1. Ottawa 20,000 Homes Action Week Training April 17 & 18 2015
Hi everyone. I wanted to start off with a big thank you to everyone for being here, and also to Nadia, John and Amanda for inviting me here to Hamilton to help support the incredibly important work you are all doing on the 20,000 Homes Campaign and, more broadly, to help end homelessness in your community.
As was mentioned before, my name is Andi Broffman, and I am here from Community Solutions. We are a US based non profit that is working very closely with CAEH on the 20K Homes Campaign. We also work very closely with OrgCode on the survey tool I am going to talk about with you today, the VI-SPDAT.

2. 20,000 Homes Campaign
A national movement of communities working together to permanently house 20,000 of Canada’s most vulnerable people experiencing homelessness by 2018
Housing Intervention!

3. Community Solutions & 100,000 Homes Campaign
Community Solutions is a non profit organization that is working towards a future without homelessness where poverty never follows a family beyond a single generation
National movement of change agents working together to house 105,580 vulnerable people and families that were experiencing chronic homelessness by July of 2014
WE know that this is possible!!! How? Because we did it in the US.

4. Case Study: Ed Givens was profiled by Steve Lopez inthe LA Times
Case Study: Ed Givens was profiled by Steve Lopez inthe LA Times. he had been on the streets for 30 years – a chronic alcoholic with a wild temper.

5. This is Ed now.
Amazing what housing can do for folks. And this is what this is all about, a housing intervention. We are finding and assessing our most vulnerable and chronic neighbors that are presenting at the highest acuity that are experiencing homelessness and offering them housing, no questions asked.

6. We know it’s critically important to house folks. A Dr
We know it’s critically important to house folks. A Dr. in Boston who worked for Healthcare for the Homeless noticed that certain folks were dying as a result of homelessness, and so he studied why. And he found that certain medical conditions, among other things, increases the chances of mortality. These were some of the folks who participated in his study. This picture was taken in 2001 and these men were all in their early 40s. By 2010, only one was alive.
This journey you have embarked upon and this work that you are doing is literally life changing. It’s actually life saving. Which is why your work and the work of the 20,000 Homes Campaign is critically important.

7. One Year Anniversary Video
100,000 Homes Campaign
One Year Anniversary Video
100,000 Homes Campaign

8. Core Principles of the 20K Homes Campaign
Knowing Every Homeless Person by Name
Implementing Housing First
Understanding Community’s Strengths and Challenges
Using Data to Track Progress and Make Decisions
Building a Coordinated Homelessness System of Care
Learning From Other Communities Across Canada
Providing a Voice to Secure Resources to End Homelessness
So let’s return to the 20,000 Homes Campaign. These are the underlying principles of this national movement. Ottawa, among with Waterloo and Hamilton, are our vanguard communities. By piloting this effort, you are helping us shape and think about all of the pieces that will go into these 7 principles.

9. The VI-SPDAT
VI-SPDAT
Vulnerability Index Service Prioritization Decision Assistance Tool
10 Minute Pre-Screen Survey Tool
Comprised of 4 Domains
Assesses the Health and Social Needs of People Experiencing Homelessness
So, now I want to talk about the first principle “Knowing every homeless person by name” and talk about how we are going to have a huge hand in that during this Action Week. And we are going to do so by using a tool called the VI-SPDAT. we are going to spend a good deal of our time together today talking about VI-SPDAT in detail in preparation for administering it to folks who are currently experiencing homelessness in Ottawa as part of your 20K Homes Action Week. But before we get into the specific questions and spend some time practicing using the tool, I’d like to give a bit of background on it
The VI-SPDAT is an acronym that stands for the Vulnerability Index Service Prioritization Decisions Assistance Tool. This survey tool was developed by OrgCode in conjunction with Community Solutions as part of the 100,000 Homes Campaign that took place over 4 years in the United States in which 186 communities housed over 100,0000 of their vulnerable and chronically homeless neighbors.
The VI-SPDAT is a pre-screen survey tool that, on average takes ten minutes to administer to folks. I want to pause here and reiterate the fact that it is a survey tool. So for the team leaders in the room and for you all that have relationships with the folks that you will be VI-SPDAT’ing, it’s important to remember that the purpose of this interaction is not for case management or direct client support. Given that, it might even be a good idea to let anyone who knows you know that in this moment you are wearing your assessor/survey hat and that you are going to approach this interaction without using any prior knowledge you have of that person.
Ok, so with that said, the survey instrument asks mostly yes or no questions, and It is comprised of 4 domains, so questions fall into the categories of
History of Housing
Risks
Socialization and Daily Functions
Wellness
It’s a tool that was designed and is used to help communities quickly understand the health and social needs of people who are experiencing homelessness in order to match them with the most appropriate support and housing interventions that are available.

