2013 National Family and Youth Conference Presentations
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Conference Presentation | February 21, 20131.2 Avoiding Youth Homelessness: Early Intervention Strategies There are many opportunities to intervene early with youth to prevent a homeless episode or quickly reconnect them with their families. This workshop will examine outreach, school-based and family support interventions.
1.3 Coordinated Assessment 101: Understanding the Basics Coordinated assessment is now required for all communities receiving HUD funding. This workshop will cover what the new Continuum of Care regulations say about coordinated assessment, the basic concepts behind good implementation, and different models communities might consider, with a specific focus on families and youth. Providers who have experience with coordinated assessment will drive the discussion and answer questions about planning, design, implementation.
1.4 Rapid Re-Housing: An Introduction Rapid re-housing is a cost-effective solution to homelessness that involves providing assistance locating new housing, short-term rental assistance, and follow-up case management services. This workshop will highlight communities’ experiences successfully implementing rapid re-housing to respond to family homelessness. Presenters will outline the basic housing and service components involved in the rapid re-housing model and provide examples of the results local communities have achieved in reducing homelessness using this approach.
As we reach and move past the halfway point in the Five Year Plan to End Veterans Homelessness, the goal is within sight. This workshop will look at where we have been and where we are going as we get closer to the goal. It will cover ways to better partner with your local VA and better leverage community resources, new funding opportunities, and what a post-homeless veteran system will look like.
1.6 Let’s Get to Work: Job Development and Overcoming Employment Barriers This workshop will review job development and other strategies that lead to employment for people experiencing homelessness. Presenters will focus on recruiting potential employers and overcoming barriers such as disabilities and criminal histories.
1.8 How Are We Doing? Measuring Community-Wide Performance System-wide performance measurement is challenging but critical for making progress on reducing homelessness. Furthermore, the HEARTH Act makes system-wide performance measurement almost a necessity. Presenters will describe a range of performance measurement strategies from basic to advanced. Participants will learn how to get more out of Homelessness Management Information Systems, how to measure the outcomes included in the HEARTH Act, and how to use performance measurement to allocate resources and improve collaboration.
2.1 Thinking Systemically: Strategically Ending Youth Homelessness in Your Community Community-level strategic planning helps to ensure that local resources are being used as effectively as possible to provide safe places for homeless youth to stay and to quickly end their homelessness. This workshop will explore communities that have begun to take a systematic approach to ending youth homelessness. Targeting interventions, resource allocation, and desired system- and program-level outcomes will be among the topics discussed during this workshop.
2.2 Promising Service Models to Improve Outcomes for Youth and Families Some families and youth benefit from intensive but time-limited supportive services to help them successfully transition out of homelessness and achieve housing stability. This workshop will focus on evidence-based service models, including Critical Time Intervention and Wraparound, and how homeless service providers are adapting these service models to get better outcomes for homeless and at-risk families and young adults.
2.3 Getting Better: Performance Improvement Strategies This workshop will provide examples of community strategies that encourage better performance at reducing homelessness. It will include examples of performance-based contracting and other financial incentives, reallocation, publicly recognizing providers with good outcomes, and targeting technical assistance to those with poor outcomes.
2.5 Organizing Your Resources: Using a Progressive Engagement Approach Communities typically have a variety of programs to serve families and youth experiencing homelessness. However, it can be difficult to organize homeless assistance so that people who need particular interventions are the ones who receive them. Many communities have begun using progressive engagement to overcome this challenge. This workshop will provide an overview of progressive engagement approaches and examples from communities that are employing these strategies.
2.7 After Re-Housing: Strengthening Economic Security of Families Most families can use additional help getting on their feet financially after an episode of homelessness. Young single people who have experienced homelessness can also benefit from extra support after they have found suitable housing. This workshop explores self-sufficiency programs and other economic security models working to strengthen low-income families and sustain young people as they gain independence.
3.1 Using Data to Size and Scope the Issue of Youth Homelessness For the first time, HUD required communities to count and report out on the number of youth (ages of 18 to 24) during the January Point-in-Time(PIT) Counts of homeless people. The information, coupled with using Homelessness Management Information Systems (HMIS), will provide communities with improved data on youth homelessness. Presenters will cover PIT Count methodologies, using HMIS to improve data, and how communities can use their data to tell a story.
