January 2017

At Funders Together, we make it a goal to share the work of funders across the country so you can learn what's working and adapt these strategies to your own community. One way we do that is through our Featured Members. Some are featured because of their innovative grantmaking. Others are featured because they are making connections and bringing new people into the conversation about ending and preventing homelessness. Still others are featured because they are challenging the very systems that allow homelessness to persist. In each case, our Featured Members are an integral part of the solution to homelessness.

The Sisters of Charity Foundation of Cleveland works to improve the lives of those most in need with special attention to families, women and children living in poverty. The foundation works to end homelessness in Cuyahoga County and to reduce health disparities and improve educational opportunities in Cleveland’s Central Neighborhood. We spoke with Rebecca Gallant, director of communications for the Sisters of Charity Health System, about the Foundation's youth homelessness and affordable housing work and the important role philanthropy has in convening around homelessness.

1. What issue are you working to convene your community around?

We are motivated by a strident belief that every person deserves the dignity of a home. The critical need for affordable housing has been a major focus of the Sisters of Charity Foundation of Cleveland since 1998.

The affordable housing arena is complex and challenging, but we believe our community can end homelessness in Cuyahoga County through collaboration, implementation of best practices and coordination among public systems.

The Sisters of Charity Foundation’s efforts are focused on ending homelessness among three core populations –chronically homeless individuals, youth and families. The needs and opportunities facing each population are different and thus so are our strategies for each, though we recognize in many cases these groups are not mutually exclusive.

Today, our role to convene the community around a topic is highly active in preventing and ending youth homelessness.

2. What led to your organization’s decision to convene on this topic?

Our work to convene the community around preventing and ending youth homelessness was inspired by our longest and most successful efforts, which have been to end chronic homelessness. This is achieved through the Housing First Initiative of Cuyahoga County, which the Sisters of Charity Foundation of Cleveland championed before its inception and continues to support today.

Today, Housing First is a model solution to long-term homelessness that links affordable housing with comprehensive support services. The vibrant initiative in Cuyahoga County, led by the backbone organization Enterprise Community Partners with the support of multiple government and foundation funding streams, including the Sisters of Charity Foundation of Cleveland, is based on the best practice Housing First model for single adults, and focuses on providing housing to some of the county’s hardest to serve populations—young adults and families who have had substantial homeless histories as well as a disabling condition.

Since the first Housing First project opened in 2006, through the end of 2015, Cuyahoga County has seen a 78% decrease in the rate of chronic homelessness. Today, Cleveland has one of the lowest populations of unsheltered individuals and we are well on our way toward ending chronic homelessness.

Background of SOCF involvement

Since the 1980s, permanent supportive housing has emerged as an approach for providing housing and services in the United States. The general model of permanent supportive housing includes providing both independent housing and essential services for persons with mental and/or physical disabilities experiencing long-term homelessness. In the intervening decades, cities across the country have developed various types of permanent supportive housing – from large single-site apartment buildings to scattered site apartments and with varying combinations of on-site and off-site services. Embedding services in permanent housing gives persons with disabilities who have experienced long-term homelessness access to supportive services in a stable living environment.

As permanent supportive housing became more widely developed around the country, the Sisters of Charity Foundation of Cleveland took notice that this model was achieving success in permanently housing persons experiencing chronic homelessness.

In 2001, the Sisters of Charity Foundation of Cleveland convened representatives from the City of Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, other local funders, various service providers, property management firms, and community organizations, and began to meet regularly to discuss the idea of developing permanent supportive housing for persons experiencing chronic homelessness in Cuyahoga County. A the idea took hold, the Sisters of Charity Foundation in Cleveland — in collaboration with Enterprise Community Partners Inc., and the City of Cleveland/Cuyahoga County Office of Homeless Services — spearheaded these planning efforts.

Also, to further stakeholder knowledge of permanent supportive housing and to develop a case for permanent supportive housing in Cuyahoga County, the Sisters of Charity Foundation hired researchers from The Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs at Cleveland State University. Their work resulted in the April 2002 report, “Housing First: Documenting the Need for Permanent Supportive Housing.” By applying national homeless prevalence statistics to local Census figures of persons living in poverty, the report authors concluded at the time that an estimated 16,000 people annually experience homelessness in Cuyahoga County. The authors additionally estimated that, of the 16,000 persons experiencing homeless annually, an estimated 3,800 were single adults experiencing long-term homelessness.