10. Development of the VI-SPDAT
Created as a combination of the full SPDAT and the Vulnerability Index
Tested with various populations of people experiencing homelessness in places like California, Louisiana, Michigan and Alberta
Consulted people with lived experience
Reviewed by trauma and abuse experts ★
I do just want to quickly note a few things about the development of the VI-SPDAT
It was developed in 2013 jointly by Community Solutions and Org Code by combining the SPDAT with the VI. The SPDAT. The SPDAT is an evidence based clinical intake and case management tool that has been developed from work with existing scholarship and research, it was tested and refined in the field and continues to be evaluated both within OrgCode and through independent evaluations
The Vulnerability Index is a tool that was based in research around medical vulnerability in terms of risk of mortality for folks that are currently experiencing homelessness
The VI-SPDAT is a combination of these two tools. It is designed to help you calibrate your response based on the individual, not merely the general population category into which they fall (like vulnerable or chronically homeless). The tool was tested with a variety of populations of folks experiencing homelessness in communities in places like California, Michigan and Louisiana in the US and Alberta in Canada
Like I mentioned before, these questions are evidenced based and they have been developed in conjunction with researchers and people with lived experience, so folks who have experienced homelessness at one point or another in their life. They had a direct voice in the creation of the tool to ensure sensitivity to people who are currently experiencing homelessness.
And trauma and abuse experts reviewed the questions to decrease the likelihood of anyone being retraumatized through the experience of being assessed

11. How Does the VI-SPDAT Work (1)?
Conduct Assessment
Score Assessment
Use Information to Prioritize People for Appropriate Housing and Resources
Conduct Assessment: That’s where you all come in.
Then we have data entry volunteers who will put all the VI-SPDATS into a database. The DB will score the assessments and give us aggregate statistics that paint a picture of all the folks that we talked to this week
And then the by name list is used to link folks up with appropriate housing and resources. And the aggregate statistics will help us detetmine gaps in services and resources and feed into the larger advocacy piece of the 20,000 Homes Campaign.

12. How Does the VI-SDPAT Work (2)?
4 of 7 people who are experiencing homelessness exit homelessness on their own
2 of 7 people need brief and shallow support
1 of 7 people needs permanent assistance with housing and support services
The VI SPDAT helps us determine who is who
Now I want to talk a bit about how the VI-SPDAT helps us figure out the appropriate kinds of housing and services different folks currently experiencing homelessness receive. The research that this tool is grounded in tells us that

13. Collective Impact (1)
The commitment of a group of important actors from different sectors to form a common agenda for solving a specific social problem
So, we have the VI-SPDAT. But the tool is not enough. Homelessness as many if not all of you know is a complex social problem. And one way we can work to solve this type of problem is through a framework called Collective Impact.
Only way to do this has been through collaboration-A lot of Alliance Members, United Way, PD, Downtown BIA, and of course the City of Ottawa

14. Collective Impact (2) Baking a Cake Flying to the Moon Raising a Child
Simple
Complicated
Simple problem: bake a cake. You follow the instructions on the back of the box. Even I, who struggles immensely in the kitchen, can achieve success by following the recipe on the box.
Complicated: flying to the moon. So yes, this one seems a bit daunting. But if you were given the right resources and a step by step list (even if that list is 120 pages long) you could follow the instructions, build a rocket ship and fly to the moon.
Complex: raising a child—there’s no manual for this. And it takes a village.
Complex

15. Collective Impact (3) Need a Collaboration? Agree on Goals Use Data
Step 1
Agree on Goals
Step 2
Use Data
Step 3
Mutually Reinforcing Activities
Step 4
Communicate
Step 5
Have a Backbone Organization
Collaboration has long been used as a way to work towards solving problems, and complex problems like helping our neighbors who are experiencing homelessness get into housing.
Collective impact is a learning culture. What does that mean? It means we are a community that tries new things, measure the impact of these things, and are motivated to learn and innovate and involve.

16. Learnings from the 100,000 Homes Campaign
Use Data to Drive Decision-Making
Set Eligibility Community-Wide
Have a By-Name, Triaged List
Use Housing First Community Wide
Through our CI efforts in the 100K Homes Campaign work, we learned a few things and they are…
And as I said earlier, this was an iterative effort. Communities tried a lot of things. They innovated a lot. They dedicated themselves to pushing through the challenges and we learned these things.

17. Biggest Myth: We Know Who is Able to Keep Their Housing
We ALSO Learned something very powerful….
There is a huge myth floating around out there that we know who is able to keep their housing. And this myth has led us to create some barriers that we might not even think of as impediments to getting into housing

18. Housing First A successful and transformational housing model
Prioritizes rapid and direct movement from homelessness to housing
So, we have to combat this myth by using the Housing First Approach. As a philosophy, housing first reinforces….
It has been very successful in many US and Canadian communities. And it prioritizes rapid and direct movement from housing to homlessness ,instead of requiring people to graduate through a series of steps before getting put into housing
And using housing first as a housing model is a core principle of the 20K Homes Campaign. It’s very important for this work. So let’s drill down on that a little more

19. Housing First Consumer Choice and Self Determination
Immediate Access to Permanent Housing
Housing Not Conditional on Sobriety or Program Participation
Social Inclusion, Self-Sufficiency and Improved Quality of Life and Health
As described by the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness, there are 4 Core Principles of Housing First

20. Questions?
5 Minutes

21. Training on Using the VI-SPDAT
Ok take out your VI-SPDAT. We are going to go through this in detail and you will have time to practice administering it with the folks at your table