3.2 Family Interventions: Build Relationships and Create Housing Destinations Many youth remain in contact with their families when they are out of the home. Family intervention provides an opportunity to engage, connect, and reunify young people with caring adults. Presenters will discuss how family intervention can create housing destinations and decrease negative behaviors. The discussion will also focus on the need to provide family intervention to all youth regardless of age, sexual orientation, or gender identity.
3.3 Developing System-Wide Prioritization and Targeting Standards The new Continuum of Care regulations mandate that communities develop written standards that lay out eligibility and prioritization criteria for transitional housing, rapid re-housing, and permanent supportive housing programs. This workshop will discuss how homeless assistance systems can take advantage of this new opportunity to codify best practices in terms of targeting and service matching across the system and integrate their new written standards with their coordinated assessment referral process.
3.4 Retooling Transitional Housing I: Getting Started Many providers and community leaders are exploring options for retooling their transitional housing programs in order to improve their communities’ overall performance. This workshop will provide an overview of how to evaluate the options for retooling and the steps and strategies providers can take to get the process started.
3.5 Coordinated Response: Rapid Re-Housing and Employment Helping families connect quickly to housing and employment is key to ending homelessness. This workshop will examine strategies that local communities are using to integrate rapid re-housing and employment interventions. Successful partnerships across multiple agencies and service sectors will be explored.
3.6 Critical Partners to End Family Homelessness: Child Welfare Families experiencing homelessness are at heightened risk of becoming involved in the child welfare system, and many of the families on child welfare caseloads are at risk of homelessness. This workshop will examine how child welfare agencies are strengthening and stabilizing families by providing supportive services and addressing families’ housing needs.
3.7 Expanding Housing Opportunities for Veteran Families: Developing the SSVF Program Model In order to reach the federal goal of ending veteran homelessness, the Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF) program will be a key resource. VA continues to expand the SSVF program to house veteran families, building on the success of the Homeless Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program (HPRP). This workshop will provide information and examples that can be used by recently funded grantees as well as communities considering applying for SSVF to develop and implement a best practice rapid re-housing and prevention model for veterans and their families.
3.9 Partnerships to Improve Children’s Outcomes Communities can develop new partnerships to expand the resources available to them in supporting the children of households experiencing homelessness. This workshop will discuss new opportunities presented with the expansion of the Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program under the Affordable Care Act, and strategies for working with McKinney-Vento Homeless Student Liaisons.
4.5 Improving Emergency Shelter Emergency shelters have an important role to play as communities work to implement the HEARTH Act. This workshop will discuss how to improve your community’s emergency shelter system by focusing on performance measurement, reduction of entry requirements, and integration with rapid re-housing, and coordinated assessment efforts.
4.6 Working with Your PHA to Expand Housing Options Public Housing Agencies (PHAs) are key players in preventing and ending homelessness among families. This workshop will discuss successful relationships with PHAs and explore creative ways to partner with local housing agencies to expand housing opportunities.
4.7 Employment Strategies: Reducing Veteran Family Homelessness Veterans with families who are at risk of or are currently experiencing homelessness tend to be unemployed or underemployed. This workshop will explore programs that help these veterans obtain and keep employment, as well as look at how existing employment programs can better serve their veteran family clients. Transferring military skills to the civilian market, entrepreneurship, and job development will also be covered.
4.8 Federal Budget Cuts: What’s Happening and What We Can Do The Budget Control Act, passed in August 2011, dramatically changed the way the federal government will spend money for the next eight years. In recent months, the debate around federal spending has continued, and will continue, with the outcome of these conversations hugely impacting funding for homeless assistance programs. Presenters will cover what’s happening and how it will affect your programs as well as what you can do to impact these decisions.
4.9 Promoting Recovery for Homeless Families and Youth For the most vulnerable families and youth, re-housing efforts increasingly include harm reduction strategies to optimize behavioral health outcomes. This workshop will examine how providers use evidence-based approaches, including peer support, and how their program outcomes are affected.
