Washington is committed to safe, decent and affordable housing for all residents. While housing affordability and wealth inequality are leading causes of homelessness, we also know that trauma and mental health challenges are common amongst homeless populations and that people of color and LGBTQ communities are disproportionately impacted.
The Department of Commerce Housing Division provides tools to grantees and funding recipients to ensure that everyone is housed in their communities. By prioritizing competency through specialized training, we aim to strengthen the community’s response to homelessness, promote housing stability, and improve the overall well-being of vulnerable populations across Washington State.
Live virtual training
The LGBTQIA+ Foundations session of the Safe Shelter Series will provide an overview of LGBTQIA+ competency considerations for direct service providers and others working in housing assistance. Research continues to show that those who openly identify as queer, transgender, and/or gender non-conforming are at higher risk of experiencing housing insecurity; non-inclusive services are among the major barriers to accessing support. Through discussion and interactivity, this session will offer providers an introductory overview of the dimensions of gender and sexuality, LGBTQIA+ terminology, and strategies to create an inclusive culture for their specific context.
For training registration information, please reach out Nicole Palczewski by email at
Nicole.Palczewski@Commerce.wa.gov.
During this Racial Equity: Key Terms and Concepts training workshop we will begin our racial justice learning journey considering community and love while we collectively learn how stereotypes, prejudice, discrimination, and unconscious bias all show up in our minds, hearts, and bodies. We will learn about the history of race in America, how institutional and structural racism has impacted homelessness for BIPOC folks in America, and the importance of healing the spirit through Co-liberation and belonging.
For training registration information, please reach out Nicole Palczewski by email at
Nicole.Palczewski@Commerce.wa.gov.
During this Advanced Racial Equity: Translating awareness into action Training, we will extend our collective racial justice learning journey focused on community and love while we collectively cultivate co-liberation. Together we will gain tools and learn skills that can operationalize anti-oppressive transformation. There will be plenty of time provided for reflection and discussion regarding micro steps that you can take individually, with your colleagues, and with your organization that will advance racial justice throughout Washington.
For training registration information, please reach out Nicole Palczewski by email at Nicole.Palczewski@Commerce.wa.gov.
The Trauma-Informed Housing Services session of the Safe Shelter Series will better prepare participants for providing direct client services that are trauma-aware, healing-centered, and mitigate provider burnout. Many providers witness the bidirectional impacts of trauma, meaning that exposure to traumatic events increases risk factors for housing insecurity and housing insecurity increases risk factors for trauma. Furthermore, repeatedly witnessing others’ trauma coupled with an inability for providers to refuel and renew leads to staggering rates of burnout. This session will engage participants in meaningful discussions about the hard truths of this work and offer tangible tools to care for self while caring for others.
For training registration information, please reach out Nicole Palczewski by email at
Nicole.Palczewski@Commerce.wa.gov.
This training series teaches the core concepts of Diversion Housing Problem Solving! Throughout this 2 day virtual training workshop we will learn how to orchestrate creative and successful Diversion Action Plans using Conversation Skills as our tools and Problem Solving Steps as our guide to evoke collaborative goal setting that balances safety and the unique needs of each person you serve that is living through homelessness. Learn how to develop tailored individualized action plans that incorporate diversion and progressive engagement strategies as an early intervention strategy. Please note this curriculum centers equity, housing first principles, harm reduction, and trauma informed care best practices.
For training registration information, please reach out Nicole Palczewski by email at
Nicole.Palczewski@Commerce.wa.gov.
Training hub
This online library of resources offers useful training tools and resources that have been specially created and organized for front-line organizations, service providers, and other people working to prevent and eliminate homelessness.
Note: To take courses, you will need to create a free online account to keep track of your progress.
Documentation
- Case Notes and Time Management 101 – This training is for onboarding or acting as a refresher to introduce new or current staff to key concepts, develop or refine skills.***
- The Golden Thread of Documentation ISP Intervention Development (on YouTube) – Documentation training for Foundational Community Supports staff. Supportive housing.
- The Golden Thread of Documentation – The Assessment Process and Prioritizing Areas of Need (on YouTube)
- Goal Development Documentation (on YouTube) – training for Foundational Community Supports staff. Supportive Housing
- Chronic Homeless Definition & Record-keeping Requirements – In this training, you will learn and practice how to determine whether a household meets HUD’s definition of chronic homelessness, including assessing if the household has a disability, how long they have been experiencing homelessness, and where they are currently living. Next, attendees will learn record-keeping requirements related to documenting chronic homelessness in participant files.