The Sisters of Charity Foundation provided intense technical support throughout the planning stage, devoting staff and resources. In June 2003, a five-year plan to develop 1,000 units of supportive housing for long-term chronically homeless adults in Cleveland and Cuyahoga County was formulated, including with assistance from the Sisters of Charity Foundation of Cleveland, as well as assistance from the Corporation for Supportive Housing. Stakeholders named the initiative “Housing First.”

 As the Housing First initiative was implemented, Enterprise Community Partners and the Sisters of Charity Foundation of Cleveland partnered to provide the primary management functions for the overall initiative. Together, these two organizations worked to ensure project sponsors (developers, operators and service providers) were educated in the Housing First model of permanent supportive housing and had sufficient capacity and resources to effectively develop and manage projects.

During the implementation, the Sisters of Charity Foundation contributed financially, providing capacity building and organizational development grants to stakeholders, as well as support for the overall management of Housing First. Grants were made to Mental Health Services (MHS) to develop supportive employment services and to the Emerald Economic and Development Network (EDEN), Inc. to strengthen knowledge on supportive housing management and develop an operations manual specific to the first Housing First project. Additionally, Sisters of Charity provided annual support to Enterprise Community Partners to underwrite part of their costs related to providing administrative and technical support for the initiative. Foundation staff also worked to foster support for Housing First by educating community leaders and advocating for Housing First support from other local private and public funders.

In 2008, Enterprise, with support from Sisters of Charity and Fannie Mae, contracted with Abt Associates Inc., to further develop the capacity and organization of the Housing First initiative.

As part of broader capacity-building efforts for Housing First, the Sisters of Charity Foundation and Enterprise Community Partners provided education and training for VA administrative staff on permanent supportive housing and included VA staff in site visits to Chicago and Columbus, where permanent supportive housing projects were collaborating with the local VA.

Throughout the development and implementation of Housing First in Cuyahoga County, community education and acceptance have been critical in developing Housing First projects. Housing First stakeholders have dedicated considerable time and resources to educating the community and public officials on permanent supportive housing. Enterprise Community Partners, the Sisters of Charity Foundation and other Housing First partners have sponsored community forums, offered educational presentations at community meetings, and have produced Housing First newsletters and media materials designed to educate the public on the initiative and build general support in the community.

By 2010, the Cuyahoga County Housing First initiative developed seven residential projects totaling 401 housing units for chronically homeless individuals. From 2004 to 2010, the Sisters of Charity Foundation in Cleveland and Enterprise Community Partners have invested capital and staff resources in the development of Housing First Initiative projects and in capacity building among partner organizations.

Outcomes

Since the first Housing First project opened in 2006 through the end of 2015, Cuyahoga County has seen a 78% decrease in the rate of chronic homelessness. Today, Cleveland has one of the lowest populations of unsheltered individuals and we are well on our way toward ending chronic homelessness.

A January 2016 report from Case Western Reserve University focused on the evaluation of the Cuyahoga’s Housing First pilot for families and young adults using data from April of 2013 to May of 2015. The findings from the program evaluation overall are very positive. According to HMIS data, more than 89% of clients in Housing First remain in the program, and more than 79% have never returned to shelter after entering the program.

With regard to indications of stability, analysis of Department of Jobs and Family Services data indicate that at least some clients are able to increase their incomes through SNAP and TANF after being involved in the program, and available data indicate that overall, clients are increasing their incomes in dollars, as well. Analyses of child welfare data indicate that before entering Housing First, more than one quarter of clients had children who were victims of either substantiated or indicated child maltreatment, but after entering Housing First, that number dropped to less than 11%. Finally, 57% of clients who had an open DCFS case at Housing First entry had their case closed by December 31, 2014. These data suggest that the program plays role in helping these young adults and families.

3. Why have you taken on this role?

Inspired by the success of our role in ending chronic homelessness, in 2012, we turned our attention to preventing and ending youth homelessness. We know no one organization or agency can take on the task. It requires diverse and innovative thinking from nonprofit organizations, public systems, local government, the faith-based community, funders and — most especially — the young men and women with deep expertise that is only attained through lived experience and resiliency.

