Texas Balance of State Continuum of Care News
August 2019
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Texas Homeless Network is the lead agency for the
Texas Balance of State Continuum of Care (TX BoS CoC)
.
The TX BoS CoC is a group of stakeholders that collaboratively plan and operate the CoC and a range of housing and services to prevent and end homelessness. The TX BoS CoC covers
215 counties
and includes 24 Local Homeless Coalitions (LHCs) that plan, deliver, and evaluate local systems.
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Special Thanks
2018-19 was a year of transformation guided by HUD-funded Priority Communities Technical Assistance, led by consultants from
CSH
who worked with the CoC Board, Local Homeless Coalitions (LHCs), service providers, THN, and CoC members. Thanks to HUD and to Sue Augustus, Joan Domenech, Micah Snead, and Susan Starrett from CSH for all your work with the CoC to enhance stakeholder engagement, build capacity, improve performance, and facilitate growth. We are a stronger CoC because of you!
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NXTBoard
2019-20 will be another year of strategic change for the CoC. In May 2019, the TX BoS CoC Board received an award from
NXTBoard
, an Austin-based company that helps boards transform the way they work through its software portal that combines both board management and strategic planning features. The award includes a three-year portal license and one year of consulting services. NXTBoard aims to enable the Board to be more efficient, transparent, outcome-focused and more readily able to support the CoC in achieving its goals. Corey Masson and his team will also lead CoC members in developing a CoC Strategic Plan. Numerous opportunities to participate will be available over the next year, so stay tuned to THN’s website and BoS CoC emails, or contact Mary Stahlke, CoC Manager (
mary@thn.org
or 512-861-2180), to talk about how you can get involved.
Thanks to NXTBoard for this generous in-kind contribution to the CoC.
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TX BoS Board Votes
An impressive slate of candidates will run to serve on the TX BoS CoC Board for the next two years. Thirteen people with a wide range of experiences have been nominated, and we appreciate their willingness to lead the CoC. Only eight seats are available, and CoC general members (anyone who lives or works in a
TX BoS CoC county
) will vote for the people they want to serve as the next board members. Voting will take place in September, so keep an eye on our website and email to see how you can participate.
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Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF) Award
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has announced that they will award approximately $426 million to 271 grant programs for Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF). This funding includes $62 million in new SSVF awards that support outreach, case management, and other flexible assistance to rapidly re-house Veterans who become homeless or prevent Veterans from becoming homeless. The grants will support SSVF services in Fiscal Year 2020. These awards include the following agencies in the Texas Balance of State Continuum of Care (TX BoS CoC), Families in Crisis, Catholic Charities Diocese of Fort Worth, Inc, Sabine Valley Regional MHMR Center, Endeavors, American GI Forum, Lubbock MHMR (dba Starcare), The Salvation Army of Houston, United States Veterans Initiative, Caritas of Austin, West Central Texas Regional Foundation, Career and Recovery Resources Inc. These agencies will serve one or more counties in the TX BoS CoC. The full list of counties which will be
covered
by these agencies can be found here,
https://www.va.gov/homeless/ssvf/index.asp
under "SSVF FY2020 Grant Awards" We look forward to Fiscal Year 2020 as there are new and expansion grantees serving the TX BoS CoC.
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Coordinated Entry Unplugged
There will be no Coordinated Entry Unplugged for the month of September! Instead, we are encouraging staff from communities to attend the Rapid Resolution Training that is being provided by the Cleveland Mediation Center in Abilene or San Antonio the week of September 9th! For more information about this training please reach out to
CE@thn.org
or your community can submit an interest to register here:
https://forms.gle/NfqL7dojPws6SkXE9
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AUGUST
FY 2019 CoC Program Competition Q&A Webinar #3
Monday 19 August 2019, 02:00 PM - 04:00 PM
PATH and HMIS
Wednesday 18 September 2019, 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
In this webinar, we are going to dive into PATH and how it relates to HMIS. We will look at PATH specific data elements, reporting, as well as common data issues. Who Is Required to Attend: All PATH HMIS users are required to attend this webina
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SEPTEMBER
TX BoS CoC RRH Workgroup - September
Thursday 19 September 2019, 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM
CoC RRH projects will meet Monthly moving forward on the 3rd Thursday of each month at 10:00am to discuss best practices in RRH, review current policies and suggestions, and to discuss RRH struggles and strategies.
