Ending Homelessness Today — Conferences and Events
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Give Homeless People a Voice on Capitol Hill
May 23, 2013
It’s that time of the year again! And no, we’re not just talking about Memorial Day parades, barbeques, and beach trips. The Alliance’s National Conference on Ending Homelessness, which is held in Washington, DC every July, is quickly approaching! Each year in conjunction with the conference, the Alliance hosts Capitol Hill Day, which provides a unique opportunity for conference participants to meet with members of Congress and their staff while in our nation’s capital. This year, Capitol Hill Day will take place on the afternoon of Wednesday, July 24.
Capitol Hill Day allows conference participants to impact federal policy by sharing their on-the-ground experiences working to end homelessness, as well as best practices they have learned about at the conference, with their congressional offices. Policymakers have many issues vying for their attention. So, the goals of Capitol Hill Day are to convince them to make ending homelessness a federal priority, educate them about smart policy solutions, and encourage them to take specific next steps to support these solutions. These face-to-face meetings are highly effective advocacy forums, as they help members of Congress feel more connected to the issue of homelessness in their districts.
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Early Registration Closing Soon!
May 20, 2013
If you have been following previous conference blogs, the Alliance newsletter, and other Alliance social media, you know that the 2013 National Conference on Ending Homelessness will be here before we know it!
As the conference is quickly approaching, the early registration deadline is as well. If you have not yet registered, you can save significantly by taking advantage of the early registration option. The deadline for early online registration is 3 p.m. ET on Wednesday, May 22. If you are registering by mail, your form must be postmarked on or before Wednesday, May 22. To register early, and for more information on deadlines and registration rates, visit the conference registration page.
There is much in store for this year’s conference, which will be held at the Renaissance Washington DC Hotel July 22 to 24 in Washington, DC. You can learn all about what’s happening at the conference by visiting the conference website where you will find conference session descriptions, the various workshops tracks offered, and other various exciting events we have in store for attendees.
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The First ever Funders Institute: Harnessing Potential, Powering Change
May 16, 2013
Last year I was with a group of funders from all across the U.S. doing a ‘tour’ of Skid Row in Los Angeles. The group was being led by two residents, Jim and Ed – men who were formerly homeless but were now living in permanent supportive housing in the area. They spoke of their journeys, from life on the mean streets to lives of safety, dignity and permanence in their own homes.
As we walked down the street, lined with people asleep on the sidewalk, pushing shopping carts or sitting on curbs, one of the members of our troop asked our escorts about food. “Do people living on the streets get enough to eat?” she wanted to know. “What’s being done about feeding people?”
There was laughter from both men and they stopped and turned to us. “Enough to eat?” asked Jim. “We get so much food we don’t know what to do with it. Every community group, ladies group and faith group brings food to Skid Row. We don’t need more food – what people need here are homes.”
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2013 National Conference Update: Workshop Tracks
May 13, 2013
We have a little more than two months to go before our next National Conference here in DC. Two months seems a long time at this point, but putting these conferences together is a huge undertaking and we’re all very aware at how quickly the conference can sneak up on us. So we’re already busy preparing the 80 workshops for the two-day event. (I’m currently in the middle of lining up speakers for my two communications workshops, which I’m very excited about.)
While the workshops themselves are still far from finished, we have nailed down their titles, which you can find on the Alliance website, and we’ve managed to put together all but one of the conference tracks. Workshop tracks are designed to guide participants who are interested in a given topic through a progressive set of workshops. Each workshop in a track will build on the previous one, resulting, we hope, in a complete as possible picture of that issue.
Here’s a quick look at the tracks we have planned. Please bear in mind that these are very brief descriptions. With 80 workshops, it would be crazy to try to cover everything in a single blog post. You can find a full list of the comprehensive descriptions and their corresponding workshops on the Alliance website. For now, this should give you a taste of what you can expect to see in July.
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Alliance President Keynote Remarks, 2013 National Family and Youth Conference
May 10, 2013
Back in February, about 900 advocates, practitioners, and officials convened in Seattle for two days of sharing innovative practices and new research on family and youth homelessness at the Alliance’s 2013 National Conference on Ending Family and Youth Homelessness. These are the keynote remarks delivered by the Alliance's President and CEO Nan Roman at that conference.
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We’re Screening a Movie at our DC Conference
April 04, 2013
This is turning out to be quite a busy week at the Alliance. We’re currently preparing for the release of our State of Homelessness 2013 report this Tuesday, April 9, which will involve a press conference that morning and webinar that afternoon for advocates and stakeholders. You should register, if you’d like to hear about the data in the report as well as ways to act on the information through media engagement and advocacy efforts.