In 2013, the Sisters of Charity Foundation of Cleveland brokered a partnership with the national Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative to help young people in foster care make successful transitions to adulthood. Our work built toward creating a cross-sector partnership, which came to be known as A Place 4 Me. Consistent with the collective impact model, A Place 4 Me is led by a backbone agency/intermediary – the YWCA Greater Cleveland – and governed by a broader steering committee of: the Cuyahoga County Division of Children and Family Services; the Cuyahoga County Office of Homeless Services (which manages the Continuum of Care); FrontLine Services (the county’s largest trauma-informed provider of case management services to the homeless population); the Sisters of Charity Foundation of Cleveland; and the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative. Each of these organizations is represented by their senior leadership, people who have authority to make decisions on behalf of the organization or agency. The initiative is coordinated by a program director housed within the YWCA and receives significant funding and technical assistance from both local and national foundations, including the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

Beyond the work to establish the steering committee, the Sisters of Charity Foundation has spurred and A Place 4 Me has developed a robust collaboration of more than 50 public and private agencies. They represent the education system, mental health providers, other homeless service providers, LGBTQ organizations, employment and financial literacy entities, and more. Most important are the active and engaged young adults who guide this work with deep expertise only attained through lived experience and resiliency. Youth engagement is a critical component of the Jim Casey framework and a guiding principle of our local effort. Young people have been deeply involved, and A Place 4 Me recently received resources from the Annie E. Casey Foundation to support ongoing youth engagement efforts.

4. What has been a major challenge or barrier?

As the needs of the community became clear and the partners came to the table, we all agreed every young person belongs and deserves a place to feel safe and comfortable; a place to feel welcomed and loved by family and friends; a place to dream about the future. We also knew that for far too many youth in Cuyahoga County, this place doesn’t exist. Each year, hundreds of young people experience homelessness and housing instability in our community. They lack the consistency, familiarity and stability of a home. And without it, everything seems harder.

Our challenge was to create a coordinated strategic plan to prevent and end youth homelessness in Cuyahoga County. Furthermore, our aligned agenda needed to respond to the unique needs of youth who experienced foster care and lack the emotional and material support of a family, leaving them particularly vulnerable to housing instability. National data indicate that nearly 40 percent of former foster youth experience homelessness or housing instability by their 24th birthday.

5. How did you overcome it?

The steering committee of A Place 4 Me, including the Sisters of Charity Foundation of Cleveland, led an intense series of convenings to create our community’s collective path forward. Over a 10-month period in 2014 and 2015, nearly 70 individuals from 30 partner agencies worked together to develop Preventing and Ending Youth Homelessness in Cuyahoga County: A Strategic Plan.

Presented at a community convening in July 2015, the strategic plan:

• Prioritizes the needs of youth and young adults ages 14 to 24 in Cuyahoga County who are:
  • Unaccompanied by a parent, legal guardian or spouse, and
  • Lack a fixed, regular and adequate nighttime residence
  • Emphasizes homelessness prevention for youth leaving the foster care system and acknowledges the key role of the Cuyahoga County Division of Children and Family Services in supporting successful transitions to adulthood for these youth
  • Reflects the diverse perspectives of the planning members, especially the young people who generously shared their experiences and ideas to improve our system
  • Represents a shared commitment and vision to implementing these strategies to better serve youth
  • Is ambitious, comprehensive and drives at greater coordination and alignment of services to restore housing stability for young people in Cuyahoga County

In the months following the plan’s release, we worked with partners to further develop priority strategies of the plan and secure funding for implementation. Also, we have participated in learning communities, including the National Alliance to End Homelessness Youth Rapid Re-Housing Learning Community, the Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative, and Funders Together Foundations for Youth Success. We have learned and adapted, incorporating key lessons into our efforts, including: the importance of engaging broad system leadership; designing a crisis response system tailored to young people’s unique needs and opportunities; and creating flexibility in housing options and resources, among others. 

6. What are the results for your organization? For the community?

All of this work – from convening partners, to aligning agendas and combining resources – has attracted attention from national partners, including A Way Home America.

AWHA is a national initiative to build the movement to prevent and end homelessness among young people. It consists of homeless youth providers, advocates, researchers, government agencies, philanthropists and young people uniting behind a common goal to end youth homelessness.

This summer, after a nationwide search, AWHA invited three communities (Cleveland, Austin and Los Angeles) to support national learning through launching 100-Day Challenges, an effort supported by the Administration on Children, Youth and Families; Casey Family Programs; Melville Charitable Trust and Raikes Foundation. The challenges will identify and execute innovative practices to end youth and young adult homelessness, community by community. The challenges do not provide additional dollars for services directly. What these challenges offer is innovative support and technical assistance to set ambitious goals to work differently with what we do have as we identify resources that will scale up what works across the United States.

