Session Agenda
Thursday January 16
Click on individual sessions for more info10:45 am–12:15 pm
This presentation will describe the Building Early Links (BELL) for Learning initiative in Philadelphia. Attendees will learn how BELL increases enrollment among children in shelter by promoting developmentally appropriate policies, practices, and spaces in shelter and engaging in cross-systems collaboration between shelter and early childhood education.
J.J. Cutuli, PhD
Senior Research Scientist
Nemours Children’s Health System
Joe Willard
Vice President of Policy
People’s Emergency Center
Families experiencing homelessness often face numerous poor health outcomes. The process by which homeless families navigate healthcare systems has been largely unknown until this point. This session will present findings from a study that uses photography as a tool to illuminate the experiences of homeless families navigating healthcare systems.
Dana Harley, PhD
Associate Professor
University of Cincinnati
James P. Canfield, PhD
Associate Professor
Louisiana State University
Leslie Kokotech
Doctoral Student
University of Cincinnati
Racially and ethnically diverse families and children who become homeless experience unique challenges when interacting with schools, homeless shelters, social service providers, and the legal system. Panelists will share research on the importance of culturally appropriate education and social services as well as their experiences helping diverse homeless families thrive.
Moderator
Jeff Olivet
Principal Investigator and Consultant
jo consulting
Lorraine Davis
Founder, President, & CEO
Native American Development Center & NATIVE, INC.
Dania Darwish
Director
Asiyah Women’s Center
Mary Cheng
Director of Childhood Development Services
Chinese-American Planning Council
The co-location of employment and housing services can offer superior results to housing first programs. In this session, Way Finders will discuss their innovative use of state funds to successfully integrate employment services into a housing first program in Massachusetts.
Maegan Pedemonti
Program Manager
Way Finders, Inc.
Kamaria Moore-Hollis
Economic Mobility Manager
Department of Transitional Assistance
This session will examine employee self-care from an organizational perspective. Presenters will share an example of an interdepartmental policy created to address workplace trauma for staff. Staff from the departments involved in this collaboration will share their experience with implementation and impact.
Megan Melamed
Clinical Manager
Win
Darlene Williams, PhD
Chief Program Officer
Win
Roudy Vincent
Assistant Vice President of Corporate Security
Win
Presenters will share their experiences implementing culturally sensitive medical school curriculum that fosters interaction between medical students and homeless families. Participants will work in small groups to explore opportunities for educational initiatives through local partnerships between service organizations and academic institutions.
Dr. Cynthia Arndell
Executive Medical Director of Care Management & Home Health Care Services
University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center
Tracy Weaver
Executive Director
Saranam
This session will review federal policy on child, youth, and family homelessness, provide a current update, and offer ways that attendees can take action to shape the future. Areas of focus will include the reform of federal homeless assistance, as well as early care, education, housing, and anti-poverty programs.
Barbara Duffield
Executive Director
SchoolHouse Connection
Cara Baldari
Vice President, Family Economics, Housing, and Homelessness
First Focus
Patricia Julianelle
Director of Program Advancement and Legal Affairs
SchoolHouse Connection
While student homelessness is on the rise nationwide, it is growing at nearly four times the national rate in rural America. This session will explore the challenges and best practices in identifying and supporting homeless students in rural communities.
Moderator
Chloe Stein
Principal Policy Analyst
Institute for Children, Poverty, and Homelessness
Christina Dukes
Federal Liaison
National Center for Homeless Education (NCHE)
Derrick Lambert
Senior Manager
No Kid Hungry campaign by Share Our Strength
Living with Loss, Healing from Homelessness is a program that helps homeless families learn to process and cope with the loss and grief associated with homelessness. This session will cover how families can normalize their grief after losing a home and how others can support them in their grief.
Connie Palmer
Clinical Training Director
Imagine, A Center for Coping with Loss
How do approaches to family homelessness vary by community? This session will explore how Family Promise Affiliates in urban, suburban, and rural localities use existing local resources and work with different sectors to support families experiencing homelessness. Attendees will learn about unique local dynamics and challenges, and creative community-level solutions.