Engagement
Progressive Engagement is an approach to helping households end their homelessness as rapidly as possible, despite barriers, with minimal financial and support. This video will explain the different frameworks between program and system strategies.
- Progressive Engagement For Programs and Systems Training Video (on YouTube)
- Progressive Engagement For Programs and Systems Training Certificate (PDF)
- Health Home Program: Outreach and Engagement Strategies (on YouTube) – This special-topic training is designed to provide participants with strategies for locating clients and methods for increasing engagement
- Effective Communication and Its Role in Building Trust – This workshop will provide an overview of the concepts of trust and trustworthiness and the numerous factors that contribute to the understandable mistrust of health care and homeless services among people experiencing homelessness. Learn the fundamentals of communication and trust building to strengthen engagement and vaccine acceptance.***
- Case Management: Engagement – This training is for onboarding or acting as a refresher to introduce new or current staff to key concepts, develop or refine skills. ***
- Engage, empower, enhance, enable: Tools for measuring quality in case management – This training will cover the gaps in performance and outcome measures, as well as the impact of appropriate measures for quality improvement and care enhancement in professional case management.
Resources
- Public Benefits are Key! HEN & ABD Training (on YouTube) – Learn about how to navigate the ABD and HEN programs for your clients
- Public Benefits are Key! TANF/WorkFirst Training (on YouTube) – An in-depth training on eligibility and advocacy tips for TANF and WorkFirst programs
- Public Benefits are Key! Medicare, Medicaid, and Spenddown (on YouTube) – An in-depth training on eligibility and advocacy tips for Medicare, Medicaid, and Spenddown
- Public Benefits are Key: SSI & SSDI – January 25th, 2024 (youtube.com) Join the Coalition and Benefits Law Center for a deep dive into the basics of SSI and SSDI benefits, how to advocate for your client seeking disability benefits, and services they provide so that people access and maintain benefits
- McKinney-Vento Provider Training The Coalition (on YouTube) – Provides some foundational information on the McKinney-Vento program and rights of K-12 students experiencing homelessness.
- Housing-Based Case Management & Supportive Services – This presentation covers specific topics including an exploration of the core principles of housing-based case management, strategies for using HOPWA supportive services to enhance case management practices, and an overview of low-barrier practices and service models: trauma-informed care, motivational interviewing, harm reduction, and housing first.
- Social Determinants of health: Connecting to community resources – In this webinar, the speaker will share strategies for establishing connections to community resources and developing relationships with these important partners.
- Measuring Care Coordination: Tools for today, tools for tomorrow
- Financial Empowerment: Getting Through the Month, Case Manager Training, Coalition on Homelessness
- Retaining Staff: Practices for Excellence – This training will outline the characteristics of an organizational culture where people want to belong and key factors and motivations to ensure a healthy workplace.
- Develop Others: Tools to develop the next generation of case managers – This webinar will focus on how case managers can guide and facilitate the mentor relationships using the practical knowledge they use every day. We’ll also introduce you to tools to support mentoring.
- Supporting People with the Lived Experience – This workshop will provide an overview of working with people with lived experience and how to create a safe environment for them to thrive within your organization. Learn techniques to support peers with lived experience and how to create an environment where they can contribute meaningfully without being retraumatized themselves.
- Best Practices in Clinical Supervision – Day 1 (on YouTube) – This webinar covers best practices in clinical supervision, including factors, functions, and implementation of clinical supervision.
- Maximizing Your Investment in Supervision Webinar: Part 2 (on YouTube) – Watch this webinar from our Supportive Housing Supervisor’s learning community to hear part 2 of maximizing your investment in supervision.
- WA State Supervisors Learning Collaborative: addressing burnout (on YouTube)
- Providing effective clinical supervision in permanent supportive housing setting (on YouTube)
- Supervision for job coaching strategies (on YouTube)
- Leading With Effective Communication (Inclusive Leadership Training) – What you’ll learn: Approaches, frameworks, and tools for communicating effectively; How inclusive leadership and effective communication are intertwined; Strategies to create space for transparent and authentic communication, where people across differences feel safe to speak up and share ideas; Discover your own communication strengths to build effective relationships in your professional or personal lives.***
- Promoting Safety in Health Centers – De-escalation Principles of de-escalation allow direct service providers to serve as agents of peace and sources of calm and stability for those facing intense emotions as a result of crisis and loss. Discover tools that can encourage clients and staff who are experiencing severe, escalating anxiety and agitation to re-gain personal control and successfully navigate conflict, disappointment, and mood dysregulation.