With guidance from the Rapid Results Institute, Cleveland, Austin and Los Angeles have each formed multi-agency teams, set ambitious 100-day goals and are now pursuing those goals through intensive collaboration and innovation.

The Sisters of Charity Foundation of Cleveland is intimately involved in Cleveland’s 100-Day Challenge, coordinated by A Place 4 Me. Our ambitious goal is to house 100 homeless young adults in 100 days, and to strengthen support systems so that no child in Cuyahoga County will age out of the foster care system into homelessness ever again. On November 8, the Sisters of Charity Foundation of Cleveland held a mid-point meeting with the Rapid Results Institute to review the progress made to date by the A Place 4 Me team.

We are honored and excited for this opportunity. We are confident our 100-day journey, launched September 9, will not only move the needle on key youth homelessness metrics in Cuyahoga County, but will also inform the national dialogue and policy. Learnings and momentum from these communities will fuel the national movement to end youth homelessness.

7. What advice would you offer other funders thinking about taking on a convening role?

Shared strategy and willingness to innovate have been key factors for the work to prevent and end youth homelessness in Cuyahoga County. The Sisters of Charity Foundation of Cleveland has been honored to support this work. Engaged philanthropy brings unique strengths to the talented pool of partners with which we work. Catalyzing broad funding support is another opportunity foundations bring to the table.

Through the efforts of the Sisters of Charity Foundation of Cleveland and the Annie E. Casey Foundation – both members of the A Place 4 Me steering committee – we have maintained an intentional focus on engaging broad funding support for the initiative since its inception. As a Jim Casey national site, A Place 4 Me continues to receive funding support from the Annie E. Casey Foundation. The Sisters of Charity Foundation also invests in the operations of the initiative and has engaged colleague funders to do the same. As our work has moved into implementation, the Sisters of Charity Foundation has developed a funding collaborative approach to garner resources from local foundations to coordinate investment in implementation of the priority strategies. Recently, local funders developed a joint funding opportunity for organizations to submit Letters of Intent for projects aligned with the strategic plan to end youth homelessness.  Through this process, we believe there is interest for local funders to invest in the development and infrastructure of the flexible pool of rental assistance for young adults and complementary case management to support housing stability. Where possible, private philanthropic resources will be used to demonstrate successful approaches, which we hope will then garner the support of our public funders, such as the child welfare system.  And, because public funders – namely the child welfare system and the Continuum of Care – have been intentionally engaged throughout this process, we hope that this will facilitate their co-investment in innovative approaches to support the housing stability of young adults.

Take a look at our other members here and our entire network here.

Interested in past featured member profiles? Check out our archive here.

November 2016

At Funders Together, we make it a goal to share the work of funders across the country so you can learn what's working and adapt these strategies to your own community. One way we do that is through our Featured Members. Some are featured because of their innovative grantmaking. Others are featured because they are making connections and bringing new people into the conversation about ending and preventing homelessness. Still others are featured because they are challenging the very systems that allow homelessness to persist. In each case, our Featured Members are an integral part of the solution to homelessness.

The HealthSpark Foundation is a private, independent foundation providing support to organizations that serve the unmet health and/or human service needs of residents living in and organizations serving Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. We spoke with Russell Johnson, President and CEO of HealthSpark Foundation, about the Foundation's systems change approach to population health and, ultimately, preventing and ending homelessness. 

1. Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us today. Could you explain a little bit about what HealthSpark Foundation does and in what capacity it is involved in homelessness issues?

To understand what HealthSpark Foundation is, we need to go back to where we started. We were founded in 2002 as the North Penn Community Health Foundation with a $39 million endowment, generating approximately $1 million for grants on an annual basis.  Early on, the foundation invested in nonprofit capacity building, but mostly served as a responsive health and human service focused grantmaker. Our work soon highlighted that capacity building grants were scarce, that few foundations offered this type of grant and that the need was large. In 2012 the board adopted a new strategic plan that focused on opportunities to address the challenges of poverty through investments in changing systems – including continued support for nonprofit capacity building initiatives. 

