1. Emerging Fellow Portfolio
Name: Erin Agnew
School: the George Washington University
Class Year: 2017

2. Introduction:
Currently, the D.C. continuum of care operates in siloes tangled by bureaucracy such that services intended for disadvantaged residents cannot reach their target population, while they also create high administrative costs and severe lapses in standards of service and safety. The D.C. public services impacted by the poorly managed continuum of care range from housing to elementary and secondary education enrollment, to healthcare and income replacement. The most glaring example of this lapse was the 2014 kidnapping of an eight-year-old D.C. shelter resident, Relisha Rudd, after a subcontractor managing D.C. General shelter failed to obtain criminal history background checks on shelter employees. A less severe indictor is the average wait time of three months for a veteran experiencing homelessness to be placed on a priority permanent supportive housing list. In the realm of education, there is no automatic communication between public schools and social service programs, meaning that families must seek out information about free and reduced lunch programs, housing vouchers available through Title I. This is to say nothing of the school lottery system in place since 2015, which frames neighborhood schools as a last resort and disadvantages families without the time and resources to spend navigating lottery applications and enrollment processes. An ideal continuum of care has frequent and accessible entry points, both geographically and programmatically. This requires more than one family services enrollment center. D.C. currently has one such center, which is open seven hours, four days a week. Appointments must be made in person and require in person follow-up and attendance. An ideal continuum of care additionally offers frequent follow-up on client progress, which one bureaucratic entity cannot offer, but which can be accomplished by distributing case management assignments across currently isolated service offices. By conducting interviews with service recipients, case managers, and program managers, further recommendations can be formulated, and offered to a partnership of nonprofits currently working in service provision.

3. Work Done To Date
Conducted surveys among populations experiencing homelessness to determine community needs and priorities
Communicated survey results for Wards 2 and 3 via and informational mailing to City Council Members Jack Evans and Mary Cheh
Trained 43 students in safe and respectful outreach when interviewing disadvantaged members of the D.C. popultion

4. Success
Conduct interviews with case managers and program managers in the D.C. offices for Housing and Urban Development, Community Partnership for the Prevention of Homelessness, and the D.C. Department of Human Services
Connect case managers and program managers in D.C. nonprofits which provide case management a resource connection first, via issuing a survey mirroring interview topics and second, to communicate areas in which their service provision and stated mission overlap
These organizations will include but not be limited to Miriam’s Kitchen, the Coalition for Nonprofit Housing and Urban Development, the Edward E. Mazique Parent Child Centers, the Transitional Housing Corps, Bread for the City, D.C. Central Kitchen, and So Others Might Eat
Use this coalition to advocate for increasing articulation and proactive resource sharing across D.C. government and nonprofit partnership providing social services
Meet with City Council Member Staff and coalition members to present this policy proposal