Facilitation Guide - Leading with Lived Expertise

This is a summary of LEAG meeting activities conducted with LEAG Cohort 1, focused on Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG) implementation and improvements, and experiences with ESG activities among people with lived experience. This guide offers ideas for replicating the LEAG model in local and regional contexts, and can be applied at different scales and to inform relevant local programs.

For their inaugural year, the LEAG reviewed the activities of DOH’s ESG program. DOH’s ESG program provides grants for street outreach, emergency shelter, homelessness prevention, rapid re-housing, and data collection to non-profits and local governments. Participants were paid for their involvement in the LEAG and offered input via meetings, written surveys, literature review responses, and sharing direct experiences. The LEAG received initial onboarding to the State’s homelessness response system, ESG, evidence-based best practices, and current data on homelessness in Colorado. Monthly meetings were held virtually to ensure statewide input could be included. Each meeting focused on specific components of the ESG program. Input, ideas, and solutions for each component were solicited through conversations and activities with DOH staff.

Part 1: Orientation and Onboarding

• 4 x 2 hour meetings; November 2021 – January 2022
• Reading and recorded webinars are provided, and one hour of compensation provided per meeting for preparation.

Meeting 1:

Member Introductions & Getting to Know You

• Name, pronouns, community you live in
• What do you hope we get out of this experience?
• In a word or short phrase: What is something you really hope we talk about or learn more about while participating in this group?

Meet the Office of Homeless Initiatives ESG Team & What We Do

Your Lived Experience as Expertise: Advising & Advocating for System Improvement

• Creating a safe and supported gathering space for our work
• How can we support each other’s success and participation in this group?
• How do we support our goals to provide input for Homeless Response System improvement and ESG implementation?

Meeting 2:

Member Introductions & Getting to Know You

• How can we create a safe and supported gathering space for our work?
• How can we support each other’s success and participation in this group?

The Role and Scope of the State, the Office of Homeless Initiatives and ESG

• Limitations and opportunities
• Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and Emergency Solutions Grants (ESG)
• Partnerships through Grantmaking
  • Continuums of Care (CoC’s)
  • City/County Government
  • Agencies/Organizations

The Homeless Response System & ‘System Transformation’ Goals

• Homelessness is Rare, Brief and One-Time: a.k.a. “Prevent and End Homelessness”
• Leave no one behind
• The Homeless Response System: A Spectrum of Services
• Targeting Inflow & Outflow + “Safe and Short” Length of Time (LOT) homeless
• Linking to Affordable and Accessible Housing & Essential Healthcare

What is something from the meeting that stands out to you as important information or thinking moving forward?

Meeting 3:

Member Introductions & Getting to Know You

What is something you learn when you experience homelessness that you see as a strength you have carried forward?

Evidence-based Best Practices in Homeless Response and Improvement

• Client-Centered
• Housing-Focused
• Trauma-Informed Care
• Coordinated Entry
• Functional Zero

Using Data/Information to talk about Equity and Homeless Solutions

• Poverty, Homelessness, Housing Information
• Household Cost Burdens
• BIPOC, Demographic, Health Data = Overrepresented & Underserved
• Housing is Healthcare
• Niche Populations (youth/senior, persons w/ disabilities, domestic violence, medical respite veterans, addiction/recovery, families, re-entry, LGBTQ, non-English speakers, etc.)
• Partnerships

Leveraging your ESG Orientation and Onboarding in your Advocacy and Advisory Role

• Racial & Economic Equity and Justice = Access to Services & Solutions
• Reducing Inflow, Increasing Outflow
• Functional Zero
• “Safe and Short” Length of Time (LOT) homeless

Meeting 4:

• Colorado Emergency Solutions Grant Program and Impact
• Introduction to ESG Implementation Science at Division of Housing
• Working Together Toward Recommendations and a Final Report in 2022

Part 2: LEAG Consultation on ESG Programs

• 5 x 1.5 hour meetings; January 2021 – June 2022
• Reading and preparation materials provided and one hour of compensation provided.
• Google forms were collected one week prior to meetings to gain additional information, experiences and input.

The following section provides LEAG discussion questions and prompts used in meetings and feedback forms. These questions are designed to solicit feedback and ideas specifically around ESG activities: outreach, emergency shelter, housing supports and data collection.