Joann Bjornson
Executive Director
Family Promise of Morris County NJ
Christine Carter-Love
Executive Director
Family Promise of Monmouth County NJ
Carolyn Gordon
Northeast Regional Director
Family Promise
Claas Ehlers
CEO
Family Promise
Creative writing has the power to help us all better understand our past and take control of our own life stories. Attendees will learn how writing can be used as a tool for empowerment and healing, especially with vulnerable children and youth.
Rebecca Wallace-Segall
Executive Director
Writopia Lab
Danielle Sheeler
Director of Camps and Curriculum
Writopia Lab
Elsa Bermudez
Program Manager, Senior Instructor
Writopia Lab
Tierra Gunther
Program Associate
Homes for the Homeless
Representatives from Prince George’s County, Maryland, will discuss how child welfare and supportive housing organizations in their community collaborated using funds from the Corporation for Supportive Housing One Roof Leadership Institute for Supportive Housing and Child Welfare Partnerships to create new supportive housing policies for child welfare in their community.
Renee Ensor Pope
Assistant Director, Community Services Division & Continuum of Care Lead
Prince George’s County Department of Social Services
Walter Jackson
Assistant Director, Child, Adult, and Family Services
Prince George’s County Department of Social Services
Stephen Liggett-Creel
Chief of Staff
Prince George’s County Department of Social Services
Panelists will present a program developed by Gateway Housing, the NYC Department of Education, and the NYC Department of Homeless Services called Attendance Matters. This program uses data to identify causes of poor attendance and seeks to understand these causes by considering broader family issues.
Henry O. Love, PhD
Attendance Matters Project Manager
Gateway Housing
Ted Houghton
President
Gateway Housing
Doreen Thomann-Howe
Deputy Commissioner of Family Services
NYC Department of Homeless Services
2:45 pm–4:15 pm
Join representatives from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as they discuss the Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS). What is this survey and how is it administered? Learn how the health behaviors and experiences of homeless youth differ from those of their peers. Hear how the data are used to support the health and well-being of homeless students and explore opportunities for collaboration. Find out how to advocate for adding a question about housing status to your state or local YRBS.
Mike Underwood
Chief, School-Based Surveillance Branch
Division of Adolescent and School Health
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Nancy Brener
Senior Health Scientist, School-Based Surveillance Branch
Division of Adolescent and School Health
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Lieutenant Commander Jennifer Smith-Grant
Epidemiologist, School-Based Surveillance Branch
Division of Adolescent and School Health
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Health Services Officer, United States Public Health Service
Job readiness. Workforce development. Phrases that have become buzzwords in the social services industry. But how can we go beyond standard employment prep programs to provide more opportunities for families experiencing housing instability? This session will dig into the value of youth internships, pre-apprenticeships and apprenticeships, and the social enterprise model from multiple direct service providers.
Symeria T. Hudson
President & CEO
Chapman Partnership
Thomas W. Evans
Young Adult Services Coordinator
Family Scholar House
Michael Fahy
Administrator, Saratoga Family Residence
Homes for the Homeless
Play is recognized by the UN as “a right of every child.” Essential to children’s development, it contributes to their cognitive, physical, and social/emotional well-being and offers parents opportunities to engage with children. This workshop will explore the benefits of play, barriers that limit access, and engagement in replicable family play activities.
Cathey Brown
Founder/Director
Rainbow Days, Inc./The Trans4m Center
Kelly Wierzbinski
Director of Family Connection
Rainbow Days, Inc.
This session will examine how the USDE used McKinney-Vento and Early Head Start/Head Start data to create Early Child Homelessness State Profiles. It will also discuss the importance of leveraging data to inform policy and policymakers for these children at the local, state, and national levels.
Amy Yamashiro, EdD
Education Research Analyst
U.S. Department of Education, Office of Planning, Evaluation, and Policy Development
Mandy Sorge
Senior Policy Analyst
National Governor’s Association
Marsha Basloe
President
Child Care Services Association, Chapel Hill
Although designed to prioritize those with the greatest need, Coordinated Entry Systems may be perpetuating systemic racial inequities through the use of untested tools like the VI-SPADT. In this session, presenters will discuss their research on racial bias in relation to this formerly untested tool.