There will not be a September CoC General Meeting, we will have our next meeting in October at our annual Conference.
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TX CoC Board and NXTBoard
The CoC Board and NXTBoard are developing a CoC Strategic Plan to guide the CoC's efforts over the next three years. Five CoC general members (anyone who lives or works in one of the
215 TX BoS CoC counties
) are needed to serve on the Strategic Planning Committee that will spearhead the development of the plan. Committee members will spend about 16-20 hours attending planning meetings (2 at the October conference and 1 by webinar), responding to 3 online surveys (20 minutes each), and preparing for and attending 4 plan development meetings between November 2019 and October 2020. Diversity of all kinds--geographic, racial, gender, other characteristics--is needed to reflect the diversity in the population we serve. And your voices from local communities are also critical to the success of the plan. Contact Mary Stahlke, CoC Manager (
mary@thn.org
or 512-861-2180) if you're interested in joining the committee.
Serving on the Planning Committee is the most involved commitment, but if you aren't able to devote that much time, there will be other opportunities to give your inputat the Texas Conference on Ending Homelessness (
more information here
).
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The SHC Scholarship Program
SchoolHouse Connection is now accepting applications for their scholarship program for students who have experienced homelessness and are entering college for the first time. The deadline to apply is November 10, 2019, at 11:59 PM PST. To view the application, click here.
The SHC Youth Leadership and Scholarship Program assists youth with financial aid processes, mental health advocacy and referrals, professional legal advocacy and referrals, and assistance in locating and establishing local contacts for general support and services. Additionally, the program also offers young people meaningful opportunities to engage in advocacy while providing sustained support services to help ensure graduation and success in life. Further, it aims to build a stable peer and adult support network for recipients, before, during, and after their college careers, and into their transition into the workforce.
Applicants must have been born on or after November 10, 1999, be entering college for the first time during the 2020-2021 school year, and have experienced homelessness within the last six years. Undocumented students who meet these criteria are eligible to apply. Students will be awarded a $2,000 scholarship, a trip to a national awards ceremony (travel and expenses included), and a second trip to reconnect and engage in policy advocacy in Washington, DC, one year after the initial scholarship award (all expenses included). Contact Jordyn Roark, Director of Youth Leadership and Scholarships, at
jordyn@schoolhouseconnection.org
for more information.
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North Texas
East Texas
South Texas
West Texas
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These articles were gathered from Google Alerts and emails sent directly to us. If you have articles about your community's efforts to prevent and end homelessness that you want highlighted in our next newsletter, please email the articles to
txboscoc@thn.org.
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The following are resources TX BoS CoC Lead Agency staff have found that we believe would be beneficial to your local efforts to make homelessness rare, brief, and one-time:
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Opportunity Starts at Home's is a "national multi-sector movement which generates widespread support for federal policies that protect and expand affordable housing for low-income people.” The campaign shows how housing affects other sectors such as health and education. " Students do better. Patients are healthier. People can more readily escape poverty and homelessness. The economy is healthier. And our nation is more just and equal, when all Americans have access to safe, stable, affordable homes." Twelve fact sheets are available to show the intersections of housing and other sectors. Three new ones have recently been added: domestic violence, environment, and disability rights.
https://www.opportunityhome.org/related-sectors/
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Anyone who works or lives in the CoC's geographic area, and all housing and homeless services projects in the CoC's geographic area, are considered to be members of the CoC. The CoC has an open invitation process, so members may join at any time.
Share this email with anyone you think may be interested!
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CoC General Meeting Schedule
Stay informed about CoC happenings by participating in the monthly webinars. Each meeting will feature a topic that is important to preventing and ending homelessness. See the
schedule for dates, topics, and registration links.
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CoC Program Funding
If you are a representative of an agency that is interested in applying for United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Continuum of Care (CoC) Program funding, please contact
txboscoc@thn.org
.
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Your CoC Team
Get your questions answered and some face to face time with all of the CoC staff on the second Tuesday of every month during the CoC General Meetings.
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The TX BoS CoC is a focus area of the Texas Homeless Network.
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See what's happening on our social sites
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