Our investments supported nonprofit organizations seeking to introduce and/or enhance their data collecting tools and analysis; helping recruit, train and maintain skilled staff; and using data to guide and focus the allocation of resources to achieve desired goals and community impact. We promoted the use of evidence-based case management tools help produce quality outcomes. Staff training and implementation of these tools represented significant areas of our grant making. There is value in independent research of outcomes, so investing there was, and continues to be, a priority for the foundation.

We helped to start and continue to serve on the leadership council of a public/private partnership initiative called Your Way Home Montgomery County (YWH). YWH was established as the county's coordinated housing crisis response system for residents experiencing homelessness. HealthSpark Foundation took the lead in supporting research of best practices. Once a framework for systems change was developed, HealthSpark also invested in targeted capacity building for providers and scaling the impact of YWH with support to create a website, implement a marketing and communications strategy, establish a development team to raise money from other foundations, conduct a formative evaluation of our early work and support the costs of several pilot projects designed to test out new models of service delivery.

Prior to YWH, our community’s approach to addressing homelessness was designed and influenced by HUD rules and guidelines. Yet HUD lacked an understanding of the resources and challenges in our community. HealthSpark’s leadership convinced the county to reorient its relationship with HUD, shifting from a model focused on compliance to operations designed to leverage local knowledge and resources that remained informed by HUD guidelines. Through YWH, our community designed a plan that made sense to local stakeholders and preserved HUD’s investments in our work. The organizational structure of YWH provides a single umbrella for county government, philanthropy, providers and other community stakeholders to come together and work as one aligned system addressing the needs of those experiencing homelessness.

2. HealthSpark Foundation recently underwent a rebranding. Can you explain why this was important for your work and the foundation’s mission?

Originally, as the North Penn Community Health Foundation, our board wanted to maintain a connection and legacy to the source of our endowment:  the local community nonprofit hospital. The board wanted to preserve and invest only in the local community, commonly referred to as North Penn. However, as we started to focus more on capacity building and systems change, the board realized that providers served a broader community and their revenues were driven by county government contracts. The board came to understand that our disciplined focus on a small geographic area was inhibiting our ability to achieve scale and the desired community impact.   

Our efforts to expand our impact to all municipalities within Montgomery County was hampered by the geographic portion of our name. Many mistakenly thought we worked only in the North Penn community, while others thought we worked throughout northeastern Pennsylvania. Moreover, some nonprofits and foundations thought we raised money, as would be typical of a “community foundation.” We are, in fact, a private foundation that does not engage in fundraising so this too created confusion and distracted from our intent and mission.

In January 2016, we officially launched our new name and identity: HealthSpark Foundation – investing in healthy communities. Our new logo is a dandelion, a medicinal plant, with one seed going off into the wind, which reflects our efforts to “seed great ideas.” Our investment in our new identify/brand has been worthwhile, opening new opportunities to partner and learn.    

3. The HealthSpark Foundation takes a “systems change” approach to your grantmaking. Can you explain why you feel this is the right strategy and if/how that has impacted the outcomes of your grantmaking?

Our work with nonprofits and feedback from consumers has taught us that many of the service delivery systems are segregated and inefficient. Federal and state funding sources have historically contributed to this segmented approach to financing programs and services. However, there is a growing interest in our county to leverage block grant opportunities and to dismantle redundant and cumbersome intake and service delivery models that have historically segregated services. This new interest and commitment views the consumer as a whole person rather than someone with a specified need who fits into a funded program. Opportunities for public/private partnerships and collaborative efforts have been enhanced and new, more cost-effective programs and services are evolving that are producing better results for both consumers and the community. 

As these collaborative conversations were taking place, HealthSpark Foundation identified an investment opportunity to help the provider community learn about and use evidence-based case management tools. The YWH leadership identified these tools and the public/private partnership implemented regular trainings and established a learning collaborative to help build and sustain the capacity to use them. HealthSpark created and supports this learning collaborative where providers refine their skills and talk about various issues and challenges they are experiencing.