Nastacia Moore
SPARC Technical Assistance Coordinator
C4 Innovations
Rosie Donegan
Research Coordinator
C4 Innovations
This session will share the elements of a successful advocacy campaign in Vermont that spotlighted children experiencing homelessness and shifted the approach to homelessness policy statewide. Attendees will also workshop potential campaigns for their own communities.
Rita Markley
Executive Director
COTS (Committee on Temporary Shelter)
Denise Fitzgerald Danyow
Finance Director
COTS (Committee on Temporary Shelter)
Troop 6000 is a Girl Scout troop designed to serve girls and women living in NYC family shelters. Through weekly leadership-development meetings in 20 shelters across the city, Girl Scouts of Greater New York builds girls of courage, confidence, and character, who make the world a better place. Troop meetings are led by trained troop leaders—a combination of parents also living in the shelter system and community-based volunteers. Hear about how the troop evolved, its impact on troop members and leaders, and how this Girl Scout experience could work in your community.
Nikita Stewart
Author
Social Services Reporter
New York Times
Heidi Schmidt
Director
Troop 6000
Girl Scouts of Greater New York
Valerie Weaver
Social Worker
Troop 6000
Cindy-Ann Ragbirsingh
Leader
Troop 6000
Sentia
Girl Scout Ambassador
Karina
Girl Scout Senior
Tiara
Girl Scout Cadette
This session is a facilitated discussion among youth from across the country who experienced homelessness during their K-12 education. They will discuss the challenges that they experienced in their education as well as the people, programs, and internal attributes that have helped them persist and achieve success.
Jordyn Roark
Director, Youth Leadership & Scholarship Program
SchoolHouse Connection
Kara Freise
SHC Young Leader, Student
SchoolHouse Connection
Miguel Cruz-Parrish
SHC Young Leader, Student
SchoolHouse Connection
Julio Colon
Student
Lehman College
Research is clear: students experiencing homelessness have worse educational outcomes. Attendees will learn how housing authorities and education partners are using data to support residents on their education path, building housing-education partnerships with a two-generational approach, re-engaging non-traditional students, and assessing the impact of post-secondary grant aid.
Abra Lyons-Warren
Senior Program & Policy Manager
Council of Large Public Housing Authorities
Cassandra Brooks
Assistant Director of Education
Chicago Housing Authority
This session brings together three research projects that investigate student homelessness in New York City. Attendees will learn the ways in which schools support homeless students and how homeless families navigate the school choice process. This session will provide important lessons for researchers, policymakers, and practitioners.
Amanda Ragnauth
Senior Policy Analyst
Institute for Children, Poverty, and Homelessness
Zitsi Mirakhur, PhD
Research Associate
The Research Alliance for New York City Schools
Kathryn Hill, PhD
Research Associate
The Research Alliance for New York City Schools
Jennifer Jennings
Professor of Sociology & Public Affairs, Director of the Education Research Section
Princeton University
Students experiencing homelessness have school needs that range from transportation to supplies. However, many students have additional needs that stem from chronic stress and trauma. This session will share specific school-based strategies from New York State’s first cohort of Trauma-Sensitive Schools grantees that will help homeless students thrive.
Arija Linauts
Senior Program Associate
NYS-TEACHS at Advocates for Children
Cindie Lembo
School Social Worker
White Plains City School District
There is often a disconnect between human-centered services and data analysis. This session will explore how Allegheny County (PA) Department of Human Services uses visually engaging dashboards to put data in the hands of the stakeholders who can use it best.
Lisa Kessler
Data Analyst
Allegheny County Department of Human Services
Courtney Lewis
Transition Age Youth System Coordinator
Allegheny County Department of Human Services
Over 63 million adults in the U.S. are unbanked or underbanked, spending up to $40,000 in a lifetime on unnecessary fees for alternative financial services. This session will share strategies that build sustainable financial empowerment programs to connect homeless and low-income communities to safe, affordable, and functional bank accounts.
Rachel Borné
Career Center Manager
Our House, Inc.
