Evaluate Upstream Prevention Resource Database Appreciative Inquiry Design Thinking Blueprint

EVALUATE UPSTREAM:

OPTIMIZING THE HOMELESSNESS PREVENTION ASSISTANCE SYSTEM IN CHARLOTTE-MECKLENBURG

Project Overview

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, provided 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 “upstream” from homelessness who are facing housing instability but 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. Historically, research and intervention funding has been directed at planning interventions for people who have already become homeless.

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
TARGETED INTERVENTIONS including financial and legal assistance to help households maintain their housing.

In May 2020, Mecklenburg County, North Carolina launched a community project called “Evaluate Upstream: Optimizing the Homelessness Prevention Assistance System” focused on homelessness prevention. The project was funded by a Continuum of Care (CoC) planning grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The goals of the project were to document existing prevention resources across Charlotte-Mecklenburg and determine whether and how they work together, to design an optimally functioning prevention network and to develop an evaluation framework for a homelessness prevention system that is truly impactful in Charlotte-Mecklenburg.

The HUD CoC prevention grant provided a unique opportunity to invest in prevention planning “upstream” from homelessness and, more importantly, to do so in a way that focused on what is working or has worked for those who are unstably housed.

The process involved four phases:

PHASE 1

Best Practices & Resources

Creating an inventory and searchable database of resources that are focused on homelessness prevention along with Best Practice Research and a NC 2-1-1 study

PHASE 2

Appreciative Inquiry

Engaging community members with lived experience with housing instability as well as those working on the front lines of housing-related and critical needs services to share their experience

PHASE 3

Design Thinking

Based on the insight gathered from the previous phases, creating a human-centered and solutions-driven approach to homelessness prevention

Phase 4

Homelessness Prevention Blueprint & Evaluation Framework

Building a robust and comprehensive action plan that defines impact areas, action steps and defined outcomes

Mecklenburg County would like to thank the ROI Impact Consulting who was contracted to design and manage the community planning and engagement process and completed the research materials in Phase 1; Helen Lipman, who helped conduct research for the 2-1-1 Study in Phase 1; Faster Glass, who was contracted to manage the Design Thinking work in Phase 3; staff from Community Support Services who provided support during the virtual summits in Phases 2 and 3; and Yellow Duck Marketing, who formatted and designed all of the final materials. Additional information and questions about Evaluate Upstream can be directed to Courtney LaCaria at Courtney.LaCaria@mecklenburgcountync.gov.

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EVALUATE UPSTREAM:

Project Overview

The process involved four phases:

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