But we’re also putting together our next National Conference on Ending Homelessness. It’s happening on Monday July 22 through Wednesday July 24 at The Renaissance Washington DC Hotel in Washington, DC. Already, we’re at work on roughly 80 workshops covering veteran homelessness, youth homelessness, chronic homelessness, homelessness advocacy, Continuums of Care, rapid re-housing, and more.
This February, we had to close registration early for our Family and Youth conference because so many people registered for it so quickly, and we had to set up a wait-list for those who weren’t able to register in time. Obviously, we’re pleased with the huge response, and we want everyone who wants to attend to be able to, but we can only accommodate so many people.
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The Alliance is in Seattle!
February 19, 2013
The Alliance DC headquarters is empty, or nearly so. Right now, on the floor where I work, there are only two other members of staff besides me, and they will be leaving soon too. Many of the Alliance staff are already in Seattle, and I will be joining them early tomorrow morning to help with our 2013 National Conference on Ending Family and Youth Homelessness. It will be my second conference with the Alliance, and I’m very excited to meet everyone (and very excited to see Seattle for the first time).
I’d just like to remind everyone who may want to get a hold of Alliance staff during the conference that, since the Alliance staff will be working remotely on Thursday, February 21, and Friday, February 22, we will have limited access to our email and phone lines. During the conference, we will be checking email and voicemail periodically, but we will likely be extremely busy and may be unable to get back to you until after the conference is over (but we WILL get back to you, so please leave a voicemail, if you call).
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Conference Reminder: Reception Deadline Approaching
January 25, 2013
In less than a month, roughly 900 folks will convene in Seattle for the Alliance’s 2013 National Conference on Ending Family and Youth Homelessness. With record registration numbers (for the first time ever, capacity constraints forced us to close registration early) we at the Alliance are thrilled to see so many motivated advocates join together to make change happen!
For those of us who work in the homeless assistance field, networking is extremely important. It allows us to further collaborations and share strategies and solutions. With that in mind, I’d like to take this opportunity to encourage those of you who will be attending the conference to join us at the Alliance’s special reception on Thursday evening, February 21.
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Conference Update: Registration Closes
January 17, 2013
The 2013 National Conference on Ending Family and Youth Homelessness is only about a month away, and Alliance staff are working diligently to put together panelists and activities. We can’t wait to meet the 900 of you folks who have registered to join us in Seattle, WA, for two packed days of sharing new practices, education, networking, and new and improved approaches for ending family and youth homelessness!
With the date of the conference rapidly approaching, a lot of the details are coming together and there’s a lot of new and important information about registration, schedules, workshops and speakers. Here’s the latest.
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Save Money. Register Early!
December 10, 2012
The Alliance’s 2013 National Conference on Ending Family and Youth Homelessness is right around the corner, and we at the Alliance couldn’t be more excited about it. We can’t wait to see you in Seattle for what’s sure to be another successful and productive event!
The deadline for early registration is fast approaching. If you haven’t registered yet, you should do so as soon as possible as you don’t want to let this great opportunity for significant savings sneak by you.
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Sleepless in Seattle (Because There’s So Much to See)
November 27, 2012
Recently, I had the privilege of visiting Seattle, the city that will be playing host to the Alliance’s more than 800 attendees during our 2013 National Conference on Ending Family and Youth Homelessness this February. As the Alliance’s Director of Meetings and Events, I always visit the host venue for each of our conferences two to three months in advance to get a feel for the space as it relates to our conference schedule, and to choose conference menus and get a general lay of the land.
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A Senator Stops By
November 01, 2012
Today's guest blog post was contributed by Erin Bock, assistant director of the Metro Area Continuum of Care for the Homeless of Omaha, Neb.
At my most recent visit to Nebraska Senator Mike Johanns’ Office on Capitol Hill Day, I was gearing up to make a request. Over the last couple of years, I hadn’t had much luck. So you can imagine my surprise when he said “yes” to my request that he come and see the great work being done at a homeless service provider within the Continuum of Care (CoC) in Omaha, Neb.
From there, it was easy. Senator Johanns had signed into law significant behavioral health reforms while he was governor in 2004. Our CoC, also known as Metro Area Continuum of Care for the Homeless, or MACCH, had many success stories that linked with those reforms, especially our local 100,000 Homes Campaign.
