Advocacy Update: Quarterly Report

This Quarterly Report includes a preview of key upcoming activities and issues for advocates, as well as a review of major developments from the last quarter. Specifically, this issue reviews:

• A March 30 congressional briefing;
• Planning for the expansion of Medicaid;
• The intersection of social media and advocacy;
• A new advocacy toolkit;
• Advocacy work in the 112^th Congress;
• A call for HPRP information; and
• Preview for Capitol Hill Day 2011.

Next Wednesday, March 30, the House Congressional Caucus on Homelessness will host a congressional briefing entitled "A Growing Epidemic: Homeless Children, Youth, and Families." Presenters will include Beth McCullough of Adrian School District in Adrian, MI; Lori Cryss of Amethyst, Inc. in Columbus, OH; and Michelle Flynn of The Road Home in Salt Lake City, UT. In addition, the briefing will feature a short clip from a documentary by Diane Nilan of HEAR US about the effects of child and family homelessness. Barbara Duffield of the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth will moderate. The briefing will highlight successful strategies for addressing family and child homelessness.

U.S. Representatives and their staff members have been invited to attend the briefing, and the Alliance is asking advocates to encourage their congressional delegations to attend. If you wish to invite your Representatives or their staff members to attend, please contact Amanda Krusemark at akrusemark@naeh.org for additional details. 

Planning for Expansion of Medicaid 

States and mainstream stakeholders are already moving forward to implement the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as the health care reform law, which could change Medicaid's role in funding health care in supportive housing programs. The ACA will fund new case management approaches this year and will significantly expand Medicaid eligibility in 2014.

Individuals and organizations who work with people who have experienced chronic homelessness should be part of ACA conversations in their communities and states. NOW is the time to get involved! The Alliance has created a tip sheet that highlights key next steps and offers suggestions for making connections with potential partners.

We want to help support your work around the intersection of housing and health. The Alliance would love to know how you are already connected in your community and state on these issues, and what you need to be an effective spokesperson within the health community to prevent and end chronic homelessness. Please share your thoughts with Amanda Krusemark at akrusemark@naeh.org or Lisa Stand at lstand@naeh.org.

Save the Date: Introduction to Medicaid Webinar

To better help advocates and providers in the homelessness assistance field to understand the implications of ACA, the Alliance is launching a series of webinars around the legislation. The first webinar, "Talking Medicaid: First Steps in Building Effective Homelessness - Health Care Partnerships," will be held Wednesday, May 4 at 2 p.m. ET and will provide a basic introduction to the Medicaid program. Please click here for more information and to register.

Social media can be a great way to quickly spread the word about policy updates and call people to action. In fact, the Alliance has just released a new Advocacy Toolkit, which includes a section on social media.

As a part of its effort to increasingly focus on the role of social media in advocacy, the Alliance is interested in learning how you use social media and if you use social media in advocacy efforts. We have compiled a short survey, which we hope you will complete by Friday, April 8 to share with us how you view and use social media outlets.

New Advocacy Toolkit Released 

Last month, the Alliance released Using Advocacy to End Homelessness: A Toolkit for Understanding and Conducting Advocacy. The toolkit explores strategies to advance policies that prevent and end homelessness and specifically includes ways to build and sustain working relationships with policymakers.

The toolkit includes chapters on a variety of issues, from "Knowing the Rules of Nonprofit Lobbying" to "Achieving Effective Site Visits," and from "Developing a Strategic Advocacy Plan" to "Mobilizing through Social Media," among many other topics. The toolkit includes detailed descriptions of how to execute each strategy as well as engagement tips, adaptable sample materials, and real-life examples.

Advocates across the country have already done a great deal of advocacy work with members of the 112^th Congress around making it a federal priority to prevent and end homelessness. People across the country have hosted site visits, called, written, and met with both new and returning Members of Congress to educate them about homelessness and its solutions. We need to continue this GREAT work in the coming months in order to ensure that congressional offices understand how important the federal commitment to ending homelessness is.

The 111^th Congress did not finish its appropriations work for fiscal year (FY) 2011, which began on October 1. As a result, advocates have made countless phone calls, held a TON of meetings, and sent an untold number of letters about FY 2011 appropriations since January 1. Although there is still work to be done, Congress is getting closer to finalizing FY 2011 appropriations. The next few weeks will be critical! We MUST continue to contact our congressional offices and make sure they know how important it is to prioritize homelessness assistance programs in their final FY 2011 funding bill.

Congress is also slowing beginning work on FY 2012 appropriations. Although not much work has been completed on the upcoming fiscal year yet, there will likely be a lot of activity in the upcoming quarter as Congress begins to turn its attention more fully to the next fiscal year. Advocates will need to be ready to hit the ground running!

For more information on how you can get involved in advocacy in the 112^th Congress, please contact Amanda Krusemark at akrusemark@naeh.org.

Call for HPRP Information 

The Alliance is seeking information from communities that have run out of Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program (HPRP) funds, or that expect to run out of these funds soon. Communities that expect to have used up all or most of their HPRP funds prior to the release of the FY 2012 Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG) allocations can make a strong case for Congress to provide an increase to the ESG component of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Grants program.

If Congress provides sufficient resources under the HEARTH Act for McKinney-Vento programs, communities will be able to conduct homelessness prevention and rapid re-housing activities through the ESG program in FY 2011. Please contact Amanda Krusemark at akrusemark@naeh.org if your community is close to using up all of its HPRP allocation.

During the next quarter, the Alliance will begin work on planning Capitol Hill Day 2011, to be held in conjunction with the Alliance's Annual Conference on July 13-15 in Washington, DC. Each year, Capitol Hill Day provides an opportunity for conference attendees to take part in advocacy by meeting with their Members of Congress and their staff in Washington, DC. There is no better group of people to inform federal policymakers about solutions to homelessness than the national and local experts who attend the conference (you): those who can speak first-hand about the scope of homelessness and the successful interventions being implemented in their communities.

This year, Capitol Hill Day will take place on Friday, July 15. State Captains from each state will schedule and lead participants from their state on these congressional meetings. In 2010, about 350 Capitol Hill Day participants went on nearly 230 congressional meetings! If you are interested in serving as a State Captain this year or in participating in Capitol Hill Day, please contact Amanda Krusemark at akrusemark@naeh.org.