Building an Evidence Base to End Homelessness
Using effective models, research & evaluation for robust policy & outcomes
How to implement an evidence based Housing First model
Pre-Conference Workshop A
Monday 28th May, 2012
9:00am – 4:00pm
This interactive workshop provides participants with an understanding of the Pathways Housing First model.
Housing First is a highly effective and cost saving program that ends homelessness for people with mental health, health, and addiction problems.
The workshop describes the programs’ consumer driven philosophy and how that can lead to transformative change in consumers, staff, and the mental health and housing system.
Participants will learn:
- About the program’s day to day operation, coordination of housing and clinical services
- Discuss challenging clinical case vignettes that tap into the provider’s own belief and values
- The research findings that constitute the evidence base for this program will also be reviewed
- An update on the current status of Housing First projects in Australia
About your workshop leader:
Pathways to Housing U.S.A.
Dr. Sam Tsemberis serves as CEO of Pathways to Housing, an organization he founded in 1992 based on the belief that housing is a basic human right. Pathways developed the consumer driven evidence based Housing First program that provides immediate access to permanent supportive housing to individuals who are homeless and who have mental health and addiction problems.
Dr. Tsemberis is on the faculty of the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University Medical Center. His is currently participating in national studies of homelessness, mental illness, and addiction in the US, Canada and Europe and has published numerous articles and book chapters on these topics. He recently published (Nov. 2010) the Housing First manual by Hazelden Press.
Using evidence & research to overcome barriers with hard to reach clients
Post-Conference Workshop B
Thursday 31st May, 2012
9.00am – 4.00pm
The Commonwealth’s White Paper and the NSW Strategic Plan on Homelessness target as a priority the reduction of homelessness for rough sleepers and people who are chronically homeless.
This workshop explores the learnings so far of Project 40, a Supportive Housing service in Western Sydney. Case studies and the data collected so far will be presented in a practical and honest examination of the challenges, difficulties and strategies employed by this service.
This workshop will examine the following:
- Data collection to review how new support models that aim to ‘break through’ hard to reach clients are working (or not)
- How the most vulnerable chronically homeless people have been invisible to the service system and strategies that aim to assertively engage them
- Case studies on how to connect with the most vulnerable through assertive outreach
- The evidence behind engaging mental health and cultural specialist workers to sustain people with complex needs in housing
- Learnings from outer western Sydney around Aboriginal homelessness and support models that are culturally competent
- How supportive housing models are improving quality of life for people who are chronically homeless
About your workshop leader:
Wentworth Community Housing (Project 40) NSW
Stephanie Brennan is the Manager – Community Services, Wentworth Community Housing (Project 40) NSW and is responsible for the development of a range of Housing First programs across the region, including the Project 40 Supportive Housing service.
She is a founding member of the Nepean Campaign Against Homelessness, helped establish the Nepean/ Blacktown Regional Taskforce on Homelessness, and has worked with homelessness services in outer western Sydney since 2007.
Previous to her current position Stephanie worked in the social services and local government sectors within the areas of management and policy. She has also had substantial experience as a human rights and trade union campaigner and negotiator, both nationally and internationally.
