February 2017

A letter from Lisa Tepper Bates

Hello friends, 

Your good work on the front lines of homelessness has once again yielded Connecticut an important achievement: matching every verified chronically homeless person in the state to housing in December, 2016! This is great news for our clients going home, and great news for our state. 

We know we've got more to do, as we move forward to focus on our next goals of ending family and youth homelessness by 2020. And to do that work, we've got to preserve state investments to end homelessness. 

This legislative session is expected to be the toughest budget negotiations we've seen in Connecticut. Please help us to get out the word about your work, and tell our elected leaders to keep the resources in place! We will be reaching out to you throughout the session to advocate - please help us defend the resources you need to do your important work!

Sincerely ,
  
Lisa Tepper Bates
Executive Director
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Connecticut has Matched all Chronic Homeless to Housing!
Governor Malloy announces Success.   
    
Connecticut is leading  the nation in eliminating  chronic homelessness: in December, Connecticut matched every chronically homeless person in the state with a permanent housing resource.

 "Stable, secure housing... creates stronger and safer communities where families can thrive, and economic development and job growth can flourish."  Governor Malloy said. In response to a press question regarding how budget concerns might impact homeless resources, the Governor stated that funding to end homelessness is "an investment" that saves the state money.

Click here to read more! 
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Advocacy Alert!
We are reaching out to ask you to ACT NOW

PLEASE CALL YOUR State Senators, State Representatives, and the Governor's Office and  TELL  them you support preserving investments in the Homeless Response System.

Together, we are making significant strides in our work to end homelessness. We must preserve this important funding so that you can continue to do the great work you are doing to help so many in urgent need!

We need both the Governor and our legislators to hold strong on funding for housing services and related programs and protect those line items in the budget. Cuts to our state's homeless response resources could result in more people homeless on our streets - risking a reversal of the progress the Connecticut is making to end homelessness.

Click here for more information to call your representatives!
Advocacy
HUD grants $6.6 Million for Connecticut's effort to end Youth Homelessness by 2020! 

Governor Dannel P. Malloy and the members of Connecticut's  Congressional delegation announced that the State of Connecticut is receiving a $6.6 million federal grant to help support the state's goal of ending youth homelessness by 2020.

The award, which comes from the Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) Youth Homelessness Demonstration Project, will be utilized to create new and innovative housing with support service programs to serve youth experiencing homelessness throughout the Balance of State Continuum of Care (BOS CoC). Connecticut was one of only ten communities in the country selected by HUD to receive this award out of over 130 applicants. The state received the largest allocation of any grantee under this program.

Click here to read more! 

 PIT3
Thank you Volunteers!
For a successful Point-in-Time Count & 2017 CT Youth Count!

Thank you to everyone who took part in the Point-in-Time Count and 2017 CT Youth Count! this year!
                                    
Partners from state agencies to high school students took part in making this year's Count a success. Youth Engagement Team Initiatives led local efforts to organize volunteers, routes, and organizations to administer the survey. An exciting partnership between CCEH, Microsoft, and Nutmeg Consulting resulted in the development of the cross-platform App that was used to collect all the surveys through mobile devices.

Thank you to Citizens Bank for sponsoring the 2017 CT Youth Count! and bringing in so many volunteers! Information on the results of this year's data collection efforts will be available in coming months. Thank you for your participation.

Queering Care: Serving LGBTQ Homeless & Unstably Housed Youth & Young Adults

As part of a series of trainings for Runaway and Homeless Youth service providers in Connecticut, presenters from Youth Continuum and Connecticut Fair Housing Center presented on "Queering Care" and improving services for LGBTQ homeless and unstably housed youth and young adults. 

While queer and transgender individuals make up around 5-10% of the general population, they compose around 20-40% of the homeless and  unstably  housed youth and young adult community. We can improve out services and system of care for these youth: as a trainer reminded providers, " someone's discomfort is never more important than someone's rights." The training includes materials on the legal rights of the youth/young adults as well as information on housing discrimination and protections. 

For more information on serving homeless and unstably housed youth and young adults in Connecticut  here . 
Upcoming Trainings and Events:
Upcoming

Connecticut Young Adult Services Webinar
Friday, February 9th
10:00 AM - 11:00 AM

Safe Shelter and Fair Housing for Transgender Individuals Training
Friday, February 13th
10:00 AM - 11:00 AM


To learn more, please click  here  or  c ontact Training & Communications Coordinator Sarah Chess at  schess@cceh.org  f or more information. 

Diversionfunds - and Paddington bears - available through the be homeful project  behomeful2
 
Thanks again to all of you who played a role in the success of be homeful for the holidays! CCEH is pleased to announce the great results of the campaign, we currently have funds available for all eight CANs. 

If your agency would like to access these funds but has not yet signed the MOU to do so, please contact Katie Kenney at kkenney@cceh.org .  Please note that these funds are for families with children. 

Also, we still have some Paddingtons available so please contact Madeline Ravich at mravich@cceh.org if you would like to request additional bears for children coming into your shelter this winter.

Shelter diversion is an essential component to our coordinated access system as cost-effective, lightest touch strategy to work at the shelter door to end someone's homelessness. The coordinated access regions across the state have been working hard to incorporate shelter diversion and here are some of the results, alongside news and updates, in January's diversion report. 
YouthR
Youth Engagement Report

Communities across Connecticut are kicking off Youth Engagement Team Initiatives, or YETIs, in preparation for the 2017 Youth Count and to develop, implement, and evaluate a coordinated community plan to end youth homelessness by 2020. The Youth Engagement Report is intended to share relevant news and information to those participating in youth related efforts. Click here for the February 2017 Edition.
CCEH Data Updates
 
If you haven't subscribed to the CCEH data newsletter, you are missing out on a monthly dose of everything data-related that is coming from CCEH! You can  click here to sign up , and never miss out on exciting data related releases like the Coordinated Entry Reports , Regional  PIT Reports , or the upcoming supplemental youth count data report.