Module
1 - Event Introduction
Suzanne: We’ve been meeting quarterly,
and at one of our quarterly meetings we discovered there was
a concern addressed regarding “dumping” of hospital
patients on the street. Three people raised their hands and
said, “That’s not right.” It turned out
that anyone operating shelters had experienced that, so we
put together a task force and within a couple of weeks, we
had gathered with district administrators and conquered that
problem for the minute, but moreover we opened relationships
with those folks to enhance problem solving and communication.
 Another
thing we decided to tackle was transit by marginalized populations.
There was a huge problem
with empty buses and people being landlocked and unable to
follow through with case management plans. So we formed a
separate committee for that.
Lastly, Hannah Cohen, one of
our committee members, mobilized the Plan to End Chronic Homelessness,
which she headed for the County of San Diego. She’s
worked with the head of almost every jurisdiction, but as
yet there has been no real implementation of that, so that’s
something else we want to get working on.
We invite you here today to
do a little envisioning and dreaming with us, to think about
where we might be able to go and what we might be able to
do in a perfect world, where there was open communication.
The process we are going to engage in will surprise you. Inspired
by Mozart, we’re going to move forward. Today is all
about casting a wide vision for the North County Region. I’ve
invited someone, who I think is pretty special, to lead us
in that effort, and that’s Bill Kincaid.
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Bill: Today
we are going to take a step back and take a 40,000 ft view.
The process we are going to use is the creative process. Every
time I get together with Suzanne and her folks, you can feel
it, she gets the creativity stirred up. We are here today
to come up with something magical. The creative process model
is very simple and we designed our session today using the
scan, focus, act model . The model we used to design this
event is a little more utilitarian, and it starts and ends
with identity.
 Who
is the ARS? Is this process defined by the winter shelter?
No, but we’re going to talk about who the ARS is and
what we are about and what we are doing. How are we going
to do it? What assets do we have? What projects are we going
to work on.
We will come out of here today
with three projects to move forward with. It starts with identity,
then with vision. Vision leads to action. Then we have intent,
which is our mission. Intent leads to passion. When we collectively
have a mission, we can ignite that passion. Next, we have
insight. When we begin something, we have to start somewhere
and that’s where we are today. ARS went through this
process once before in May 2007 and it ended when the winter
shelter closed, and today we are not pigeon holed by that
project. It was a successful project. Now, we are going to
learn how to harness that knowledge and begin new projects.
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Mel: I’m
here to talk about what we can accomplish when we come together.
This past winter, 6 of our alliances came together with 9
north county cities and with United Way, and San Diego County
HHSA, in an unprecedented collaboration. We planned and funded
a state of the art, regional cold weather shelter for homeless,
men, women, and children. From October to March, we served
6,071 residents from our communities. These are our neighbors.
What did they receive this
winter? What they received this winter was much more than
a hot meal. For the safety and security of all residents,
these were dry shelters. A breathalyzer was administered,
as well as case management. Intensive case plans monitored
weekly were required to help people get back on their feet.
What services did clients receive at the shelters? Hundreds
of volunteers provided hot meals. Medical treatment; vocational
training; on-site counseling; enrichment activities, such
as movies and religious studies; and therapy for seniors was
provided by the community.
How effective was it? A quantitative
and qualitative evaluation was conducted by CSUSM and SDSU
that looked at chronically homeless, described by HUD very
specifically. 43 shelter residents met HUD’s narrow
definition. 17 of them have found independent living situation,
1 found shared housing, 1 found vets housing, 5 were reunited
with family, 4 entered recovery programs, and 4 entered inpatient
treatment. This means that 32 of 43 found stable housing or
entered treatment programs. That’s 74% moved into more
stable housing.
For provider agencies and their
staff, there was a sense of unity and common purpose among
agencies. They shared donations and extended resources to
other shelters. In short, because of the synergy of people
of good will working together the value of the regional shelter
system is far greater than the sum of its parts. This is what
we can accomplish when we come together.
Suzanne: That’s
an absolutely wonderful example of all of us coming to the
table, bringing our abundant gifts, letting our energy flow
back and forth form one another and working in a very cooperative,
collaborative way for maximum leveraging of value, and so
today is going to be a lot of dreaming and envisioning what
more can be.
Bill: Our
identity is not defined by the Winter Shelter, but what it
does do is show us what can be done when we come together
and work together.Back
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