1. Homeless and Education System Collaboration for Education Stakeholders December 14, 2015 John McGah National Center on Family Homelessness at American Institutes for Research (AIR)

2. Meet Your Presenters  John McGah, Senior Associate, National Center on Family Homelessness at the American Institutes for Research (AIR)  John McLaughlin, Federal Program Coordinator, Education for Homeless Children and Youth (EHCY) Program, U.S. Department of Education (ED)  Kevin Solarte, Special Assistant, Office of the Secretary, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)  Beth McCullough, Homeless Education Liaison, Adrian Public Schools (MI) 2

3. Welcoming Remarks  John McLaughlin, Federal Program Coordinator, EHCY Program, U.S. Department of Education (ED)  Kevin Solarte, Special Assistant, Office of the Secretary, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) 3

4. Overview  Who we are  Who commissioned this –Overview of webinar –Describe learning objectives 4

5. Learning Objectives  Understand the challenges facing homeless youth  Understand the benefits and challenges of collaboration  Understand the goals of the Continuum of Care (CoC)  Understand practices that promote cross-system collaboration  Apply examples in collaborating across education and homeless systems to local communities  Access tools to help with cross-system collaboration 5

6. Framework 6

7. The Need for Collaboration  History  Needs of students  Needs of families  Needs of providers  Regulatory requirements 7

8. Stages of Systems Collaboration (Adapted from Burt & Anderson, 2006; Burt et al., 2000; Burt & Spellman, 2007) CollaborationCoordinationCommunicationIsolation 8

9. Ginzler, et al, 2007; The National Center on Family Homelessness, 1999, 2009; United States Department of Education, 2000. Education  Only 15% attend preschool (vs. 57% of low-income peers).  41% attend two schools each year.  26% repeat a grade.  50% perform below grade level.  16% less proficient in reading and math.  Almost 10% have learning disabilities (compared with 6.6% of nonhomeless students).  86% of homeless youth have a psychiatric disorder 9

10. Challenges of Serving Students Across Systems (cont’d)  Places communities get stuck –Lack of common vision –Different incentives/drivers Example drivers: CoC – to keep children and families from living on the streets or in emergency shelters LEAS – Ensuring access to equal education for students experiencing homelessness –Lack of understanding culture (language) –Lack of boundary spanners –Different mental models –Lack of time allowed to address the above –Integration at one level of systems perhaps, but not at leadership –Different regulatory requirements 10

11. A Brief Introduction of Terms  Collaboration  Mental models  Vision  Boundary spanners 11

12. Education and the Continuum of Care  Overview of the Education for Homeless Children and Youth (EHCY) Program  Requirements of homeless liaisons  Requirements of the Continuum of Care (CoC) and providers within the CoC 12

13. Goals of the Continuum of Care Program The main goal of the CoC is to support the Opening Doors goal to prevent and end homelessness for families, youth, and children in 2020. It does this by helping families, youth, and children move as quickly as possible into permanent housing and preventing a recurrence of their homelessness. CoC Goals as stated in The McKinney -Vento Homeless Assistance Act:  Promote community-wide commitment to the goal of ending homelessness  Provide funding for efforts by nonprofit providers, States, and local governments to re-house homeless individuals and families rapidly while minimizing the trauma and dislocation  Promote access to and effective use of mainstream programs  Optimize self-sufficiency 13

14. Other Aspects of the Education System  Goals of the education system  McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act  System performance measures  U.S. Dept. of Education definition of homelessness  Education culture  Usual partners in a community 14

15. Key CoC Concepts  The Continuum of Care (CoC) and it’s goals  Application Process for CoC Funds  System performance measures  Continuum of care culture 15

16. Community Perspective Beth McCullough Beth McCullough is the homeless education liaison for Adrian Public Schools and homeless education coordinator for Lenawee County. 16

17. Question? What do you see as the greatest obstacles to better collaboration between the education and homeless service systems? 17

18. Viewing the Problem Through a Systemic Lens 18

19. What Keeps Us Separated?  Hard Factors: –Rules/laws –MOUs* –Data –Firewalls –Funding *Memos of Understanding  Soft Factors: –Assumptions –Perspective –Beliefs –Values 19

20. Approaches for Promoting Collaboration  Recognizing our own mental models  Stakeholder analysis  Identifying boundary spanners 20

21. The Power of Mental Models  Deeply held beliefs and assumptions about ourselves and the world  Determine how and what we perceive  Guide how we act, which in turn influences our results  A critical part of system structure 21

22. Question  What are some “mental models” that you bring to your work? 1.The most important goals for youth and families you work with are… 2.What other people/systems should do better to serve homeless youth and their families… 22

23. A CoC Meeting RolePrimary PrioritiesOther Priorities McKinney-Vento Homeless Liaison I need to ensure that all homeless children are identified within the CoC and that everyone is aware of the rights of homeless students in the community. I have high caseloads with many homeless students who need housing stability in order to achieve academically and have a bright future. We must do more to reduce the amount of children facing homelessness, including families living doubled-up. School District Official Homeless Parent Homeless Services Case Worker CoC Lead Agency Elected Official Business Leader Affordable Housing Advocate 23

24. Changing Mental Models  Surface current beliefs  Ask, “Do our mental models help us achieve what we want?”  Encourage learning across stakeholders  Seek disconfirming data  Consider alternative interpretations  Develop shared vision and supportive mental models  Conduct experiments  Build on small successes and learn from failures 24

25. Boundary Spanners  Boundary-spanners “are individuals who can “move freely and flexibly within and between organizations and communities” (Peter Miller)  Are there boundary spanners in your CoC or community that could be helpful to collaboration? 25

26. List of Examples From the Field  Sharing data (real time and for evaluation)  Dedicated boundary spanner role  Cross-training staff and leadership  Homeless (or MH) service providers working closely with homeless liaisons  Building buy-in from key stakeholders early on  Working across subsystems at the front line, midlevel management, and leadership levels  System mapping— shared, discussed, refined, revisited 26

27. In Summary 27 Challenges facing homeless youth Benefits and challenges of collaboration Goals of the Continuum of Care (CoC) Practices that promote cross-system collaboration Examples in collaborating across education and homeless systems to local communities Tools to help with cross-system collaboration

28. What Stage Are You?

29. Resources  Homelessness & Education Cross- System Collaboration: Applied Research Summary & Tools (2015)  CoC information on HUDExchange: https://www.hudexchange.info/progr ams/coc/ https://www.hudexchange.info/progr ams/coc/  HUD CoC Program Interim Rule: https://www.hudexchange.info/resour ces/documents/CoCProgramInterim Rule_FormattedVersion.pdf https://www.hudexchange.info/resour ces/documents/CoCProgramInterim Rule_FormattedVersion.pdf 29

30. Resources (cont’d)  HUD Ask A Question https://www.hudexchange.info/get- assistance/my-question/ https://www.hudexchange.info/get- assistance/my-question/  Your Local HUD Regional TA Team  National Center on Family Homelessness/ American Institutes for Research (AIR) www.familyhomelessness.org www.familyhomelessness.org 30

31. Presenter contact information 31 Look for a follow-up e-mail with a link to the handouts webpage and a webinar evaluation Presenter contact information John McGah (NCFH), jmcgah@air.orgjmcgah@air.org John McLaughlin (ED), john.mclaughlin@ed.govjohn.mclaughlin@ed.gov Kevin Solarte (HUD), kevin.m.solarte@hud.govkevin.m.solarte@hud.gov Beth McCullough (MI), bmccullough@adrian.k12.mi.usbmccullough@adrian.k12.mi.us