5.1 Helping Youth Pay Rent: Short- and Long-Term Solutions For youth who are able to live independently, rental assistance and help finding employment may be enough to end their experiences of homelessness. Presenters will discuss designing, implementing, and evaluating a variety of short-term rental assistance programs for youth. Discussion will also include how programs are preparing youth to transition off of short-term rent subsidies and into sustainable employment.
5.3 Leveraging Landlord Relationships: Creating Housing Solutions Establishing and maintaining positive relationships with private and public landlords is critical to the success of efforts to rapidly re-house families. This workshop will cover how to develop strong partnerships with landlords and how to use those relationships to acquire housing through creative strategies. There will be an emphasis on finding housing solutions for high-barrier families, including those who are undocumented or live in rural or high-cost areas.
5.5 New Congress, New Opportunities: Advocacy and the 113th Congress The 113th Congress, which convened in January, will focus on a variety of issues related to housing and homelessness programs. This workshop will provide an overview of the new Congress, priority issues, and ways to educate new and returning Members.
The Continuum of Care (CoC) planning process is changing under the HEARTH Act, and its importance is growing. This workshop will review effective strategies for organizing a CoC and its leadership. Topics will include CoC structure; tailoring the CoC to your community’s characteristics; engaging stakeholders such as consumers, political leadership, and mainstream partners; and using the CoC process to improve your community’s performance.
5.7 Shelter Diversion and Prevention for Families Shelter diversion and targeted prevention can ensure that shelter beds and other program beds are being held for those families that do not have another safe housing alternative. This workshop will review successful models for identifying families that can be prevented or diverted from entering shelter, how to serve such families effectively, and how to integrate prevention and diversion with coordinated assessment. The workshop will also include discussion on how best to allocate a community’s financial resources among prevention, diversion, and other interventions to achieve maximum system performance.
6.1 Connecting Youth to Education and Employment Opportunities Education and employment opportunities can help stabilize youth who are formerly or currently experiencing homelessness and provide them with a foundation for a successful future. This workshop discusses strategies to help connect youth to employment and education opportunities, and the skills they need to obtain them. Presenters will explore how to develop partnerships with local employment and educational institutions.
6.2 The Unfortunate Intersection: Youth Homelessness and Sexual Exploitation Youth who are out of their homes are at high risk of sexual exploitation. Organizations providing housing and services to youth experiencing homelessness should be aware of how to identify and better serve those who are currently experiencing and are survivors of exploitation. Presenters will provide an overview of the sexual exploitation of youth, how to better identify and protect young survivors, and how communities are responding by implementing a systemic response.
6.3 Sustaining Housing: A Voluntary Services Approach A voluntary services approach has become an increasingly popular mechanism for providers to serve vulnerable families and youth. This workshop will demonstrate how providers are successfully implementing a voluntary service model and examine the benefits of this approach. Presenters will also explore how this model is being used to provide home-based services for a rapid re-housing intervention.
6.4 Reaching, Engaging, and Serving Recently Discharged Veterans Veterans of America’s current conflicts make up an increasing proportion of both homeless veterans and all people experiencing homelessness. Recent veterans, more often young, female, and part of a family, have access to numerous veterans-specific resources that can end their homelessness. This workshop will cover the basics of homeless assistance provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs and how homeless assistance providers can ensure they are identifying and providing the right interventions for the veteran and his or her family.
6.6 Understanding and Implementing the Continuum of Care Rule The Continuum of Care rule, released July 2012, went into effect on August 30 and was implemented nationwide with the release of the NOFA in November; however, many communities have questions and concerns about the rule. This workshop will be an audience-driven question and answer session and discussion. Presenters will address as many questions as time provides.
6.7 Domestic Violence Providers and Coordinated Assessment: Challenges and Opportunities A successful coordinated assessment process for survivors will require solid and safe assessment and referral processes, quick linkages to permanent housing, and special consideration for survivors’ various safety, privacy, and confidentiality needs. This workshop will explore successful collaborations around coordinated assessment between the domestic violence and homeless assistance systems in different communities, keys to assessing survivors’ needs effectively, and the potential advantages of a single coordinated assessment process for all homeless and survivor households.
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