- Crisis Intervention & De-Escalation – This training series is composed of a menu of lessons in a series covering topics as part of the onboarding process to support you in your organization’s role.
- Navigating the storms of life – Supporting people in times of crises (on YouTube) – Frequent crises can cause the supportive housing environment to feel chaotic and insecure for those who are already quite vulnerable. Knowledge, skills and resources that empower staff to effectively anticipate, recognize and manage these crises are essential to meeting the needs of clients in supportive housing.
Diversion is a creative problem-solving approach to help people resolve their housing crisis, ideally before entering the crisis response system. Diversion uses exploratory conversations to help people identify realistic housing options based on their resources. Diversion may be accompanied by short-term services, including one-time financial assistance.
- Introduction to Problem Solving (Diversion) Training Video (on YouTube)
- Introduction to Problem Solving (Diversion) Training Slidedeck (PowerPoint)
- Introduction to Problem Solving (Diversion) Training Certificate (PDF)
- Diversion as a Service (on YouTube) – shelter diversion vs program diversion, how do we filter through people in ES who don’t need to be there, how do we divert them
- The Role of Emergency Shelter in Diversion (YouTube) – This webinar explores the role emergency shelter plays within the homeless response system’s coordinated strategy to safely and appropriately divert households from shelter. It explains why problem-solving conversations don’t end at Coordinated Entry
- Intensive Diversion Training – In this training, participants will learn the Diversion approach and apply their skills through hands-on practice guided by experienced Diversion Coaches
- Government to Government Training for Tribal relations – After completing the training, attendees should have a much better understanding of tribes, their people and unique culture, and an enhanced awareness of the importance of multi-culturalism. Each attendee will be provided with a user-friendly reference book to continue furthering their understanding of contemporary Native culture Cost $110
- Difficult conversations about racisim and white supremacy – This webinar is about having Difficult Conversations. How are we approaching the difficult conversations in our lives around racism and white supremacy? What frameworks, tools, and interventions can support us to stay grounded in embodied awareness as we connect with friends, family, and others about challenging topics? While we’re focused on racism, these tools can of course be applied to conversations about other systems of oppression, such as ableism, sexism, etc.
- Cultural Humility: People, Principles and Practices – “Cultural Humility: People, Principles and Practices,” is a 30-minute documentary by San Francisco State professor Vivian Chávez, that mixes poetry with music, interviews, archival footage, and images of community, nature and dance to explain what Cultural Humility is and why we need it. ***
- Restorative Justice for our movement – Facing Race Conference
- Cultural and Disability Competence Considerations – This special-topic training provides participants with an overview of cultural and disability considerations, as well as, potential roadblocks for developing competency
- Taking care of our staff in a capitalist, ableist, and racist system – The session will be a deep dive into MediaJustice’s process including how we decided on our most important values, selected a consultant, decided on our priorities, budgeted for our benefits including long-term leave, engaged our staff, and our own retrospective
- What do we do with the white people – How to bring millions of white people into movements for social justice movements – Panelist will dive into Showing Up for Racial Justice’s (SURJ) model for organizing, an approach needed to fundamentally change the cultural and political landscape in the US, but which goes against much of the current thinking about organizing white people
- Decolonizing Research Practices with the Black Researchers Collective – Exploring organizing and movement-building techniques, participants will learn how to identify and take a policy-relevant issue from ideation to a plan of action, using research tools as a capacity-building strategy for parents, organizers, grassroots leaders, and advocates
Inclusion
- Inclusion of Minorities in Community Development – This free online course will teach you about the process and the benefits of involving young people in the community development process. You will learn about the conceptual basis of diversity, challenges of inclusion, and effective organizational change strategies as well as the different tools and techniques you can use to implement inclusiveness in community development projects.***
- Practical diversity: taking inclusion from theory to practice (YouTube) – We strive to embrace diversity and inclusion in our schools and workplaces, but we often fail to understand what this looks like practically. Dr. Dawn Bennett-Alexander believes that with a little effort, we can move diversity and inclusion from theory to practice
- Considerations for LGBTQIA+, BIPOC, and Immigrants: Cultural Competences in Recovery Residences- Cultural Competences in Recovery Residences (youtube.com) Participants will: Gain cultural competence around LGBTQIA+, Black, Indigenous, People of color (BIPOC), and Immigrants. Understand systemic barriers, risk and environmental factors for LGBTQIA+, Black, Indigenous, People of Color, and Immigrants on recovery journeys. Learn strategies to create an anti-racist and inclusive environment in recovery residences and workplaces in Washington