Outreach

Housing-focused Street Outreach programs aim to connect people to services through professional and consistent engagement with those who are not currently being served. They work to provide basic services that build trust, with an immediate connection to shelter/housing, as meets individual needs. How do we implement and reinforce these goals?

From your experience, and what you know about provision of homeless services, what are the most important services and contacts to prioritize while someone is unsheltered?

When thinking about Outreach and Unsheltered Homelessness and services, briefly list specific topic areas you want to be sure we address.

What areas of implementation of best practices and safety do you think will be most challenging to implement and why?

What are ways or data points we can look at to know how well outreach services serve people?

After concluding our conversations about Shelter and Outreach, what is a high-level focus or message about homeless response coordination and ending homelessness you think we should be highlighting in recommendations?

Emergency Shelter

Increasing Access: a) What are the top 5 barriers to access?
Increasing Access: b) What are solutions or ways to overcome these barriers to access identified?

Operations Designed for Safety: a) What are things that would make a shelter feel as safe as possible?
Operations Designed for Inclusion: b) What are operational considerations that would make a shelter feel welcoming and approachable?

From your experience, and what you know about needing and seeking emergency shelter, what are the most important supportive services to prioritize while someone is in emergency shelter? (Aside from food, water, shelter bed.)

What areas of implementation of best practices in emergency sheltering do you think will be most challenging to implement and why?

What are ways or data points we can look at to know how well emergency shelters serve people? When thinking about Emergency Shelter facilities and services, briefly list specific topic areas you want to be sure we address.

Housing Supports

As you feel comfortable sharing your experience, share what supports or resources were supportive in helping you find and secure a home after homelessness: things you did on your own, or through an agency or case manager, or program. What stands out from your experience? What advice would you have for someone moving into a home after experiencing homelessness?

Based on your experience, what are the challenges being in your home again after homelessness, and what supports and next steps do you think would help people retain their home when they move into housing?

• In the beginning? Ongoing? Periodically?
• How do you decide the conclusion of Case Management and supportive services?
• In what ways would you want to receive ongoing support when housed?
• What continues to be a challenge or ongoing need? What continues to get better after a while?

From your experience and what you know about working on getting housed, what specific housing- focused resources, information, supports, etc. do you think are most important to prioritize?

What support strategies do you recommend to assist people through the housing process?

What advice do you have for people whose job it is to assist people experiencing homelessness in finding housing?

From your experience, what tasks were most important in helping you get housed?

What resources did you use to find housing after experiencing homelessness? (Check all that apply.)

Part 3: Working Toward a Report & Recommendations

• 3 x 1.5 hour meetings; July 2022 – August 2022
• Reading and preparation materials provided and one hour of compensation provided.
• Drafts of report content and activities organizing themes and messages facilitated.

LEAG recommendations, key messages, and ‘3 E’s Toward Equity’ framework, emerged after an exercise organizing their input and ideas into categories and finding threads of repeated and compelling messaging in discussions. After facilitating discussions over five months, key messages and a strong and simple framework for action emerged.

Confirm Permissions and Use of Participant quotes

DRAFT Emergent Themes for System Improvement:

• Accountability for Problem; Ownership of Solutions
• Centered with participation and decision-making by People with Lived Expertise
• Peer Support Roles at all levels, especially Outreach, Housing Search, Tenancy Support
• Focus on Health and Safety
• Eliminate criminalization/penalism = Reducing harm; trauma; costs
• More Flexible, Supported Housing Solutions
• Quality and Competent Staffing: Mental Health First-Aid; Trauma-Informed Care; Crisis De- escalation, etc.
• Increase training and supports for services to unique populations: LGBTQ+; non-English speakers; Persons with Disabilities; BIPOC; People with partners and pets
• Expand Housing Navigation and Engagement Processes beyond vouchers
• Information and Communication Improvements

Identifying 3-4 Priority Themes/Areas for funding and capacity-building

Review and confirm the overarching key messages you want to emphasize:

• Why Urgency?
• Why Equity?
• Why Lived Experience?
• Why Invest in People on the frontline?

Refinement of thematic ‘buckets’ of focus for system-wide capacity building and improvement into a compelling message or framework. What do you mean by:

• Equity?
• Empowerment?
• Engagement?
• Evaluation?