I-Hsing Sun
CFE Fund Chief Program Officer
Cities for Financial Empowerment
Friday January 17
Click on individual sessions for more info9:15 am–10:45 am
This session will present an analysis of New York City Department of Social Services data showing demographic characteristics of the domestic violence (DV) and non-DV populations in shelter. It will also present recommendations to prevent domestic violence and improve services for survivors.
Selcuk Eren
Senior Economist
Office of the New York City Comptroller
Alyson Silkowski
Associate Policy Director
Office of the New York City Comptroller
Attendees will learn strategies for using data to evaluate areas of need, set goals, and demonstrate success. Discover what data systems are available and explore examples of work across the country that use the evaluation of data to change the lives of students experiencing homelessness.
Barbara Duffield
Executive Director
SchoolHouse Connection
Jennifer Erb-Downward
Senior Research Associate
University of Michigan, Poverty Solutions
Ian Rosenblum
Executive Director
The Education Trust–New York
Daniel Zavala
Director of Policy and Strategic Communications
Building Changes
This session focuses on a two-year initiative aimed at reaching out to homeless families and housing providers to increase participation in subsidized childcare. Participants will learn about the specific strategies used and will receive a template to create an outreach plan.
Grace Whitney, PhD
Director, Early Childhood Initiatives
SchoolHouse Connection
Marsha Basloe
President
Child Care Services Association, Chapel Hill
Beth Branagan
School Social Worker & Homeless Education Liaison
Transylvania County Schools
Forming community coalitions can be a way to better understand the challenges homeless families face in a community. In this session, attendees will be provided with an in-depth discussion of a community change process in Texas and the opportunity to develop their own blueprint for change.
Carol Klocek
CEO
Center for Transforming Lives
Erika Thompson, PhD
Assistant Professor
University of North Texas Health Science Center, School of Public Health
This session will explore how Crossroads Rhode Island integrated case management and employment services to support housing placement and retention for homeless families. Presenters will also discuss how to use SNAP Employment and Training funds to provide a cash match for every non-federal dollar invested in education and training programs.
Bernice Morris
Director, Education & Employment Services
Crossroads Rhode Island
Mary Lou Wernig
Housing-based Employment Specialist
Crossroads Rhode Island
Pregnant and parenting students are disproportionately impacted by college homelessness. This workshop will present new research on college homelessness, highlight the latest legislation impacting this community, spotlight one university’s approach to serving homeless students, and honor voices of students with current and lived experiences of homelessness.
Shahera Hyatt
Director
California Homeless Youth Project
The ability of homeless children to access needed educational supports is often determined by where that child lives. This session will discuss states’ efforts to identify and support homeless students and highlight not only the importance of and best practices in identifying these students, but the challenges faced by states, and the complexity of evaluating these efforts.
Josef Kannegaard
Principal Policy Analyst
Institute for Children, Poverty, and Homelessness
Rebecca Derenge
State Coordinator for McKinney-Vento “Homeless Education”
West Virginia Department of Education
Toby Portner
McKinney-Vento Coordinator, Education for Homeless Children and Youth (EHCY)
Hawaii Department of Education, Office of Student Support Services
Brianna Levy
Social Worker, Education for Homeless Children and Youth (EHCY)
Hawaii Department of Education, Office of Student Support Services
Dona Bolt
State Coordinator, McKinney-Vento Program
Oregon Department of Education
Kristine Nadolski
McKinney-Vento State Coordinator
Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction
Karen Rice
McKinney-Vento State Coordinator
Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction
We’re still finalizing details for next year’s program. Subscribe for updates as we complete the agenda.
Get UpdatesIn this session, leaders from the NYC Department of Education and Public Policy Lab will share how they use human-centered design approaches to drive innovation. Participants will learn about the human-centered research and design process and identify opportunities to apply these methodologies in their own work.
Chelsea Mauldin
Executive Director
Public Policy Lab
Michael Hickey
Executive Director, Students in Temporary Housing
New York City Department of Education
This session will present new research findings on the role of adolescent homelessness in long-term college and workforce outcomes from a statewide repository of K-12, post-secondary, and workforce data called the Maryland Longitudinal Data System.