22. Reminders for Surveyors
You must obtain consent before you begin to administer the survey
Remind folks that you are looking for yes, no or one word answers
Any question can be skipped
Clarity can be provided
Responses are self report
So, with all that said, let’s delve in to taking a closer look at the tool itself and the questions that it asks. To begin, I’d like to just call out a few things that are very valuable for surveyors to remember throughout the process.
There are a few very important things to point out here
The first and perhaps the most important thing to remember is that you must must must obtain verbal and written consent before you can start to asks folks questions. This is an entirely voluntary process, so if someone doesn’t want to speak to us, that’s fine. Please do not attempt to persuade anyone into participating in the survey
Secondly, at the beginning of the survey, you can certainly remind folks that as you ask the questions, you are really looking for yes, no or one word answers. You can also say this to someone at any point during the survey if they begin to provide longer responses to questions. You can even pre-empt a question with that if you feel as though it is one that is likely to cause someone t provide a longer, more detialed response.
The next point is that anyone can skip any question that they like. So if someone says they’d like to not respond to a question, that is totally fine. Again, don’t try to persuade them to give you a response, don’t ask why they want to skip a question, just move on. I do want to pause here to say that while this is an option, the refusal rate for questions is low, which sometimes surprises folks.
A fourth point is that if someone is confused by a question, you can re-read it or provide clarity. We’ll get more into what I mean by this as we go through the questions
And then finally, this tool is self-report. So, say for example you are administering the VI-SPDAT to someone that you have a relationship with and you know or feel or suspect that some of their responses to these questions are not actually truthful. You can certainly remind them that honesty is important here by saying something along the lines of, you know even though I know you, I’m asking these questions as if we didn’t have a relationship, so please be as forthright or honest as possible, let me ask you that question again. You can also say something like the more honest you are, the better we will undestand your needs and know how ot support you.

23. Surveying Dos Introduce yourself and explain what you are doing ✓
Be sincere and thank people for their time ✓
Remain calm and de-escalate any tense situations ✓
Keep aware of your surroundings ✓
Stay out of tight or enclosed spaces ✓
Allow the person their individual space when you are talking with them ✓
Honor requests not to participate or to skip certain questions ✓
Approach if uncertain they are homeless: say hi we are doing this survey this week to assess needs of homeless folks. Do you have any ideas where we might find some folks that sleep outside that we could talk to?
Good body language: don’t crowd. Sit or crouch next to someone, helps reduce potential odd power dynamics, sit at 45 degtee angle. Someotimes face to face can seem intidmidating

24. Surveying Dos
Approach a person if you are uncertain they are homeless ✓
Practice good body language ✓
Keep your cellphone & ID on you ✓
Check with your team leader and refer to contact numbers if you need assistance of any kind ✓
Be safe ✓
Pay attention to your intuition ✓
Excuse yourself if you don’t feel safe & talk to your team leader ✓
Approach if uncertain they are homeless: say hi we are doing this survey this week to assess needs of homeless folks. Do you have any ideas where we might find some folks that sleep outside that we could talk to?
Good body language: don’t crowd. Sit or crouch next to someone, helps reduce potential odd power dynamics, sit at 45 degtee angle. Someotimes face to face can seem intidmidating

25. Surveying Don’ts Touch people to wake them up or get their attention ✕
Invade someone’s personal space ✕
Demand participation ✕
Panic ✕
Put anyone in danger ✕
Be judgmental ✕
Promise housing or services ✕

26. Remember, no one has ever gotten hurt surveying!
Surveying Don’ts
Give money or offer rides ✕
Deviate from the survey ✕
Separate from your team ✕
Use fancy technology or carry flashy belongings/accessories ✕
Wear all black ✕
Share any confidential information ✕
Remember, no one has ever gotten hurt surveying!

27. Administering the VI-SPDAT
Approach Person
Use Introductory Script
Please be sure to…
Introduce yourself
Explain the purpose of the VI-SPDAT and why you are administering it
Get consent
Set the tone
Complete Survey
Give Gift Card
Repeat!
You should all have sample scripts
What do I mean by set the tone?
Relay that honesty is important
Relay that the survey will take 10 minutes or less
Relay that participation is voluntary and you can skip any questions you want
Relay that you won’t be denied help for participating or not participating

28. Confidentiality
All information you learn through the process of using the VI-SPDAT is 100% Confidential!
Do not take pictures of people you are surveying
Do not use social media to share specific locations or information
When speaking to the media, share about your personal experience, but do not share any information about any person you have talked to through the process of surveying
You are signing a waiver that says that you will not share information about anyone with anyone. Not your mom, your friend, your partner or your co-worker. That’s right. Nobody! Not even with a team member you are conducting surveys with

29. Let’s Review the VI-SPDAT…

30. Practicing the VI-SPDAT
Groups of 2
Each person should practice the survey with their partner and then switch
30 Minutes

31. Let’s Review Your Survey Team Folders
20K Action Week
Ottawa
Surveys
Team leader checklist
Gift cards
Refusal form
Team contact
Dos and Donts
Script
Resource List (check with Mike before training)

32. Thank You!
Questions?