DV/EA Working Group
Meeting Minutes – 9/6/17
In attendance: Yoshi Bird, YWCA, Anthia Elliott, Safe Passage, Jane Lindfors, DTA/DV unit, Heather Marshall, Elizabeth Freeman Center, Gerry McCafferty, City of Springfield/Hampden County CoC, Pamela Schwartz, Network, Tonya Sparks, WomanShelter
Major issues identified:
- Releases! How do we do the work of coordinated entry and protect confidentiality? Gerry will reach out to a HUD TA person who is designated to addresses these challenges.
- Three County CoC: how is it addressing DV needs in its mix of funded housing solutions? Heather will raise this at its next board meeting (in Oct.); Anthia will consider attending or reaching our directly to Dave.
- DV access to HomeBASE: why has no family accessed this resource? Is it the quid pro quo of a DHCD requirement for a DV shelter to allocate a bed to an EA family suffering DV in exchange for a DV family receiving HomeBASE? Is it too stringent income eligibility requirements? Is it concern for setting up a family for the “cliff effect” when benefit is gone? We agreed we needed to separate out the policy limitations around the benefit (the cliff effect) from the administrative barriers to accessing the benefit. We think there is a communication gap between the leadership at DHCD/DPH and the case managers/administrators of the program. More to understand there.
- Must address INDIVIDUALS’ access to DV resources
- Must address DHCD system gap in failing to adequately capture DV as the truly originating reason for becoming homeless
On the draft workplan reviewed at the meeting:
On Goals (as written in this current draft):
- On second and third “indicators” of first goal of “improve access” we need to define what it means to successfully refer and how to measure it (perhaps these two indicators will be conflated and then fleshed out through strategies)
- Goals of “integrate DV providers in the coordinated entry effort” and “increase collaboration between DV and EA providers” should be shifted to “strategies” to achieve the goal of “improve access to resources for DV survivors”
- Other strategies for “improve access” include resolving the release of information challenge and gaining clarity on (3 County) CoC allocation of resources in relation to DV needs
- Add a goal that pertains to increasing access to DV services for individuals
- On data collection goal, add outcomes: CoC will provide data it already collects on individuals and DV (HUD requires the question on its intake); and improve accuracy of data collected (possible strategy: DV providers train non-DV providers on info collection)
- On data collection, add ascertaining more accurate number of EA families in the system due to DV (unclear on strategies)
On Action Plans: we agreed that the format would change so the document is one work plan with each goal containing a breakdown of strategies, indicators, outcomes – and all the columns will still fit on one page!
Next meeting date: October 3, 3:30-5:00 pm, Northampton Senior Center