Bess A. Rose, EdD
Statistician
Maryland Longitudinal Data System Center
Minnesota’s Homework Starts with Home initiative partners homeless service providers and educators to help homeless students succeed. This session will present the initiative’s research partnership with the University of Minnesota and share the program’s outcomes.
Eric Grumdahl
Director of Special Projects
Minnesota Department of Education
Ann Masten, PhD
Regents Professor, Irving B. Harris Professor of Child Development & Distinguished McKnight University Professor
Institute of Child Development, University of Minnesota
To continuously enhance its services, Horizons for Homeless Children thoughtfully integrates philosophies and best practices of like-minded organizations. This session will highlight one such partnership discussing how the Brazelton Touchpoints Center at Boston Children’s Hospital has helped Horizons evolve to result in better outcomes for families and children facing the challenges of homelessness.
Kate Barrand
President & CEO
Horizons for Homeless Children
Jayne Singer, PhD
Clinical Psychologist, Director of Development & Relational Health
Boston Children’s Hospital, Brazelton Touchpoints Center
Developmental screening of children living in poverty and experiencing homelessness is a significant gap in community practice. Attendees will learn about a new neurodevelopmental tool to screen children and their caregivers for risk and resilience and how to apply the tool to their own practice.
Carmela J. DeCandia, PhD
Owner & President
Artemis Associates, LLC
Katie Volk
Senior Project Director
C4 Innovations
11:00 am–12:30 pm
Attaining access to post-secondary education for homeless students is a struggle. Attendees will learn about federal programs and funds, such as the Youth Homelessness Demonstration Program (YDHP) and the Perkins Act, that can support homeless students’ entry into and academic success in post-secondary institutions.
Christina Dukes
Federal Liaison
National Center for Homeless Education (NCHE)
This session will unpack how nonprofits can partner with public schools to tackle effects of family homelessness and student achievement through two-generational programming. Panelists will provide practical guidance on how to effectively improve outcomes without a funded partnership.
Erin Morris
Program Manager
A Child’s Place
Kimberly Caldwell
Program Manager
A Child’s Place
Sonia Jenkins, EdS
McKinney-Vento Specialist
Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools
Moving from an adult-focused case management model to a whole-family approach can be a challenging transition for a supportive housing provider. In this session, supportive housing providers will share their experiences with changing their models. Attendees will create a draft “action plan” mapping out how they could better support families.
Laura Bass
Director of Programs
Facing Forward to End Homelessness
Robret Simpson
Director of Operations
Facing Forward to End Homelessness
Azalea Acuña
Program Coordinator
La Casa Norte
This session will explore the different approaches and considerations when working with distinct and often underserved family structures such as young parents, homeless fathers, veteran mothers, and parents living apart from their children. Attendees will learn how service providers can better meet the needs of specific family types.
Andrew Palomo, PhD
Director of Community Strategies
National Network for Youth
Amanda Dolan
National Service Coordinator
Our House, Inc.
Guy Bowling
Workforce Development Manager
Goodwill-Easter Seals Minnesota FATHER Project
Megan Pfeiffer
Re-Entry Social Worker
Hour Children
Adam Huron
Vice President of Family Transitional and Daycare Services
HELP USA
The “Set Up to Fail” report looks at how rapid rehousing programs harmed many families in Washington, DC. In this session, formerly homeless community members will share how they felt the services meant to help them ultimately failed them and the strategies they used to make social change.
Kristi Matthews
Kressley Fellow for Grass Roots Advocacy & Grass Roots Advocacy Coordinator
Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless
LaJuan Brooks
Administrative Assistant
Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless
Ashley Rhodes
Founding Member
Rapid Rehousing Workgroup
Tineshea Woodson
Founding Member
Rapid Rehousing Workgroup
Public schools identified 1.5 million homeless students during SY 2017-2018, in addition to an estimated 1.3 million children under the age of six. Education Leads Home is a national campaign focused on improving educational outcomes for these students, raising awareness of key challenges, and increasing implementation of proven practices and policies. Attendees will learn more about the campaign’s three goals, the work being done across the country to achieve them, and how this can be incorporated into their own work.