Implicit Bias
- Implicit Bias | Lesson 1: Schemas (on YouTube) – This video discusses schemas, which are mental short-cuts that help us navigate the world around us
- Implicit Bias | Lesson 2: Stereotypes (on YouTube) – This video explores the differences between two primary categories of automatic associations: attitudes and stereotypes
- Implicit Bias | Lesson 3: Real World Consequences (YouTube) – This video explores findings that implicit biases can influence our real world behavior
- Implicit Bias | Lesson 4: Explicit v. Implicit Bias (YouTube) – This video discusses the differences between explicit and implicit bias
- Implicit Bias | Lesson 5: The IAT (YouTube) – This videos discusses the Implicit Association Test (“IAT”) and the wealth of data it has generated
- Implicit Bias | Lesson 6: Countermeasures (YouTube) – The final video in the Implicit Bias Video Series from BruinX, the R&D unit within UCLA’s Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion. This video discusses three primary strategies for countering implicit bias: (1) mindset; (2) debiasing; (3) decoupling
- Immaculate perception (on YouTube) – Do you discriminate? UCLA law professor Jerry Kang exposes the phenomenon of automatic processing and how it relates to explicit and implicit bias. Using humor and audience participation, Kang challenges our assumptions while shifting our perceptions of at least one Asian male
Working with survivors of domestic violence in the homeless housing world requires careful attention. This video will explain the intersection between domestic violence and homelessness, how to recognize and respond to domestic violence, safety planning and how to best partner with advocates.
- Working With Survivors of Domestic Violence Training Video (on YouTube)
- Working With Survivors of Domestic Violence Training Certificate (PDF)
- Understanding Domestic Violence and the Need for Safety Planning – The first day of a 2-part training will cover two foundational topics, building a comprehensive understanding on domestic violence / intimate partner violence followed by how to plan for safety of victims and survivors that you come in contact with. You will learn about the pervasiveness of the problem as well as the centrality of power and control in domestic violence dynamics and how it gets manifested in various forms. The training will help you understand the cycle of abuse and the innumerable barriers in leaving an abusive relationship. ****
- DV & Its Interconnectedness with Homelessness, Housing Rights & Resources – In the second training the participants will understand how homelessness is connected with domestic violence and housing is one of the most critical needs of DV survivors. The session will also familiarize the participants with the barriers and challenges in housing DV survivors and what laws, rights and resources are available to address some of these gaps. The final session will focus on a support and connect approach so survivors could be assisted in a trauma-informed and timely way. Some important resources will be shared with the group.****
- Safely Serving Families and Survivors of Domestic Violence – This webinar focuses on shelters that serve families and survivors of domestic violence and discusses how to retool your shelter’s rules, expectations, and policies and procedures in a low-barrier environment that prioritizes safety for participants and staff.
- It’s about ethics: maintaining personal and professional boundaries
- Ethics and resilience: Balancing heart and mind for a better practice and a better you – Define moral distress as it relates to case management; describe an ethical scenario that can cause moral distress for case managers; and discuss three ways case managers can manage moral distress by cultivating moral resilience.
- Ethics and Boundaries in Supportive Housing (YouTube) provides an overview of ethics and boundaries in supportive housing and apply principles of ethics and boundaries to a case scenario.
Harm Reduction – This course introduces harm reduction as a philosophical approach and public health intervention. The course will review the foundational principles of harm reduction, details of harm reduction practices, and supporting change through harm reduction.
- Understanding Hoarding Behavior: A Brief Overview – An overview of the mental health disorder, assessment and treatment. COST $20.00
- Safety Day: An Application of Disaster Psychology to Hoarding Clean-outs – Certificate of Completion Course – An in-depth training for navigating severe hoarding cases with a mental health and public safety focus. COST $125.00
- Buried in Treasures: The Nature & Treatment of Hoarding Disorders – You will learn specific skills to increase patients’ motivation and compliance, challenge maladaptive ways of thinking, and learn new behavior patterns. COST $70.00
- Buried in Treasures Learning Community Chapter 9 (YouTube) – Buried in Treasures (BIT) Chapter-by-Chapter 2022 is a monthly learning community focused on supporting people served with hoarding behaviors and excessive clutter.
- Buried in Treasures Learning Community Chapter 7 (YouTube) – Buried in Treasures (BIT) Chapter-by-Chapter 2022 is a monthly learning community focused on supporting people served with hoarding behaviors and excessive clutter.
- Buried in Treasures Learning Community Chapter 6 (YouTube) – Buried in Treasures (BIT) Chapter-by-Chapter 2022 is a monthly learning community focused on supporting people served with hoarding behaviors and excessive clutter.
