The Blue Ridge Continuum of Care presents Retooling Our Crisis Response System: Creating change through leadership, advocacy, and capacity building on Monday, August 7th, 2017 at the Salem Civic Center.

This year’s Symposium is focused on strengthening our crisis response system to ensure that homelessness is rare, brief, and non-reoccurring. Achieving such a goal calls for a systemic shift. There will be an array of topics discussed to improve service delivery and equip our community with the tools necessary to support systemic change in our approach to addressing homelessness. Participants will come away with a wealth of information designed to enhance their practice with homeless families and individuals as well as resources for a new framework for thinking about our community’s response to homelessness.

AGENDA

8:00AM
Registration and Continental Breakfast

8:30AM
Welcome – Byron “Randy” Foley, Mayor, City of Salem
Conference Overview – Daniel Merenda, President, Council of Community Services

8:45AM
Opening Presentation – Let Us Not Forget Why We Do This Work
Speaker: Linda Kaufman, CSH
Facilitator: Tamy Mann, Executive Director, SafeHome Systems, Covington
Linda will talk to the group about causes and solutions that are very complex.  Service providers are often times underfunded and understaffed; yet, they have chosen to work with people experiencing homelessness to bring about positive changes in policies and programs on the local, state, and federal levels.  What continues to be the centerpiece of progress for your community?

9:45AM
Implementing a Systemic Diversion Strategy to Reduce Homelessness
Presenter: Mary Frances Kenion, MPA, Director of Programs, Bridges to Independence
Facilitator: Captain Monica Seiler, Salvation Army, Roanoke
Diversion strategies help a community to prevent homelessness at the front door by helping them identify immediate alternate housing arrangements and, if necessary, connecting them with services and financial assistance to help them return to permanent housing. Diversion programs can reduce the number of families becoming homeless, the demand for shelter beds, and the size of program wait lists.  Shelter diversion as an important component of the community’s coordinated entry efforts, particularly for families. During this session, you will learn diversion strategies and how to identify appropriate situations for diversion.

10:30AM
BREAK

10:45AM
Panel One: What Did You Need When a Crisis Happened? Examining strength-based practices in emergency shelters and coordinated entry system
Speaker: Lee Clark, Executive Director, Roanoke Rescue Mission
Panel: Homeless and Formerly Homeless Individuals
Facilitator: Kim Gembala, Roanoke Rescue Mission

How to Stop Guessing and Start Knowing – Data Quality and System Performance Improvements
Facilitator: Matt Crookshank, Council of Community Services
This session will focus on the use of data to monitor and improve system performance. The session will explore the importance of collecting complete, high quality data to monitor the effectiveness and efficiencies of homeless service delivery systems, with a primary focus on the HUD System Performance Measures.

12:00PM
Lunch: Remarks – John Garland, Roanoke City Councilman
Introduction: Paula Prince, PhD, Jefferson College
Lunch provided by City of Roanoke, Roanoke County, and the Virginia Housing and Development Association

Lunch Plenary: Searching Out Solutions: Constructive Alternatives to the Criminalization of Homelessness
Presenter: Eric Tars, National Law Center on Poverty and Homelessness
Facilitator: Paula Prince, PhD, BRICH Chair
Ultimate goal to change people’s perception by addressing public attitude as well as solutions for those who face substance abuse, mental health, citations and panhandling – rather than the larger issues of affordable housing, low wages and employment opportunities.  What role does effective case management have? The attendees will hear a discussion on how laws that are used to prohibit or regulate behaviors associated with homelessness.

1:45PM
Coordinated Entry Systems and CoC Governance
Presenter: Linda Kaufman, National Movement Manager, Community Solutions
Facilitator: Susan Trout, Intake Specialist II, City of Roanoke

Case Management Improvement
Panel: Katie Chan, LCSW, Programs Manager, Virginia Supportive Housing
Facilitator: Tamy Mann, Executive Director, SafeHome Systems, Covington
This session is designed to provide case managers coming from either mental health or shelter services background with the content and skills needed to provide a successful and development of an alliance between the case manager and client.  This session will provide attendees with techniques that could be used in “person-centered” approaches designed to enhance case managers’ effectiveness with program participants.

3:00PM
Wrap-Up and Closing Comments