Barbara Duffield
Executive Director
SchoolHouse Connection
Matthew Atwell
Senior Research and Policy Analyst
Civic
Emily Webb
Policy Assistant
EducationCounsel
Advocacy work is vital to ensuring that the needs of homeless families and students are addressed in communities. Panelists will share the challenges faced and lessons learned in the areas of public policy advocacy, community engagement, and minimizing the stigma of homelessness by inviting those who have lived the experience to be part of the conversation.
Moderator
Raysa Rodriguez
Associate Executive Director for Policy & Advocacy
Citizens’ Committee for Children of New York
Carlos T. Carter
Executive Director
Homeless Children’s Education Fund
Brian Knight
Manager of Community Engagement
Homeless Children’s Education Fund
Adina Lichtman
Founder
Knock Knock Give a Sock
Josefa Silva
Director, Policy & Advocacy
Win
Shelters are more than a place for families to sleep. Providing access to robust programming for children—from birth through college—while they are living in a shelter cannot be underestimated. Explore innovative programming options (and funding) that give kids, and their parents, access to quality pre-K, sports teams, on-site art therapy, and more.
Moderator
Annamaria Santoro
Senior Director of Operations
Homes for the Homeless
Michael Chapman
Director of Afterschool and Recreation, Saratoga Family Residence
Homes for the Homeless
Sarah Steward
Chief Operating Officer
HomeFront, Inc.
Jaymes Sime
Executive Director
MICAH House
This session will share details about efforts used to assist with locating low-income housing opportunities. Attendees will learn how to cultivate relationships with landlords to support homeless families and how to implement an in-house rental subsidy program.
Cheree Webster-Jones
Assistant Director of Education
Drueding Center
Ron Allen
Director of Community Services
Drueding Center
Sherlonda Dozier
Housing Counselor
Drueding Center
Eight million students are chronically absent each year—meaning they miss a month or more of school. In this interactive workshop, participants will learn about the effects of chronic absenteeism on academic achievement and acquire an attendance toolkit developed through NYC’s Community School Initiative and its “Every Student, Every Day” campaign.
Sarah Peterson
Director of Research & Development
Office of Community Schools, New York City Department of Education
Cruz Vargas Sullivan
Research and Development Analyst
Office of Community Schools, New York City Department of Education
The healthcare sector is embracing the importance of “social determinants of health,” and creating opportunities for homeless service providers to build strategic partnerships with health care stakeholders. Presenters will share the results of one such partnership and describe the characteristics of strong partnerships between these sectors.
Ben Goodwin
Executive Director
Our House, Inc.
Cindy Crone
Assistant Professor
University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS)
This session will take a closer look at the mental, emotional, and physical health needs of homeless high school students across the country. Attendees will learn tangible action steps to promote safety and health for students experiencing homelessness.
Rachel Barth
Senior Policy Analyst
Institute for Children, Poverty, and Homelessness
Kara Freise
SchoolHouse Connection Young Leader, Student
SchoolHouse Connection
Patricia Julianelle
Director of Program Advancement and Legal Affairs
SchoolHouse Connection
Attendees will learn how to use a set of free, online resources and learning modules designed to help professionals build their knowledge and practice skills through “real-life” interactive scenarios called Supporting Children and Families Experiencing Homelessness.
Jennifer Drake
Director, Family & Community Engagement
Child Care Aware of America (CCAoA)
Judith Sikora
Senior Family & Community Engagement Specialist
Child Care Aware of America (CCAoA)
2:15 pm–3:00 pm
Many families at risk of or experiencing homelessness may lack social networks to lean on in times of difficulty. Attendees will learn how the Neighborhoods of Support program connects homeless families with members of the local community to provide necessary social capital to these families.
Kristi Kubicki
Program Consultation Specialist
Bridge of Hope National
Attendees will learn about an innovative collaborative that addresses chronic homelessness in the City of San Leandro. Attendees will learn how street outreach can be conducted by officers, case managers, and others to successfully house and shelter chronically homeless seniors, adults, and families.
