Homeless Response System Overview

Ideal Audience: This training is required for service providers participating in the Coordinated Entry System, whether serving as an Access point, Housing Navigator, or Supportive Housing Provider. This includes shelter staff, housing case managers, program managers, street outreach, day services, etc. It is also open to any person who wants to learn more about our community's response to homelessness.

Overview: Welcome to Central Florida’s Homeless Response System! We are a community of providers and advocates who aim to end homelessness in our region. The goal of this training is to provide people who are new to our community, or working in a new role in the system, a shared understanding of homelessness and how our system is responding to it.

This virtual training covers the following:

• Overview of our community’s Homeless Response System

• Homelessness and the impact it has on the person experiencing it

• What Coordinated Entry is, why we do it and how it works

• Housing First Core Components, including the Philosophy, Interventions, and Service Delivery

Duration: 9am - 11am (2 hours)

Frequency: 1st and 3rd Monday of the month

Access and Assessment 

Ideal Audience: Any staff member serving as an Access point to the homeless response system, including Street Outreach, Shelter intake workers, drop-in center workers, HUB workers, or any other agency serving persons experiencing homelessness.

Overview: Staff serving as Access points to the homeless response system encounter people in housing crisis every day. The goal of this training is to equip these workers with best practices on engagement strategies, diversion conversations, and understanding when and how to complete a VI-SPDAT. This training covers the following:

• Engagement strategies, including Diversion

• Our community standard assessment workflow and messaging

• Completing a VI-SPDAT

• Data entry in HMIS, including how to document engagements

• How the By-Name List is populated and used for Coordinated Entry

Duration: 10am - 3pm (5 hours)

Frequency: 1st and 3rd Thursday of the month

Navigation Into Supportive Housing  

Ideal Audience: Outreach, Shelter Workers or any staff designated to provide targeted navigation to persons who have been assessed through the Coordinated Entry System in our CoC. 

Overview: People experiencing homelessness need different levels of support to find their way to stable housing. While some can resolve their housing crisis without the need of a supportive housing program, others may need more targeted help. For those in need of assistance in a supportive housing program like Rapid Rehousing or Permanent Supportive Housing, our community provides targeted assistance in the form of Housing Navigators to make it possible for them to access those interventions. Housing Navigators play a crucial role in our community's homeless response system. They're tasked with following up with people experiencing homelessness with the highest service needs and longest histories of homelessness to help them with all the tasks and documents needed to get into stable housing. This training covers the following:

• The Role of a Housing Navigator

• Understanding criteria and documents needed for RRH or PSH

• Standards for documenting homelessness and disability

• HMIS workflow & sending a referral

Duration: 9am - 12pm (3 hours)

Frequency: 2nd and 4th Wednesday of the month

Practices in Supportive Housing Part 1 & 2

Ideal Audience: RRH/PSH Program staff, including Case Managers, Peer Support Specialists, Housing Specialist and Program Managers.  

Overview: Welcome to Practices in Supportive Housing! We are excited to have you join the work our community is doing to end homelessness. The focus of this training is to learn critical skills that enhance housing stability for participants in our housing programs. Guided by evidence-based practices, this training is filled with practical knowledge for Rapid Rehousing and Permanent Supportive Housing program teams. This two part training covers a variety of topics which include:

• Understanding Supportive Housing

• Foundations in Best Practice

• Housing Focused Components of your work

• Forms, Documentation, HMIS and Workflow

Both parts of this training are onboarding essentials for Supportive Housing staff.

Part 1 Duration: 9am - 3pm (6 hours)

Part 1 Frequency: 1st and 3rd Wednesday of the month

Part 2 Duration: 9am - 12pm (3 hours)

Part 2 Frequency: 1st and 3rd Friday of the month

Housing Operations 

Ideal Audience: RRH and PSH teams receiving rental assistance through HSN, including Case Managers, Housing Specialists, and Program Managers

Overview: The Housing Operations training covers navigating through the housing process in Central Florida and understanding HSN's role in this process. This training covers the following:

• Understanding the housing market in Florida

• Workflow: Housing Process

• How and where to look for housing

• Understanding a Lease Agreement

• End of lease expectations

Duration: 1pm-2:30pm (1.5 hours)

Frequency: 2nd and 4th Thursday of the month

CoC Subrecipient Grants Training

Ideal Audience: Community Providers who are subrecipients of funding from HSN. Specifically Program Managers and other staff responsible for the administrative responsibilities outlined below. 

Overview:

To learn about the administrative responsibilities including:

• Grants and Contracts overview

• Timesheets

• Invoicing and Reimbursements

•  Accessing flexible financial supports

• Monthly exit and Change Reports

• Monitoring ended

Duration: 1 hour

Frequency: Scheduled as needed or as requested.

HMIS 101: New User Training 

Ideal Audience: All new system users, or returning users that have been out of the system for 6+ months 

Brief Overview: 

After completing this session, trainees will be able to:

• Explain what the HMIS is in relation to the CoC

• Navigate various resources (website, HUD Exchange)

• Navigate around the HMIS

• Complete all essential workflows: client search/creation, household management, ROI, entry/exit, service transactions, case manager workflow, and basic reporting

 Duration: 9am - 3:30pm (6.5 hours)

Frequency: Weekly on Tuesdays

HMIS 102: New End-User Training - Project/Funding Specific 

Ideal Audience: New users to the system, or returning users that have been out of the system for 6+ needing system training specific to a workflow, project type, and/or funding source.

Brief Overview: 

After completing this session, trainees will be able to:

• Navigate around the HMIS

• Complete all essential workflows: client search/creation, household management, ROI, entry/exit, service transactions, case manager workflow, and basic reporting in relation to their specific project type.

Duration: 3 hours

Frequency: Scheduled as needed or as requested

HMIS 101/102 Reports Overview & Data Quality

Ideal Audience: Current HMIS users that are interested in knowing more about what reports are available, and how to run and understand the report outcomes.

Brief Overview: 

After completing this session, trainees will be able to:

• Run the CoC APR report

• Run the ESG CAPER report

• Run the Clients Served report

• Run the Service Transaction report

• Use the Client Filter feature in applicable reports

• Understand how errors are created in various reports

• Correct errors in various reports

Duration: 2 hours

Frequency: Scheduled as needed or as requested

HMIS Agency Liaison Orientation 

Ideal Audience: HMIS users that are also Program Managers, Directors, HMIS Agency “Leads” (etc)

Brief Overview: After completing this session, trainees will be able to:

• Understand their role as the point of contact between the HMIS Lead and their agency

• Navigate various supportive resources (helpdesk, website, HUD Exchange)

• Support system users at their own agency

• Locate, run and analyze standard reports to monitor data quality

Duration: 3 hours

Frequency: Scheduled as needed or as requested