), from its initial planning and ongoing through its implementation. Young people identified the key concepts that were included in the Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA), helped review project applications, and provided technical assistance to the selected sites. This partnership continues to be crucial to the success of the program, and our goal is to apply those lessons to all our work."
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Anyone who works or lives in the CoC's geographic area, and all housing and homeless services projects in the CoC's geographic area, are considered to be members of the CoC. The CoC has an open invitation process, so members may join at any time.
Share this email with anyone you think may be interested!
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CoC General Meeting Schedule
Stay informed about CoC happenings by participating in the bi-monthly webinars. Each meeting will feature a topic that is important to preventing and ending homelessness. See the
Get Involved page for dates, topics, and registration links.
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CoC Program Funding
If you are a representative of an agency that is interested in applying for United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Continuum of Care (CoC) Program funding, please contact
txboscoc@thn.org
.
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Your CoC Team
Get your questions answered and some face to face time with all of the CoC staff on the second Wednesday of every other month during the CoC General Meetings.
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The TX BoS CoC is a focus area of the Texas Homeless Network.
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See what's happening on our social sites
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