Jeanette Dong
Director, Recreation and Human Services
City of San Leandro Department of Recreation and Human Services
Joe Camarillo
San Leandro Police Officer, Homeless Unit
City of San Leandro Police Department
Liz Varela
Executive Director
Building Futures
In Hawaii, generating trust between educators and agencies serving families and youth has unique geographic and cultural challenges. The Hawaii Department of Education’s McKinney-Vento coordinator and HEAR US Inc. will present a documentary discussing the unique challenges of working with homeless students in Hawaii.
Diane Nilan
President
HEAR US, Inc.
Toby Portner
Hawaii McKinney-Vento Coordinator
Hawaii Department of Education
Escaping a domestic violence situation can be complicated when survivors are worried about leaving their pets behind. Attendees will learn about Urban Resource Institute’s People and Animals Living Safely (PALS) co-living program that welcomes families into emergency domestic violence shelter with their pets.
Danielle Emery
People and Animals Living Safely (PALS) Director
Urban Resource Institute
Jennifer White-Reid
Vice President of Domestic Violence Residential & Legal Programs
Urban Resource Institute
Jenny Coffey
Director of Community Engagement
Animal Haven Shelter
This session will lead participants through the concepts of homelessness prevention, diversion, and rapid re-housing for refugee families. Results from research with refugee families accessing emergency shelter will be used to understand the nuances of these various upstream approaches.
Abe Oudshoorn, PhD
Assistant Professor
School of Nursing, Western University
Homeless youth experience unique challenges when they transition into post-secondary education after high school. Attendees will learn about a county-wide Homeless Youth Task Force as well as numerous programs that were created to support homeless teens through the college application process and toward college completion in San Bernardino, CA.
Donald English
Program Manager of Child Welfare & Attendance Programs
San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools
Paul Durham
Program Manager of Foster Youth Services Coordinating Programs
San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools
Brenda Dowdy
Homeless Education Program Specialist
San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools
Student homelessness is invisible despite its dramatic national rise. Attendees will learn how The City Mission collaborated with over 100 churches to raise awareness of student homelessness and how this collaboration culminated in a community awareness event called Stand In for Homeless Children.
Rich Trickel
CEO
The City Mission
Heather Foote
Director of Project Management
The City Mission
We’re still finalizing details for next year’s program. Subscribe for updates as we complete the agenda.
Get UpdatesAccess to early care and education programs is vital for families experiencing homelessness. In this session, presenters will provide an overview of early care and education programs that are tailored to homeless families and share a tool to help connect families with early care and education programs in their communities.
Jennifer Pringle
Project Director
NYS-TEACHS at Advocates for Children
Dona Anderson
Deputy Executive Director
New York Early Childhood Professional Development Institute at CUNY
Occupational therapy in supportive housing can assist homeless families in developing their life skills, coping skills, and interpersonal skills. In this session, presenters will share how occupational therapists can provide just in time life skill interventions that are a central part of services for homeless families.
Laura Menze
Occupational Therapist
Lydia’s House
Meridith Owensby
Co-Director
Lydia’s House
Homeless service providers are at high risk for compassion fatigue and burnout. This interactive workshop will empower service providers with knowledge and tools to manage compassion fatigue and find a necessary work-life balance.
Jamie Meyer
Vice President of EFFINITY Training & Education
Metropolitan Ministries
Homeless graduate students face unique challenges when navigating higher education. This session uses first-hand accounts to provide insight into these experiences. Attendees will be provided with strategies to effectively serve homeless graduate students.
James P. Canfield, PhD
Assistant Professor
Louisiana State University
Leslie Kokotech
Doctoral Student
University of Cincinnati
Dana Harley, PhD
Associate Professor
University of Cincinnati
Faith communities can be a powerful resource in propelling families out of poverty. In this session, Homestretch will present their Sacred Homes partnership, which connects faith communities to families and works to increase faith community donations to the cause of family homelessness.
Christopher Fay
Executive Director
Homestretch
Ken Bradford
Development Director
Homestretch
We’re still finalizing details for next year’s program. Subscribe for updates as we complete the agenda.
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