- Closing the Gap: Homelessness to Housing Webinar Series – Optimizing Service Delivery – This webinar provided guidance and fostered innovation in best practices and strategies in stakeholder engagement for homelessness services systems.
- Closing the Gap: Homelessness to Housing Webinar Series – Implementing System Change – This webinar provided guidance and fostered innovation in best practices and strategies in stakeholder engagement for homelessness services systems.
- The Role of Emergency Shelter in the Crisis Response System – This webinar discusses the role of emergency shelters in a crisis response system and explores what the data and research tell us about emergency shelter and why people may choose not to access it.
- Keys to Effective Emergency Shelter: Using Your Data to Evaluate and Improve Performance (YouTube) – This webinar focuses on using your data to create changes in your program design. Experts describe which metrics are most important and how to use them to evaluate whether your shelter is effective in its role in ending homelessness in your community.
- HUD’s Equal Access Rule: What it Is, What’s Changed, and What You Need to Know (YouTube) – HUD’s Equal Access Rule, which was expanded in 2016, ensures that HUD’s housing and shelter programs are open to all eligible individuals and families regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, or marital status. This webinar will help you to better understand the rule and teach you how to amend your shelter’s policies and procedures to be in compliance
- Elevating the Needs of the Homeless Services Workforce: Findings from Recent Nationwide Surveys (youtube.com) Human services workers across multiple sectors have been yelling from the rooftops that their professions are in distress. The homeless services workforce is adding to the chorus. To help their voices be heard, the Alliance circulated a nationwide survey earlier this year. Around the same time, researchers from Azusa Pacific University developed a related effort. Both teams’ findings focused on the impacts of factors such as salaries and benefits, high employee turnover, and understaffing on the homeless services field
- Creating Authentic, Effective Partnerships between Organizations and People with Lived Experiences: Lessons from CASPEH- Webinar: Creating Authentic, Effective Partnerships between Organizations and People with Lived Experiences: Lessons from CASPEH | Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative (ucsf.edu)
- Housing First is a homeless assistance approach that provides permanent housing to people experiencing homelessness. This video will explain how this approach is guided by the belief that people need a place to live before attending to anything less critical, such as getting a job or seeking treatment.
- Introduction to Housing First Training Video (on YouTube)
- Introduction to Housing First Training Slidedeck (PowerPoint)
- Introduction to Housing First Training Certificate (PDF)
- How to Address Unsheltered Homelessness (YouTube) – this training addresses unsheltered homelessness as a public health issue and provides attendees with examples of how to better connect housing with services
- Homelessness is a Housing Problem (YouTube) – research found that housing market conditions – not mental illness, drug use, poverty, weather, generosity of public assistance, or low income mobility – explain why some communities have higher rates of homelessness than others.
- Housing First Supports Income Security (YouTube) – This training will highlight the fact that as we talk about housing first as a philosophy to addressing homelessness it’s important to think about what are the package of services that are needed to help people stabilize in their housing and begin to thrive.
- Housing First Serves Veterans & Promotes Recovery (YouTube)
- Housing First Promotes Health (YouTube)
- A World Without Housing First (YouTube)
Rapid Rehousing is a critical intervention in every crisis response system. This video will explain the program design and how to help individuals and families that don’t need intensive and ongoing supports to quickly exit homelessness and return to permanent housing.
- Introduction to Rapid Rehousing Training Video (on Vimeo)
- Introduction to Rapid Rehousing Training Slidedeck (PowerPoint)
- Introduction to Rapid Rehousing Training Certificate (PDF)
- Homework Starts with Home: Progressive Engagement and Rapid Rehousing (YouTube) – This is the fourth information session for Homework Starts with Home, covering the Progressive Engagement element of the preliminary practice model.
- Rapidly Re-Housing Households with Zero Income (YouTube) – Learn how two successful programs – Homefull in Dayton, OH, and Friendship Place, in Washington, DC – are able to successfully rapidly re-house households with no income.
- Creativity, Complexity, & Common Understanding: How Do We Address Affordable Housing? (YouTube)
- Introduction to Housing Models, Housing Navigation, and Engagement – The goal of this training course is to provide foundational level information about housing models, engagement, and navigation strategies that support individuals who are experiencing or at risk of homelessness who have serious mental illness (SMI), serious emotional disturbance (SED), substance use disorders (SUDs), and/or co-occurring disorders (CODs).***
- Ethics and Boundaries in Supportive Housing (YouTube) – This monthly topical webinar will provide an overview of ethics and boundaries in supportive housing and apply principles of ethics and boundaries to a case scenario.
