In this edition:
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Join the next MICH webinar and Speakers Bureau on Wednesday, January 8
- The holidays can be stressful. Free, confidential help is available
- Request for Reviewers: FHPAP, Housing Trust Fund, and Homework Starts with Home
- Reports to help inform the next Olmstead Plan now available
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Crossroads to Justice: Implementation Consultant Sara Engberg on collaborating with the Department of Human Services
Be sure to join the next monthly webinar on Wednesday, January 8 from 1 - 2 p.m. Please note this is a change from January 1 and the first Wednesday of the month. If you have any questions about your webinar registration, please email dan.gregory@state.mn.us
The January 8 webinar will focus on how communities can support new arrivals to Minnesota and connect them to the resources for which they are eligible.
The beginning 10 minutes of each monthly webinar will be held to hear from the Speakers Bureau. Anyone who has lived experience of homelessness is welcome to sign-up to share through the Speakers Bureau. This is open time each month for lived experience experts to share ideas and feedback with the webinar audience.
The next webinar Speakers Bureau will be on Wednesday, January 8 at 1 p.m. There is a monthly prep session held the Tuesday before the webinar. The prep session will be Tuesday, January 7 from 11-11:30 a.m. Follow this link to join the prep session. This is an ongoing opportunity that happens each month. Sign up is required. Please email dan.gregory@state.mn.us or call/text Dan at 651-983-9985 to sign up to speak or with any questions.
The holidays can be a joy-filled season, but they can also be a very stressful or difficult time for many of us. You matter. If you or someone you know is struggling with a concern about relationships, economic worries, substance use, mental or physical illness, or anything else, free, confidential help is available.
See our post on LinkedIn, Instagram, or Facebook to learn more about support available through 988, and please share to your networks to spread the word about this important resource.
Minnesota Housing is requesting application reviewers for the following RFPs: Family Homeless Prevention and Assistance Program (FHPAP), Housing Trust Fund (HTF) and Homework Starts with Home (HSWH). The agency anticipates reviewers will be assigned 3 – 5 applications per program to review and score. If you’re able to help, please e-mail Nancy at nancy.urbanski@state.mn.us or respond via the following link: https://cvent.me/74lR91. If you have a specific request, for example you only have time to review a couple applications, or would like further information please e-mail Nancy directly.
All reviewers will be required to complete both a Conflict of Interest and Data Practices Form prior to receiving applications. To ensure that our agency is providing transparency and an equal opportunity for all interested community reviewers, new language has been added to the Conflict of Interest. The additional language provides an opportunity for a reviewer the time to discuss, with designated agency staff, any uncertainty they may think, or feel is a potential conflict.
Please note that compensation is not able to be provided at this time.
Over the past six months, the Olmstead Implementation Office (OIO) has been doing intentional community engagement efforts to help inform the next Olmstead Plan. OIO worked with two different contractors to conduct small community conversations about inclusion and choice, and to help oversee the Quality of Life survey. Additionally, in June, the OIO office hosted the statewide Disability Inclusion and Choice Survey.
The reports from these engagement efforts can be found on the Plan Update page on the OIO website. There will continue to be opportunities for people to share feedback and be involved in creating the next Olmstead Plan throughout the next year.
Crossroads to Justice is the strategic plan of the Minnesota Interagency Council on Homelessness (MICH), bringing a housing, racial and health justice approach for people facing homelessness in Minnesota to guide the work of state government.
The implementation of this plan is being co-led and co-monitored by 14 paid Implementation Consultants, all people with lived experience of homelessness representing different experiences and different parts of the state. They were onboarded in April, chose agencies to support in May, and their expertise and priorities are shaping the daily work of state agencies.
Meet Sara Engberg
Sara is an impassioned changemaker who relishes diving into the details of public policy to transform our world into a more just and equitable society for all. She enjoys organizing around the intersections of homelessness, child protection, and tenants' rights. Through her family's ongoing journey of searching for their missing relative, Melissa Eagleshield, Sara has developed a passion for working on missing and murdered issues. In her "free" time, she savors disrupting colonialist systems and spending time with her family.
Sara’s reflections on working with the Department of Human Services (DHS)
Sara has been working with DHS to expand and maximize the impact of the Housing Stabilization Services (HSS) program. Particularly exciting has been the roll-out of the $3000 moving expenses allowance in April of 2024. It has also been rewarding to work with the newly formed Homelessness, Housing and Support Services Administration (HHSSA). In the new year, Sara hopes to continue her work with HSS and HHSSA, including ensuring that state-funded homelessness programs exhibit high quality controls and that homelessness is treated as the public health crisis that it is. She also hopes to continue to learn about the RFP and grant-reviewing processes.
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