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For more than a decade, communities have struggled with the complex problems of homelessness. Faith-based shelters have provided emergency shelter. Soup kitchens have provided the needed food. City and county agencies have assisted homeless people to try to help people move to self-sufficiency. Often these independent agencies often find themselves overwhelmed with the complex needs of the homeless. The revolving door of needs has all too often been an obstacle to true self-sufficiency. In addition, gaps in the array of services that are difficult or expensive are overlooked.
Peter Brinkerhoff, in his book Mission-Based Management, has identified seven trends that nonprofits can expect in the future:
In response to the growing complexity of the problems, the great need and the shrinking resources, homeless service providers have formed community wide coalitions for the homeless. A coalition for the homeless is a organization of community people who are committed to ending homelessness and providing more efficient services to those who experience homelessness. Coalitions take a variety of forms. Some are organized into a formal independent organization, with paid or unpaid staff, officers or core group planners, by-laws, tax exempt status, budgets, and membership fees. Others are informal gatherings of service providers working under the legal and financial umbrella of another organization. Coalitions can organize themselves in efficient organizations that meet the needs of the local service providers.
The purpose of the local coalition can also vary. Some coalitions establish informal collaborations and provide mutual support as service providers. Other coalitions focus on the continuum of care of the service providers or accessing resources, both state and federal. Strong coalitions are focused by their common sense of vision and a strong mission statement.
If all the participants in the coalition can agree on why they are meeting and what the purpose of their meeting is, then they can follow through with the details of how they will work together. These details are usually written in the form of by-laws or guidelines of the organization. Some coalitions agree that the coalition itself should never compete with individual service providers. Other coalitions take an active role in providing services and resources to fill the gaps in the continuum of care. All of these activities fall within the guidelines or the agreed upon rules of the coalition.
A strong, active and open coalition for the homeless gives a community many advantages. First, the coalition can be the voice of moral authority for the homeless in public policy. For example, a local coalition that is respected in the community can comment on any proposed law or appropriation that effects the homeless. This kind of unity allows the group to speak as one voice for those who all too often have no voice at all. A community without a strong coalition finds that there are multiple voices or no voices at all. Sometimes different agencies speak on both sides of issues making it harder to focus on what a community really needs to help homeless people move to self-sufficiency. A coalition improves everyone's credibility.
There is also safety in numbers. No one agency feels alone in speaking about needed services or public policy that affects the homeless. The coalition brings together people who can support each other in controversy.
Coalitions can also play an important role in community planning. More and more, state and federal agencies require community planning to identify and address the needs of the community. Where are the gaps in the services? What kinds of services are not being presently provided? What resources can be used to fund services that will fill the gap? A coalition can help a community avoid duplication and unnecessary services. Careful planning and evaluating can be an outcome of a strong coalition.
Even informal coalitions allow for networking and information sharing. A coalition supports each member's fund raisers and work projects. They allow for announcements and share information. This kind of information can help service providers find resources that they did not know about before becoming involved in a coalition.
Joint programming can be done. Projects, like Homeless Job Fairs or joint fund raising, are possible within the coalition. Coordination of services and programs can result from the relationships that are formed in the coalition. System and service level collaboration can be an outcome of having a strong coalition.
Most important, a coalition is an organization where each member agency puts the needs of the homeless people in the community above the needs of his/her own agency. In other words, the coalition is formed, not to enhance the individual standing of an agency but rather to focus on the needs and services that solve the problem of homelessness. The best and strongest coalitions understand that individual agencies and individuals need to collaborate to solve these complex problems.
Increasingly, service providers, legislative people and homeless advocates recognize that the problems of the homeless are complex and overlapping. Services provided in isolation are often only band-aide attempts to solve the immediate crisis. Emergency and transitional remedies alone, while critical, cannot ensure that the underlying causes of homelessness are removed. Homeless people require much more than safe, clean, and affordable housing.
In order to solve the long-term problems of homelessness, communities need a comprehensive system-wide approach that meets the many complex needs of homeless people. A system that ensures a continuum of care for homeless people and strives towards prevention of future homelessness can only exist with the collaboration of many community-based agencies, as well as public and private organizations. The implementation of such an approach often requires systemic change in a community-recognition that homelessness is not the problem of "some other agency" but the concern of the entire community.
Homeless coalitions are organizations that assist shelters and community-based agencies to plan, develop and implement collaborative services designed to provide needed care and create systemic change within the community. Members of the coalition work together to look at the larger picture and identify gaps in the services, unmet needs, and what future services might be required. Homeless coalitions also speak as one voice. Through mutual support and recognition of each member as part of a larger whole, a community attitude is created. This community is then better able to meet the needs of homeless people and foster the systematic change necessary to break the cycle of homelessness.
Therefore, coalitions should be inclusive of the entire community. It is especially important that every part of the community that has direct contact with homeless people is an active participant in the coalition. For example, the El Paso Coalition for the Homeless recently reported that after involving the local police in coalition work, the police actually discovered that the service providers of El Paso could be a resource for solving some of the city's problems. The police now regularly bring people to the Opportunity Center for services.
Here is a list of some of the people who should be invited to participate and be members of a homeless coalition:
As coalitions are strengthened within communities, homeless people will have better services, and the long-term needs of homeless people will be met. Self-sufficiency can only be achieved and sustained when the entire community works together in collaboration.
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