- Supportive Housing 101 – This self-paced training is the first part of our supportive housing onboarding series. This short self-paced module introduces supportive housing models, approaches, and components of quality supportive housing.
- Advocating for and building relationships with landlords (YouTube)
- Module One: Supportive Housing & Recovery
- Module Two: Legal Protections & Policy
- HUD Housing Counseling Program Training – The HUD Housing Counseling Program supports the delivery of a wide variety of housing counseling services to homebuyers, homeowners, low- to moderate-income renters, and the people experiencing homelessness. The primary objectives of the Program are to improve financial literacy, expand homeownership opportunities, improve access to affordable housing, and preserve homeownership****
- Fair Housing
- Chicago Fair Housing Training for Case Managers – A detailed overview of federal and state fair housing protections including but not limited to the Federal Fair Housing Act, Just Housing Amendment, VAWA etc. This training also covers protected classes, prohibited acts, Source of Income Protections, and reasonable accommodations for persons with a disability
- Fair Housing 101 (YouTube) – Fair Housing and Civil Rights Conference 2023
- Fair Housing Enforcement in a Time of Crisis (YouTube) – Fair Housing and Civil Rights Conference 2023
- Housing for Survivors of the Sex Trade (YouTube) – Fair Housing and Civil Rights Conference 2023
- Overcoming Discriminatory Challenges Faced by Voucher Holders (YouTube) – Fair Housing and Civil Rights Conference 2023
- Top Ten Tips Guide for Undocumented Immigrants Post Arrival (YouTube) – Fair Housing and Civil Rights Conference 2023
- Do Evictions Defund Nearby Schools (YouTube) – Fair Housing and Civil Rights Conference 2023
- Landlord Engagement reviews the core components of Rapid Rehousing and explains landlord incentives. This PowerPoint presentation presents the concept of working with landlords as partners. It will help you discover how to find landlords, build relationships, and gives details about the Washington Landlord Mitigation Program.
- Landlord Engagement In Rapid Rehousing Training Video (on YouTube)
- Landlord Engagement In Rapid Rehousing Training Slidedeck (PowerPoint)
- Integrating DBT Techniques into Supportive Housing to Achieve Recovery Goals (youtube.com), From the Washington State Health Care Authority (HCA)
- Recovery Residence 101 (youtube.com) Get ready to unlock a world of knowledge and insights into the amazing work of the Washington Alliance for Quality Recovery Residences (WAQRR). Led by the industry’s brightest minds, this webinar is your gateway to understanding WAQRR’s efforts in creating a statewide registry
- A guide to Creating Successful Partnerships with Landlords (youtube.com) WAQRR is hosting an upcoming webinar that will be presented by Blair Gaston, the Marketing and Engagement Coordinator for WAQRR. This webinar will introduce the Private Landlord Toolkit, which is an essential resource for building strong relationships with landlords. Through this webinar, attendees will learn how to address common challenges that arise when working with landlords, negotiate lease agreements, provide ongoing support, and promote positive tenant behavior
- Pathways to Housing Pathways to Housing is a website where people seeking housing, supportive housing service providers, and landlords alike can explore local and state resources relevant to housing services in Washington
- The Basics: Introduction to Low-Barrier Emergency Shelter – These short videos will teach you the basics of making the transition to low-barrier, housing-focused shelter. They feature animated explainers and interviews with staff running low-barrier shelters.
- The Keys to Effective Low Barrier Emergency Shelters – This webinar gives an overview of the Five Keys to Effective Emergency Shelter: using a Housing First approach, safe and appropriate diversion, immediate and low-barrier access to shelter, housing-focused services, and using data to measure performance.
- How to Transition Your Emergency Shelter to a Low-Barrier and Housing-Focused Shelter Model – This webinar features leaders from three emergency shelters who have made the shift to low-barrier, housing-focused emergency shelter. Panelist address common questions and concerns regarding low barrier shelter.
- Serving Single Adults in Congregate Settings This webinar addresses rules and safety issues for low-barrier shelters that serve single adults. Participants will learn how to re-examine and shift rules to expectations that promote safety.
- Frequently Asked Questions for Low-Barrier Shelter (YouTube) – This webinar answers the toughest and most frequently asked questions from people like you! The Alliance collected questions from the thousands of service providers who tuned into sessions 1–5 and put them to the experts.
- Coaching and Engaging Clients with Mental Health Needs – This special-topic training reviews the service delivery for behavioral health, assessing the client, their environment & behaviors, and the fundamentals of an effective behavioral support plan including strategies for supporting and engaging clients and suggestions for promoting collaboration between the Interdisciplinary Care Team and the client.
