"The goal is to offer one-stop shopping to anyone interested in homelessness-related resources..."

SAMHSA's Homelessness Resource Center has a wealth of information and resources available; if you're homeless, an advocate, a direct service worker or in any way interested in understanding more about homelessness and the efforts to end it, you will find something to assist you here....

	By Rebecca A. Clay Web 2.0. It’s the latest computer buzzword. But how can it be of use to service providers who work with people who are homeless?

Young and well educated, but overworked and underpaid, these providers operate in programs with few resources for expensive computer hardware.

But when they go home at night, they log on to their personal computers and visit Facebook and MySpace to relax and connect. Tech-savvy and computer literate, they are ripe for SAMHSA’s Homelessness Resource Center (HRC), a virtual community located at www.homeless.samhsa.gov.

Using innovative Web 2.0 technology (see What Is Web 2.0?), SAMHSA’s HRC gives service providers support—ways to share ideas, get advice, or just chat.

“The site also offers information designed to help service providers avoid burnout and continue being as effective as possible in both their professional and personal lives,” said Deborah Stone, Ph.D., SAMHSA’s Project Officer for HRC and a social science analyst in the Homeless and Co-Occurring Disorders Branch at SAMHSA’s Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS). “A provider in San Francisco may not know about a program in Boston, although both cities face similar challenges. Now, they can share ideas and solutions.”

According to CMHS Director A. Kathryn Power, M.Ed., the new Web site exemplifies the Agency’s commitment to tackling the problem of homelessness.

“Homelessness is an ongoing challenge to our creativity and to our funding limitations,” Ms. Power said. “SAMHSA continues to make the issue of homelessness—especially among individuals with mental illness and co-occurring substance abuse disorders—a top priority.”

More Than Documents

The HRC is guided by an Advisory Steering Committee, which comprises expert providers, researchers, and consumers, that helps shape the Web site’s continued development.

“People were invited to be members of the HRC Advisory Steering Committee because of the leadership roles they play. They bring different perspectives to the field of serving and housing people who are or have been homeless,” said Committee Co-Chair Fred C. Osher, M.D., a staff psychiatrist at Health Care for the Homeless in Baltimore. “These folks help connect SAMHSA’s Homelessness Resource Center to emerging trends and the needs of practitioners.”

Most resource centers are simply clearinghouses where users can download documents. But after logging in at the HRC, registered users can create profiles, comment on articles, and interact with each other, just as they would on Facebook or MySpace.

Social networking features are easy to use, emphasized HRC Web site designer Matthew Amsden. “If you’ve ever created a profile on Facebook, added a comment on Amazon, or rated a movie on Netflix,” he said, “the site’s features will be familiar. We haven’t really created anything unique, just applied it in a unique way.”

Within the overall “community,” there are areas for specific groups, such as grantees who are part of SAMHSA’s Projects for Assistance in Transition from Homelessness (PATH) or those involved in the Services in Supportive Housing Initiative (see Homelessness Initiatives).

The goal is for these online communities to become offline communities as well. “We hope that individuals will meet in person,” said Dr. Stone. “Small groups across the country, without any input from the HRC or SAMHSA, are encouraged to get together to talk about homelessness-related issues.”

One-Stop Shopping

The goal is to offer one-stop shopping to anyone interested in homelessness-related resources—to organizations within the private sector as well as in the Government’s public sector.

The new site fulfills a clearinghouse’s traditional mission of providing a wealth of information, including research materials. An area called “Library” features about 4,000 recent articles, research papers, and other resources on homelessness. For users’ convenience, these materials are grouped into categories. Each link includes an abstract that lets users know what’s there.

“That information will be especially helpful given the new challenges the field is facing,” said Fran Randolph, Dr.P.H., M.P.H., Director of the Division of Services and Systems Improvement at CMHS. “We still focus on people with serious mental illness, but we have more and more people who are going to be entering the homeless world who don’t fit the typical profile,” she explained.