Investments in research, capacity building, learning collaboratives and more have been worthwhile, but our systems change approach has not been easy to implement. Through the collective support and efforts of the public/private partnership, we are slowly convincing providers, landlords, employers, other community service providers and foundations that this approach is making a significant difference in the lives of people experiencing homelessness. Providers, other foundations and consumers have joined to tell their stories. For example, the YWH website and annual community meeting highlights stories of consumers who have benefitted from rapid re-housing. Landlords are also talking about the value of the supportive partnerships forged by YWH’s housing stability coaches and housing locators. These professionals are helping to mitigate disruptive tenant behaviors and encourage positive communications and constructive relationships between tenants and landlords. Funders have joined together creating a pooled fund that housing stability coaches can use to assist consumers in overcoming financial barriers to secure housing. The YWH coordinated entry program, now in its third year, is reducing waiting lists for shelter services by assessing consumer vulnerability and diverting some seeking shelter services to more appropriate resources that preserve existing housing. 

4. Homelessness is a symptom of a larger issue and the intersectionality between homelessness and other issue areas is crucial. How would you encourage other foundations who don’t see themselves as primarily involved in homelessness to focus more on it?

Population health is a relatively new concept. But this approach has proven to be exceptionally helpful as we build partnerships and continue our work. We use this framework to engage other funders who may define their role and mission in ways that don’t reference “homelessness.” We look for funders interested in promoting the well-being and success of communities through economic development, education, access to health and other human services, food and nutrition, job training and employment, child care and more. When all these “systems” work well, the overall health of the population is healthier and stable. We have been successful in building awareness that investments in these areas can help homeless individuals and families achieve success – again the theme of integrating systems and resources to overcome the barriers that living in poverty impose on homeless people. HealthSpark welcomes opportunities to explore various partnerships that might help leverage our individual efforts and together achieve a collective impact greater than the sum of its parts. This message now resonates with more than a dozen philanthropic partners that support YWH. 

5. Advocacy can seem a bit untouchable or unobtainable to many funders. What role does advocacy play at the HealthSpark Foundation? Do you have any insight on successful strategy or challenges to be aware of when participating in advocacy?

We know and understand advocacy can take various forms. As a private foundation, we have some limitations imposed by the IRS. Nonetheless, our board supports many advocacy and educational efforts targeted to building awareness around best practices. We often contribute time to share our stories with others in Pennsylvania and occasionally at national gatherings. We educate our funder colleagues, elected officials, providers and sometimes even consumers on what is working in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. We also advocate by sponsoring research and publishing the results, disseminating articles and hosting site visits.

6. Funders Together is starting to look more at employment and economic security as an important part of ending homelessness. What, if anything, has your foundation done to address this intersection?

We are just beginning to learn about Employment First and other employment strategies. We recognize that access to an adequate household income enhances housing stability. We have invested in a comprehensive benefit enrollment service and recently introduced the SOAR program to our community. 

We recently provided grant support to establish a Catalyst Kitchen program in our community. This program is currently being piloted to help a small cohort of individuals without existing job skills or recent employment histories to quickly learn basic culinary arts skills and then to enter the workplace. The food service industry is robust and growing in Montgomery County and through this investment we are hopeful that some homeless families will build careers in this industry. 

Through the YWH leadership council, we are also partnering with the county’s Department of Commerce and the state’s Department of Human Services to explore how we can work together to support the efforts of people with significant barriers to enter the workforce more quickly and remain employed. The Employment First program may become a focus for this work, but for now HealthSpark intends to focus on building awareness of opportunities through researching best practices, hosting site visits and sending key leaders to conferences to enhance their own learning.

9. How can groups like Funders Together support the work of foundations like yours?

We joined Funders Together to End Homelessness to connect with other funders, further our knowledge and ultimately increase our impact. While members for only a few short months, FTEH has helped us to create new relationships and connected us with other funding innovators. We also have appreciated the recognition of our own work while inspiring us to continue learning and building a sustainable system that seeks to make the experience of homelessness brief, rare and non-recurring.   

One specific opportunity that we have found incredibly important and enlightening was the 2016 Funders Institute’s focus on racial inequity in homelessness. The HealthSpark Foundation board has long embraced the concepts of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). Recently, three of our board members participated in a regional learning collaborative hosted by Philanthropy Network of Greater Philadelphia convened to inspire foundation leaders to engage in this type of work. This group acknowledged HealthSpark Foundation’s DEI leadership in our region. HealthSpark staff has also engaged with other funders to learn and share strategies for board and staff development and DEI work with grantees and other community partners. Our staff has been encouraged to serve on other community organization task forces and boards as well.   

