Technical Assistance - Overview
Overview
Connecticut Point in Time 2012
Since 2007, Connecticut has conducted a statewide standardized and coordinated ‘census’ of homelessness, working to enumerate homelessness both in shelters and on the street. The Point-in-Time Count has mobilized non-profits, local and state government agencies, and hundreds of concerned citizens from every region of the state to gather critical data in order to inform efforts to prevent and end homelessness. During these last five years, the Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness along with the Partnership for Strong Communities, has worked with organizations such as The Reaching Home Campaign, the Corporation for Supportive Housing, University of Pennsylvania’s Cartographic Modeling Lab, and the Center for Urban Community Services Housing Resource Center (CUCS) for assistance in organizing a statewide count of homeless people. The 2012 Count includes partners at Central Connecticut State University and Nutmeg Consulting LLC. The Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness provides statewide coordination of Count initiative as well as lead authorship on CT Counts reports; 2007 and 2008 reports were authored chiefly by CUCS.
Leadership, Empowerment, and Advocacy Development
CCEH works to build the individual and collective voice and leadership skills of the most affected by homelessness. Our innovative curriculum, "LEAD" (Leadership, Empowerment, and Advocacy Development Training) includes workshops on telling your story, public speaking and more.
Housing First for Families
The Housing First for Families (HFF) Program is to provide housing based interventions for families with children who are served by Connecticut’s emergency shelters, shelters for victims of domestic violence, or are within 30 days of discharge from a Connecticut transitional housing facility for homeless families. The program will also re-house families who are targeted for re-unification with their dependent child upon placement in housing. It also provides “housing find” services and at the same time, creates a sustainable foundation for ongoing rapid re-housing services once federal HPRP funds expire.
Children in Shelter
Children in Shelters is a DSS funded program administered through CCEH to support childcare needs for homeless families living in emergency shelter or transitional housing and for families in Housing First for Families, Beyond Shelter, and the Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-housing Program (HPRP).
Homeless Prevention Prevention and Rapid Rehousing
As part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) was charged with administering new funding for the Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program (HPRP). In Connecticut, a total of just over $17 million of that funding was awarded by HUD to the State of Connecticut’s Department of Social Services (DSS) and to five entitlement communities. (Bridgeport, Hartford, New Britain, New haven and Waterbury). The HPRP factsheets featured here outline by community, the lead agency providing HPRP funds, what services are available, who the services are available to, and some HPRP basics.
For more information regarding HPRP, contact United Way’s 2-1-1 or http://www.infoline.org
Beyond Shelter Connecticut
Beyond Shelter CT is an innovative program created in January 2000 that prevents the recurrence of homelessness by providing up to one year of coordinated follow up services to households leaving shelters and transitional housing programs and their landlords.