PROJECT OVERVIEW
On May 1, 2020, Mecklenburg County Community Support Services launched a new Continuum of Care (CoC) planning grant project. Referred to as “Evaluate Upstream: Optimizing the Homelessness Prevention Assistance System In Charlotte-Mecklenburg,” this project will continue through April 2021. As context for this project, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Continuum of Care (CoC) was awarded a planning grant by the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) to focus on homelessness prevention. The purpose of the planning grant is to create a prevention-focused evaluation framework and methodology that will inform investment, and strengthen and expand the prevention strategies of the CoC. The planning grant also affords homelessness prevention service providers and community stakeholders the opportunity to describe a coordinated prevention network and supporting evaluation methodology.
Design Thinkers and Advisory Council
The third phase of project known as “Design Thinking Phase” was launched in November 2020. Design Thinking is a human-centered, iterative, solutions-driven, and prototype-based approach to problem solving, based on a deep understanding of the people for whom solutions to homelessness prevention are being imagined. Design Thinking is the perfect planning complement to the Appreciative Inquiry data gathering methodology.
The third phase also marks an important pivot from research and data collection to program design and implementation. The Design Thinking phase includes a committed, cross-sector team of over 50 community stakeholders, who met virtually for a 2-day “Design Sprint” in January 2021. The Design Thinking team and Advisory Council include community members with lived experience with housing instability and homelessness; business leaders; service providers; elected officials; housing advocates; policy experts; and affordable housing developers across the public, private, and nonprofit spectrum. The ideation that occurred during the January Design Sprint will lay the foundation for next steps, which will ultimately lead to the implementation of an effective, collaboratively designed prevention system.
The next phase of work will engage a subset of the Design Sprint participants to incorporate the ideas produced during the sprint with the research and input from previous phases into a coherent, cohesive framework for homelessness prevention. Significantly, this includes an evaluation methodology, with corresponding metrics, to enable ongoing measurement and monitoring of progress toward preventing homelessness. The framework prototype will be tested through an iterative process with community stakeholders, and continue its evolution. This work will ramp up between now and the end of April when the grant period expires, but it will not end there.
A key next step will be to build investment in, and shared ownership of, the implementation of the framework, so that this work is carried beyond the term of the planning grant. Conversations are underway regarding this coordination. But if the community’s cross-sector effort is to be both optimized and sustained, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg homelessness prevention must have shared ownership by all stakeholders.
There is much work to be done to make Evaluate Upstream successful and sustainable. Anyone from the community is invited to get involved in contributing to the framework as it evolves. Stakeholders and organizations across all sectors – employers, providers, funders, elected officials, and community advocates – are encouraged to champion, invest in, and co-own the work that will be required. Providers are encouraged to expand the groundbreaking collaborations that have emerged since the pandemic began, on behalf of the people who experience homelessness or are at risk of losing their housing; this is the ground in which our tree will take root. To get involved, please email Rosalyn Allison Jacobs (rcajacobs@gmail.com) or Courtney LaCaria (Courtney.LaCaria@mecknc.gov).
DESIGN THINKERS
Laura Belcher, Habitat for Humanity of the Charlotte Region | Doug Irmscher, Beacon Properties | Susan Rodriguez-McDowell, Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners |
Dennis Boothe, Wells Fargo | Sonia Jenkins, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools; Charlotte-Mecklenburg Continuum of Care Governing Board | Ken Schorr, Charlotte Center for Legal Advocacy |
Charles Bowman, Bank of America | Don Jonas, Atrium Health | James Searcy, Promise Resource Network |
AJ Calhoun, United Way of Central Carolinas | Kevin Kendrick, Pineville Neighbors and Mecklenburg County Board COVID-19 Taskforce | Judy Seldin-Cohen, A Way Home |
Liz Clasen-Kelly, Roof Above | Dennis LaCaria, gruppoETICO; Charlotte-Mecklenburg Continuum of Care Governing Board | Kenn Shrader, Re-entry Project |
The Rev. John Cleghorn, Caldwell Presbyterian Church | James Lee, Stan Greenspon Center for Peace and Social Justice | Ken Syzmanski, Community Advocate |
Kathryn Firmin-Sellers, United Way of Central Carolinas; Charlotte-Mecklenburg Continuum of Care Governing Board | Deronda Metz, Salvation Army Center of Hope; Charlotte-Mecklenburg Continuum of Care Governing Board | Adam Tucci, McKinsey and Company |
Elyse Hamilton-Childres, Mecklenburg County | Carol Morris, Community Advocate | Stephen Valder, West Side Community Land Trust |
Carol Hardison, Crisis Assistance Ministry | Mike O’Sullivan, Homeless Services Network Advocacy Committee | Alexanderia Wallace, Ally |
Tommy Holderness, Legal Aid of North Carolina | Julie Porter, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Housing Partnership | Pamela Wideman, City of Charlotte |
ADVISORY COUNCIL
Charles Bowman, Bank of America | Jada Grandy-Mock, Fifth/Third | Mike Rizer, Ally |
Laura Clark, United Way of Central Carolinas | Darlene Heater, University City Partners | Carol Sawyer, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education |
Brian Collier, Foundation For The Carolinas | Michael Marsicano, Foundation For the Carolinas | Michael Smith, Charlotte Center City Partners |
Malcolm Graham, Charlotte City Council, District 4 | Moira Quinn, Charlotte Center City Partners | Earnest Winston, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools |
CONTEXT & MORE INFORMATION
In response to COVID-19, communities are developing strategic housing and homelessness plans that integrate public health promotion with economic recovery. Prevention is key to protecting the community and ensuring housing stability. The 2019 report released by Mecklenburg County, Launch Upstream: Homelessness Prevention in Charlotte-Mecklenburg, provides the community with a comprehensive look at the overall prevention assistance system. According to the report, “prevention” is defined as a category of assistance that targets households facing housing instability who have not yet lost their housing. Using this definition, prevention assistance exists on a continuum; assistance can be administered prior to the loss of housing as well as after households exit into permanent housing to help them sustain it. Prevention includes three tiers of assistance: community-wide interventions aimed at changing systems and structures that perpetuate housing instability; cross-sector collaboration and coordination to reduce the prevalence of homelessness; and targeted interventions including financial and legal assistance to help households maintain their housing.
In Charlotte-Mecklenburg, there is currently no overarching strategy or evaluation framework for prevention assistance. Multiple organizations provide a range of prevention activities, but there is no coordinated effort to align prevention resources to match the needs of the population at risk of experiencing homelessness The work of “Evaluate Upstream: Optimizing the Homelessness Prevention Assistance System In Charlotte-Mecklenburg” will result in the development of an overall evaluation methodology and framework to enable an informed and nimble approach to adjusting prevention strategies and activities.
To learn more about the project, including goals and activities, a summary document is provided via this link. Additional information and questions can be directed to Courtney Lacaria at Courtney.LaCaria@mecklenburgcountync.gov.