- Mental Health Awareness – This training will provide participants with information on the basics of SMI including diagnosis and symptomology, and reflect on the ways we think about SMI and the people we serve. Participants will also learn about the recovery model and techniques on how to best serve those living with serious mental illness. ***
- Serious Mental Illness and Homelessness – This introductory course focuses on recognizing, assessing, and treating serious mental illness (SMI) among adults experiencing homelessness. The course provides an overview of the symptoms of and treatment for major mental illnesses, discusses common co-occurring physical health conditions that individuals with SMI experience, and provides best practices for trauma-informed engagement. ***
- Motivational Interviewing for Housing Support Practitioners (YouTube)
- Client-centered services/Motivational Interviewing – In this capacity, program coordinators assess FSS participants’ educational level, vocational certifications, physical and mental health, employment history, budget, credit and financial concerns and stability, personal and family members’ needs, interests, barriers and strengths; identify and make referrals to services and trainings; and monitor progress toward goals in the Individual Training and Services Plan.
- Motivational Interviewing (YouTube) – introduction to motivational interviewing
- Introduction to Stages of Change and Motivational Interviewing (YouTube) – This video is an overview of Stages of Change and Motivational Interviewing. It discusses each stage of change and provides interventions and tasks for each stage. It also reviews the spirit, process, and tools of motivational interviewing. Vignettes and practice exercises are also given.
Effective Street Outreach: From unsheltered to housed (youtube.com)
With unsheltered homelessness rising nationwide, communities are actively streamlining outreach efforts at the systemic level. This includes integrating outreach seamlessly into Coordinated Entry (CE) and facilitating swift housing referrals. A pivotal focus for effective outreach ensures that efforts are inherently housing-focused, while addressing the immediate needs of individuals experiencing unsheltered homelessness. Join this conversation to hear from communities that have successfully employed outreach strategies to quickly connect individuals experiencing homelessness with vital housing resources.
- Burnout Care: Actionable Steps for Case Managers and Disability Management Specialists – this special session to help case managers and disability management specialists better understand the evidence-based practices that reduce symptoms of burnout. These specially curated practices have been tested and accepted by clinical and non-clinical teams prior to and during the pandemic.
- Psychological First Aid – Self-Care – In this self-paced training course, learn the effects of stress, with an emphasis on building and using a personal self-care plan. Learn strategies to prevent, recognize, and cope with stress. COST: $20.00
- Banishing Burnout by Exploring Self-Care Practices (youtube.com) FCS: Supportive Housing – Banishing Burnout by Exploring Self-Care Practices December 13, 2023
- Substance Use Awareness – This training will provide the basics on substance use information and discuss effective treatment options that people have including harm reduction. This training will also provide tips and tools on how to effectively communicate with someone regarding their substance use and addiction ***
- The Abyss: Addiction, Homelessness, and Trauma – This webinar will examine the research and science behind the connections between addiction and trauma. It also provides a context to understand why those managing an addiction find it almost impossible to make the important changes which help them emerge from the devastation of homelessness
- Whole-Person Care for Opioid Use Disorder – This introductory course provides foundational information about the neuro-biology and prevalence of opioid use disorder (OUD), the whole-person care framework and best practices, treatment and recovery supports for OUD, and supporting housing stability for individuals with OUD ***
- Wound Care & Xylazine | Addiction Technology Transfer Center (ATTC) Network (attcnetwork.org) This webinar focuses on increasing knowledge among providers in the assessment and treatment of wounds as related to intravenous drug and xylazine use
- Being Trauma-Informed and Its Role in Ending Homelessness – In this introductory webinar, we’ll examine foundations of the trauma informed paradigm and what it means for our organizations and communities. This introduction will provide an understanding and language to begin to consider how the emerging science behind trauma can inform how care is provided and direct advocacy toward real solutions to end homelessness. Connecting research to passion can change lives and communities!
- Trauma is the Public Health Issue of Our Time – In this webinar, we will examine the impact of trauma and the resulting pain, suffering, and challenges. Understanding the impact of trauma helps us focus care to maximize short- and long-term health outcomes. Without addressing past trauma, patients will struggle to find hope and to realize the changes that allow them to live the lives they desire for themselves
- Hope, Transformation, and Post-Traumatic Growth – In this webinar, we’ll examine the path to post traumatic growth. While everyone’s journey will be different, there are common steps most people take to transform past suffering into resiliency and strength.