We encourage discussions and exploratory conversations about the use of data to help identify learning and investment opportunities. We are urging our YWH colleagues to publicly disclose client demographic data. A second strategy is to engage the provider community to critically explore whether existing programs and services are welcoming and appropriately supportive of the diverse needs of consumers. We are hopeful that this information will spark DEI conversations among funders and the provider community to explore enhancing provider leadership and capacity and seeking new DEI strategies to improve access to and service for a more diverse population of consumers. 

HealthSpark Foundation would welcome conversations with other funders working in smaller communities. We value learning about the accomplishments of all communities, and particularly value learning how smaller communities with populations of less than one million residents can work together to leverage and learn from one another.

HealthSpark Foundation has been a member of Funders Together since September 2016. Take a look at our other members here and our entire network here.

Interested in past featured member profiles? Check out our archive here.

June 2016

At Funders Together, we make it a goal to share the work of funders across the country so you can learn what's working and adapt these strategies to your own community. One way we do that is through our Featured Members. Some are featured because of their innovative grantmaking. Others are featured because they are making connections and bringing new people into the conversation about ending and preventing homelessness. Still others are featured because they are challenging the very systems that allow homelessness to persist. In each case, our Featured Members are an integral part of the solution to homelessness.

United Way of Broward County is an architect of solutions for challenges faced by many people in our community. The goal is to help children and youth reach their full potential through a quality education, give families the support they need to earn, keep and grow their assets, and teach people how to make smart decisions about their health. For more than 75 years, United Way of Broward County has invested more than half a billion dollars into the community.

We spoke with Howard Bakalar, Chief Program Officer and Pablo Calvo, Director of Support Services for Veteran Families about the work being done in Broward County and how United Way of Broward County's focus on Rapid Rehousing and Housing First has propelled the area's homelessness efforts.

1. Thank you so much for taking the time to tell us about the work United Way of Broward County is doing. Could you explain a little bit about what capacity you are involved in homelessness and housing issues?

United Way of Broward County (UWBC) wears multiple hats in the homelessness and housing arena in Broward County.  As a funder, UWBC currently funds a variety of agencies to assist with mobile outreach, shelter care, rapid rehousing, permanent supportive housing, and transitional housing for special populations.  As a member of the County’s Homeless Continuum of Care, UWBC participates in strategic planning for the Continuum, and its Chief Program Officer is the Chair of the Permanent Housing Subcommittee.  As a community convener, United Way is helping facilitate an initiative with all other local funders, government officials, and business leaders to more fully address the affordable housing crisis in Broward County.   

Finally, UWBC, through its Mission United initiative, serves as the lead agency for Broward County’s single largest Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF) program from the Department of Veterans Affairs. Through a multi-agency collaborative, Mission United provides outreach, case management, and direct financial assistance to veterans experiencing homelessness and those at imminent risk for homelessness. In the last year, just over half of ALL the veterans served in the Broward County Continuum of Care were assisted by Mission United’s SSVF program.

2. Why do you focus on rapid rehousing and housing first as priorities to combat homelessness?

We focus on Rapid Re-Housing (RRH) and Housing First (HF) because these approaches work.  Period. Ever since the large-scale demonstrations of the Homeless Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing (HPRP) HUD Programs under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA aka the Stimulus Act), the success rates of RRH and HF have been clearly demonstrated in a national scale. These approaches were successful in different regions of the country in urban, sub-urban and rural areas in ways that traditional approaches to homelessness were not. 

This paradigm shift was codified in the HEARTH Act in 2009 and for the last five years UWBC has supported this approach within our CoC and embraced it in our direct service programs. Our RRH and HF philosophies are evidence-based approaches that effectively reduce the length of time persons spend being homelessness and further lowers their risk for repeat episodes of homelessness in the future. When implemented alongside re-structured Transitional Housing and Permanent Supportive Housing programs, this approach has makes a substantial and sustained reduction in homelessness.  Just looking at veteran homelessness, where RRH and HF approaches were most directly evident Broward County saw an almost 20% reduction in the number of veterans found in the annual Homeless Point in Time Count from 2013 to 2016.

3. In Broward County, 15% of the population that is experiencing homelessness are children under the age of 17. What are you doing to improve conditions in your community for youth experiencing homelessness?

As a funder, UWBC tries to educate itself on root causes, including the root causes of youth homelessness.  From investing in programming for LGBTQ youth to facilitating affordable housing discussions, UWBC is attempting to help build a foundation of concrete and other supports for youth and families to hopefully avoid homelessness.