The Senator and his staff arrived at Omaha’s Community Alliance on a Tuesday afternoon in August. We met in roundtable fashion, the discussion being led by the leadership from MACCH’s interagency housing team. Not only did local homeless service providers showcase MACCH’s collective success in serving the community’s most vulnerable, but we were able to show how federal funding streams make this kind of work possible.
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Conference Registration is Open!
October 15, 2012
The Alliance is excited to announce the website for the 2013 National Conference on Ending Family and Youth Homelessness is now live, and registration is open!
The conference will take place this February at the Sheraton Seattle Hotel in Seattle, Wash., where 800 to 900 attendees are expected to convene to share and learn about the latest tools and the most effective solutions going in the homeless assistance field today. We are in the midst of the planning process, and working hard to make sure you get the most out of the experience.
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Planning, planning and more planning
September 26, 2012
Hello Alliance supporters and conference-goers!
As the Alliance’s Director of Meetings and Events I am excited to be in the midst of planning the 2013 National Conference on Ending Family and Youth Homelessness. I’m thrilled that we are returning to Seattle, WA for this event.
The Alliance’s first Seattle conference took place in 2007, and it had the largest turnout of any of our west coast conferences. We hope to surpass that turnout in 2013, and we look forward to meeting more passionate folks who are working diligently year-round to ensure that there will one day be an end to homelessness in America.
For those of you who attend the conference, it’s a two-day affair (not counting your roundtrip travel). For Alliance staff though, conference planning begins more than a year before the event. Here’s a look at our planning process:
Early planning
We like to finalize a location more than a year prior to the conference. For example, for our upcoming conference we secured a location in November of 2011. We choose the geographic location based upon what cities are doing to end homelessness in that area.
Choosing the location is just the beginning, though. Once that’s done, we have to research hotels in the area to determine which are large enough and have the proper layout for our conference, then we send requests for proposals to the prospective hotels. Once... Read More »
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Reminder: Combined Federal Campaign
September 17, 2012
It’s that time of year again, the Combined Federal Campaign starts soon and we just wanted to remind you that The National Alliance to End Homelessness will be participating again this year! All federal employees have the opportunity to participate in the world’s largest giving program.
Last year federal workers pledged $69,314.52 toward our goal of ending homelessness. To those of you who helped us reach this incredible number, thank you! This year we need your help again. Remember to look for us under “Homelessness, National Alliance to End,” #10022 in your CFC pledge book and on your local campaign website. You may also see some of us at your upcoming CFC Fair.
If you’re not a federal employee you can still give! Many companies have their own matching campaigns that allow you to double your own person contribution. You can also remind friends and family who are federal employees to remember us when filling out their card.
For more information about giving to the Alliance or to make a donation, visit our giving webpages.
... Read More »
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Report: Hundreds Participated in Capitol Hill Day
September 10, 2012
Last month, nearly 1,500 people traveled from all over the country to Washington, D.C. for the Alliance’s National Conference on Ending Homelessness. Almost a quarter of those people participated in Capitol Hill Day, and visited their Members of Congress on Capitol Hill to update them on local progress in ending homelessness and to urge them to make ending homelessness a federal priority.
Based on our State Captains’ “report backs” from more than 289 meetings, we’ve compiled a 2012 Capitol Hill Day Report and Summary. The report highlights the major successes of this year’s Capitol Hill Day. For starters, more than 360 participants went on more than 289 meetings. Five states, including Arkansas, New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Dakota, had a 100 percent participation rate, meaning that every person from the state who registered for our conference participated in Capitol Hill Day.
In the 289 congressional meetings, more than 75 of which involved a member of Congress (another record broken over last year), advocates made the case for the following Hill Day Policy Priorities:
Provide $2.23 billion in FY 2013 for HUD’s Homeless Assistance Grants Program;
Provide $127 million in FY 2013 for Runaway and Homeless Youth Act (RHYA) Programs;
Provide $1.35 billion for VA’s targeted homeless veteran programs, including $300 million for the Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF) program;
Provide $100 million for SAMHSA Homeless Services Programs in FY 2013;
Renew all existing Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers in FY 2013, and provide $75... Read More »
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In the rearview mirror: the 2012 National Conference
August 28, 2012
Today’s guest blog is by Daniel Kelly, an MSW student at the University of Michigan and Intern for the Corporation for Supportive Housing Michigan Program.