As examples, Dr. Randolph cited veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan and also families who have recently lost their homes to foreclosure.

Although the HRC Web site features just as much information as a traditional clearinghouse, it looks very different. The site is very graphics-intensive, designed to appeal to the technologically sophisticated young people who are the site’s primary audience.

In addition, pages are organized around specific topics: outreach, consumer involvement, motivational interviewing, youth, trauma, health, and housing.

The Homelessness Resource Center’s Advisory Steering Committee had a chance for a before-launch “peek” at the HRC’s new Web site in May. Members present included (left to right) Marti Knisley, Director, Community Support Initiative, Technical Assistance Collaborative; Deborah Stone, Project Officer, SAMHSA’s HRC, funded by the Agency’s Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS); and Carol Wilkins, Director, Intergovernmental Policy Corporation for Supportive Housing. Photo by Meredith Hogan Pond		Mary Ellen Hombs, Deputy Director, U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness; Elizabeth Lopez, Branch Chief, Homeless Programs and Co-Occurring Branch at SAMHSA’s CMHS; and Fran Randolph, Division Director at CMHS. Photo by Meredith Hogan Pond

What Is Web 2.0? »

Homelessness Initiatives »

Preventing Homelessness

A special issue of the Journal of Primary Prevention highlights innovative strategies to prevent and end homelessness in high-risk groups. A special issue of the Journal of Primary Prevention highlights innovative strategies to prevent and end homelessness in high-risk groups. (See SAMHSA News online, September/October 2007.) Visitors can download articles for free, said Dr. Stone, noting that everything on the site is in the public domain.

A wide range of materials are available within topics. The outreach topic, for example, features one provider’s thoughts on why it’s important to reach out to potential clients, tips on how to do outreach, and a link to the National Health Care for the Homeless Council’s outreach curriculum.

The site also features a free Webcast series. Topics include recovery-oriented services for people experiencing homelessness as well as Assertive Community Treatment teams.

Information will go up on the site quickly, stressed Dr. Stone, noting the streamlined process for posting material.

If there’s a conference, the site can put up notes almost as soon as it happens. “People won’t necessarily have to attend conferences to get firsthand information, which will save providers some money,” Dr. Stone explained. “It also will cut the time between research and practice by getting evidence-based practices out into the field as soon as possible.”

The “health” topic area includes resources devoted to “self-care.” Articles are featured on how and why providers should take care of themselves. In addition, a self-care assessment tool and tips for supervisors are included. The goal is not only to help providers do their jobs, but also to encourage them to lead healthier, more balanced lives, so they can stay in their jobs longer.

Opportunities for Partners

The HRC Web site will bring together all of the Federal Government’s homelessness-related materials in one place.

Say you’re a provider interested in the 10-year plans to end homelessness that the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness encourages every municipality to have. The HRC site could provide access to a step-by-step guide to creating a State Interagency Council on Homelessness.

“Part of our commitment is rapid dissemination of innovations—what’s working in the field,” said Mary Ellen Hombs, M.C.P., the council’s deputy director and a member of the HRC Advisory Steering Committee.

Partner organizations can post materials on the site. Partners also can create their own pages on the site. “Adding their own logos will help to maintain their ‘brand’ on the overall site,” said Dr. Stone.

One of the first such “partner” pages will belong to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The page offers a sample of HUD’s information, explained Julie Hovden, a homelessness specialist at HUD.

With a click of a mouse, users are directed to the HUD site for additional information. As HUD updates the information on its own Web site, the information on its Homelessness Resource Center page will be automatically updated, too.

“There’s no wrong door,” Ms. Hovden said. “We just want to make sure folks can get our information. The HRC Web site can be a portal to many agencies’ resources.”

For more information about the Homelessness Resource Center and its new online features, visit SAMHSA’s Web site at www.homeless.samhsa.gov.

« Part 1: Homelessness Services: Web 2.0 Connects Providers Online