4. You have been very active in your community’s Continuum of Care (CoC). Can you talk about building that relationship and the impact it has had on your work?

United Way of Broward County (UWBC) has a long history with Broward County, as the local Continuum of Care (CoC) as a funder, planner, evaluator, and community partner in the arena of homelessness. UWBC has a designated seat in the Homeless Initiatives Partnership Board, the administrative board which advises Broward County government, the CoC lead. UWBC has been an integral and active member of the local CoC . Howard Bakalar, our Chief Program Officer currently serves on the CoC Board, is its Permanent Housing Subcommittee Chair, and serves on its Performance Outcomes Needs and Gaps subcommittee.

5. Communities work best when they are working together and have a shared vision. What are some of the strategic partnerships you’ve built within the community and what are some key ways you went about facilitating those partnerships?

United Ways are created to help a community wrap itself around the issues facing that community.  UWBC embraces this role, and has a long track record of success bringing all partners to the table to move the community’s agenda forward.  UWBC has built strategic partnerships with multiple public and private funding, service, and business partners, including its CoC lead, its behavioral health public funding entity, the City of Fort Lauderdale, and the Fort Lauderdale Chamber of Commerce. 

UWBC builds these partnerships mainly through its commitment to transparency.  There are no hidden agendas, no heroes and villains.  All partners at the table agree to, and are reminded about overall goals for the community.  Because all partners agree to the overarching goals, facilitated discussion about how to reach those goals becomes productive, safe, and re-affirming, and rewarding. 

6. How does homelessness and housing fit into your priority areas? What advice would you offer to other United Ways who are just starting to focus on homelessness?

Don’t be afraid of big cats! (i.e. tackling large and complex new issues)

According to  statewide ALICE (Asset Limited Income-Constrained, Employed) Report, produced by United Way, 58% of Florida Residents pay more than 30% of their household income on housing and 31% of working households currently pay more than 50% compared to the national average of 25%.  Within the State of Florida, Broward County is in the MSA with the highest rent-obligations and this is a huge burden for all residents but especially for working families with children who may find themselves with zero safety margins in terms of housing stability

"UWBC has been at the forefront of housing and homelessness issues because as we realized during the Great Recession, all of our other initiatives from early childhood learning, to drug abuse prevention, to food assistance for seniors are all more successful if everyone in our community has stable housing."

7. How can groups like Funders Together support the work of funders like you?

Funders Together to End Homelessness can help bring attention to the issue from a national perspective to what would be most effective in the local level. By combining best practices from an evidence-based model with advocacy and collaboration, United Ways around the country are uniquely positioned to be able to move this agenda forward in a positive direction. United Ways are generally funding partners with local governments and by combining strategic planning, contract management, and outcomes with these agencies we can make a significant and lasting system change towards the ultimate goal of making homelessness brief, rare, and non-recurrent. 

United Way of Broward County has been a member of Funders Together since January 2015. Take a look at our other members here and our entire network here.

Interested in past featured member profiles? Check out our archive here.

Funders Together Los Angeles hosted a panel discussion to examine traditional workforce models, the current role social enterprises play in employing LA’s homeless and formerly homeless communities, and new opportunities in the field.

Beginning in 2009, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation supported a pilot program to prevent homelessness for survivors of domestic violence and their families. Here's what they learned.

We know what works.  Philanthropy can help take it to scale.

The 100,000 Homes Campaign is using data to end and prevent homelessness - and you can too.

UPDATE: The National Housing Trust Fund will be funded!  Read more.

For millions, even an affordable rental apartment is still inaccessible in the United States.

Established by state, county, or city governments, housing trust funds provide dedicated sources of funding that support the creation and preservation of affordable housing.  These funds are becoming more popular, in part because the model is flexible and revenue streams are not tied to annual budget allocations, ensuring a sustained and focused effort to make housing accessible.  They are also effective, bringing in millions of dollars for affordable housing that will be here for years to come.

For more on Housing Trust Funds, visit the National Low Income Housing Coalition or Center for Community Change’s Housing Trust Fund Project.

Find sample materials that can jumpstart a discussion about housing trust funds in your area.

Learn more about the National Housing Trust Fund, which was created by the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008.

By combining the power of public and private funding with the expertise of programs such as Pathways DC, we have provided a tangible, permanent solution to one of the greatest social shortcomings of our time.

Can we actually find affordable housing for everyone?  What is philanthropy’s role?