2012 was my first year at the National Alliance Conference on Ending Homelessness. I’ve been involved in homeless services since after my undergraduate in 2006, but I hadn’t been able to make the trip until this year when I interned with the Corporation for Supportive Housing.
Unfortunately, I had a full class load the first two days of the conference. In fact, Tuesday was the final exam for one of my classes! My plan was to leave straight from class in Ann Arbor, Mich., and make the drive out to Washington D.C. for the conference. In preparation, my excited Mother took my car into the shop to ensure it was ready for the road. Everything checked out, so after I turned in my exam at about noon, I got in my already packed car and began the nine-hour journey to the Capitol.
The experience was inspiring. At the conference, being surrounded by so many people committed to ending homelessness got me fired up. This feeling of inspiration continued during our Michigan Capitol Hill Day visits. I was fortunate to meet with Congresspersons Gary Peters and Hansen Clarke, who were both very receptive to the messages we brought to them about the negative effects of sequestration efforts. After the conference, this... Read More »
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Join the Alliance in Tulsa, Okla.
August 23, 2012
The Alliance is proud to be a partner in From Housing to Recovery, a conference running from Sept. 19 through 21 in Tulsa, Okla.
In many ways, this three-day event exemplifies the kind of collaboration and focus we need if we are to address the problem of chronic homelessness and meet the goal of ending it by 2015, as set in the Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness.
From Housing to Recovery, though initiated by private and non-profit champions in the Tulsa mental health community, is more than a local affair. It’s a national meeting as well, co-sponsored by Mental Health America. The event is about recovery, and it’s about housing, featuring policy, practice and partnership in equal measure. It’s about solutions that work for people and for communities.
Tulsa is an apt setting for a conference of this scope and vision. The 100,000 Homes campaign has recognized the city as a leader among communities making progress in ending chronic homelessness.
At the Alliance’s 2012 National Conference on Ending Homelessness, Greg Shinn from the Mental Health Association in Tulsa presented on the ingredients of Tulsa’s success in the workshop, Chronic Homelessness: Getting to Zero by 2015. According to Shinn, they include:
Community planning and housing investment
Integrated recovery for people experiencing mental health and housing crises
Housing First approaches with person-centered services and coordinated care
A focus on economic impact and sustainability
An... Read More »
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Photo Campaign: How are YOU working to end homelessness?
August 17, 2012
During our 2012 conference, many of you shared with us that you proudly wear your Alliance ‘End Homelessness’ t-shirts on the job, while you volunteer, and have even given them as gifts and prizes to colleagues and family. We've sold over 700 shirts over the last year, and we're proud that so many of you are spreading the message that we can and must end homelessness. Now we want to see where you are wearing your shirt. So send us a picture!
How does it work?
All you have to do is grab your phone or camera and take a photo of yourself in your shirt wherever you are working to end homelessness (workplace, state capitol, new housing location, etc.) and then share it with us directly via social media or email.
Sharing your photos is easy!
Facebook: Search “National Alliance to End Homelessness” into Facebook’s search-bar, and simply post it to our Wall. Don’t forget to tag yourself and ‘Like’ our page too.
Twitter: Simply upload the photo in a tweet and include the hash-tag #workingtoend.
Email: Not into social media and would rather email your photo directly to us? Just send it to info@endhomelessness.org with “End Homelessness Photo Campaign” in the subject line.
Tell us how YOU are ending homelessness!
Don’t forget to tell us how YOU are helping to end homelessness... Read More »
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Keynote Remarks and Workshop Materials
August 13, 2012
It has been almost a month now since the Alliance’s National Conference on Ending Homelessness, and we have been doing our best to make sure that you have access to as much of our conference materials as possible. All the workshop materials that presenters provided to us have been placed on our website here, where they are available for download. We will continue to update the page as we receive materials.
Finally, we have already received numerous requests for the keynote remarks that our CEO and President Nan Roman delivered at the conference, so we thank you for your patience. We have finallypublished them on our website, and we are including them in this blog post below.
KEYNOTE ADDRESS
NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ENDING FAMILY HOMELESSNESS NAN ROMAN
President and CEO
July 16 2012
Good afternoon and welcome to the 2012 National Alliance on Ending Homelessness. I want to extend our most heartfelt and deep thanks to all of you for being here today. We have over 1400 people in attendance – a record! Most of you are here because you have a burning desire to learn from your colleagues what you can do to improve your own approaches to ending homelessness. You want to know about the most effective practices and the most promising innovations that will work for you. Many of you have traveled far and put a lot of resources into making... Read More »
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