As we get rolling into this new year, the RTFH is about to undergo some significant changes in how we approach ending and reducing homelessness. Between the launching of our new Homeless Management Information System, Clarity, and changing our WeAllCount to be survey-based, one core philosophical idea is informing these changes: Making our work more person-centered. While the RTFH is the center of data on homelessness, we want our work to be more about the number, and to emphasize that there is a person behind this number. By doing this, we want to shift our community's thinking from approaching homelessness as an insurmountable problem. It is critical that our community not lose sight that homelessness is not an "Us vs. Them" problem, and that we are able to provide proven solutions and resolutions to our homeless neighbors.
Too much of our work is based on myths, stereotypes, and misconceptions of homeless individuals. By making our work more people-focused, we can work to dispel these prejudices, and remind the community that ending homelessness begins one person at a time. Ending homelessness begins by learning their name and their story. As a part of the Point-in-Time Count this year, we will be conducting as many surveys as possible with anyone who is encountered that is unsheltered. We then intend to create a By-Name-List where we can then more accurately identify who are homeless are and how best to help them. We look forward to continuing to work with all of our community partners in this coming year.
Sincerely,
Tamara Kohler
Chief Executive Officer
2019 WeAllCount
January 25th, 4am - 8am
The 2019 WeAllCount is upon us, and we would like to first and foremost thank all of the volunteers and community partners who have dedicated themselves to this endeavor and to ensuring that we have a successful count this year. At the time of writing, we have over 1,200 volunteers signed up for this year's count! But we still need more help! Be sure to recruit your friends, family, and co-workers to count with you to help ensure that are about to account for all of our homeless neighbors for this year's count.
We are excited to announce that the new HMIS software successfully launched on January 4th, 2019. After many years of being on a legacy software, we and the community rang in the new year with a new HMIS software installation, Clarity.
Many of you have been with us throughout this transition as we have worked so hard to train hundreds of users, transfer rover 200 projects, and bring over 60 agencies across 2 Continua of Care into the new HMIS software.
Thanks to all users who have been in touch so far to let the HMIS team know what questions they have. The HMIS team is working on responses to a number of Frequently Asked Question which will be posted at the HMIS transition page.
All data required for federal compliance has been migrated to the new HMIS installation. Custom data (including CES data, case notes, and client notes) will be migrated during the custom migration phase which will be completed on February 12th.
Thanks also to all those who have attended Clarity New User Training sessions thus far! Following the in-person sessions held during the week of December 10th we have trained over 100 additional users.
Additional Clarity new user training sessions have been scheduled for the next several weeks. Please see this Transition post for the full schedule of upcoming training sessions. It is required to attend a Clarity New User Training sessions before you can gain access to a license in the Clarity live site.
New user training will not be held during the week of February 5th and 11th to allow for the training and implementation of the Coordinated Entry System into Clarity. Following that, new user training will be held on a weekly basis at the RTFH offices at the United Way building (4699 Murphy Canyon Road, San Diego, CA).
A manager-specific training is being planned for the end of Febraury. when the HMIS team is excited to take Clarity agency managers through some more advanced reporting content and how to use Clarity's data analysis tool, Looker.
Finally, we are planning another HMIS User Group meeting for April 2019 and will update the community once that is schedule and the date approached.
The launch and the new platform was only possible due to the community's partnership and hard work with the RTFH team. Thank you to all those who have been in contact, attended training's, and worked with us to make this transition go as smoothly as possible.
Continuum of Care Notice
Youth Homeless Demonstration Program (YHDP) Update
Efforts on developing a specific system of care for San Diego's homeless youth are well underway. We have underwent several meetings throughout this month with our HUD Technical Assistance team to continue planning on the YHDP over several crucial components. They have encouraged us continue promoting authentic youth engagement throughout the process. One of the key ways we have engaged homeless youth populations is by utilizing our Youth Advisory Board. Through these meetings they have also encouraged prioritizing higher education, as education is one of the key pathways for ending and reducing youth homelessness. Lastly, they have provided prioritization to us on the numerous projects we have underway. We are moving forward with developing our Coordinated Community Plan for the YHDP.
Coordinated Entry System Catch Up
Integrating CES Into the New HMIS
The RTFH was tasked with re-envisioning the CES system in a way that makes it more effective for the needs of our community, and for the needs of people experiencing homelessness. A major part of our goal is also to provide as much support as possible for the work of homeless service providers in our community. San Diego was an early adopter of the Coordinated Entry System (previously "Coordinated Assessment Housing Placement"), and is still a leader in evaluating how to best leverage this system. Evaluation is a HUD-required component of the CES system in order to continually improve what the CES system can offer our community.
With the swift implementation of CES, the process is heavily focused on forms and assessment without full consideration of availability of resources. Beginning in June of 2018, the RTFH underwent a three-day intensive planning session with numerous community partners to identify what is working within our CES system, and what was not working as well. Subsequently, specialized work groups were created to continue this work. The result of this community process is a new CES design that refocuses the attention of the system to the homeless client, the work of the homeless service providers, and collaboration. The updates CES process is an overlay on the work that providers are already doing with the people they are serving.
Updated CES timeline:
Webinar and community meeting to introduce the updated CES process: please see RTFH website events calendar and/or the CES tab for dates and times.
CES in HMIS training: February 5-7, 2019. Registration opens on 1/22/2019
You are receiving this because you opted for updates on the RTFH when you volunteered for the 2017 WeAllCount, or because you are a member of our Continuum of Care.