- Developing a Trauma-Informed Organizations (YouTube) – This session will help participants to define key principles of a trauma-informed organization, discuss stages in creating a trauma-informed organization, describe organizational climate, policies, and procedures that support trauma-informed programs and will highlight examples from an organization that has undertaken a process to become trauma-informed.
- Trauma-Informed Approaches – This course will provide an overview of the concepts of trauma and trauma informed care for patients who are interacting with Vaccine Ambassadors seeking to help with vaccine hesitancy for the COVID-19 vaccination. Learn the fundamentals of trauma, trauma-informed principles, and secondary trauma and how to identify and utilize these skills within the Vaccine Ambassador Project.***
- Secondary Traumatic Stress and Self Care (YouTube) – Working with youth who have experienced trauma can be difficult, draining, exhausting, and frustrating. This training will help professionals to understand the differences between Secondary Traumatic Stress, Compassion fatigue and vicarious trauma, as well as gain awareness of the impact of organizational stress. Participants will also be able to recognize warning signs and personal triggers, as well as understand why self-care is important and develop a personal self-care plan.
- Trauma Informed Approach training – This training series provides an overview of what trauma is and how it affects people. You will learn types, examples and levels of trauma. You will learn how a trauma informed approach can be implemented in a variety of settings including forensic hospitals, correctional settings, and within law enforcement. The training addresses how trauma affects professionals working in these settings, and includes information to help leaders and supervisors effectively implement trauma informed approaches within their organizations.
- Trauma Informed Approaches
- Racial Trauma-Informed Services webinar (YouTube) – Watch this webinar and learn about racial trauma-informed services, disparities, and gaps in the May 2022 installment of the landlord outreach learning community.
- Beyond the Cliff (YouTube) – In this talk, Laura offers us a window into the cumulative toll that can occur when we are exposed to the suffering, hardship, crisis or trauma of humans, other living beings, or the planet itself. Held within a larger context of systematic oppression and liberation theory, we’ll dive into what gets hard and how to work toward reconciling it both individually and collectively.
- 101 Course: LGBTQ Youth Homelessness – This course is meant for everyone, regardless of their previous knowledge about LGBTQ youth experiencing homelessness. In this course, we will cover oppression, facts about LGBTQ youth homelessness, gender pronouns, unique experiences of transgender youth, and creating inclusive environments. Each lesson is broken up into topics, with a short quiz at the end. ***
- 201 Course: Inclusion – This course guides you through the process of creating a more inclusive and affirming environment for young people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and/or questioning (LGBTQ) and will also equip you with the policies and tools to back it up. Each lesson is broken up into 3 topics, with a short quiz at the end. ***
- 202 Course: Youth Collaboration – The ideas and concepts included in this course will help ensure that young people are authentically engaged while collaborating with the affirming adults in their lives. ***
- 203 Course: Project Management – This course introduces the foundations of project management and applies them to examples from the world of youth homelessness services. We know that this work often comes with limited time, money, and resources. This course will give you simple tools and techniques that you can use to overcome these challenges and strengthen the work to end youth homelessness. ***
- 204 Course: Youth Action – The Youth Action Course is a resource for all young people to advocate for themselves and their communities. It includes the history of lived experience activism and its role in youth homelessness work, an overview of housing models and federal government, a discussion of common barriers, and more.***
- 205: Racial Equity – Why do Black and brown folks disproportionately experience homelessness? How does the history of housing in the US contribute to the issue today? What can we do about it as individuals, organizations and communities? Join us as we answer all of these questions and more in our first ever course on Racial Equity.
- Adolescents transitioning out of youth systems (YouTube) – Foundational Community Supports webinar November 11, 2020.
- SOAR for Human Trafficking Screening for Child Welfare Professionals – TRAIN Learning Network – powered by the Public Health Foundation – provides tips, strategies, and scenarios for screening and documenting children or youth who may have experienced human trafficking. The process involves focused inquiry to evaluate whether a child or youth may have experienced trafficking while missing from care. For child welfare professionals, timely screening is often the first step in identifying children or youth who have experienced or are at risk of trafficking.***
- SOAR for Safety Planning and Multidisciplinary Response for Child Welfare Professionals – TRAIN Learning Network – powered by the Public Health Foundation – gives an overview of safety planning and the benefits of a multidisciplinary approach to trafficking. Safety planning is a process or intervention used when working with individuals who have experienced violence firsthand or who may be at risk of violence or other harms. Child welfare professionals will learn how to develop a safety plan collaboratively with a child or youth and coordinate a multidisciplinary community response by identifying the gaps based on your assessment.***