Appendix
Use these example questions to help prompt your own discussions on what you already have in place, what gaps exist and what opportunities there are to prevent and relieve homelessness.
What do we already do, and is currently in place, to prevent and relieve homelessness?
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What is our universal prevention space? How do we know if people are at risk of falling out of that universal prevention space? How do we deal with crisis? How do we help people to recover and move on and remain within our universal prevention space?
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What do we have in the universal prevention space? Consider the organisation as an employer; our supply chain, our partners and so on.
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How do we contribute to keeping people in our mainstream system?
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How do we identify people at risk of falling out of our mainstream system?
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Consider our employees as well as our service users.
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What action do we currently take? Could we do more to keep people in our mainstream system?
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What do we already do to ensure homelessness crises that are imminent or already occurring have as small an impact as possible?
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What do we do in regard to re-establishing the protections against homelessness and dealing with the causes and impact of homelessness?
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What processes are already in place to ensure this is effective?
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How are we involved in crisis prevention, relief and recovery?
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How can our current activity be moved into universal prevention to ensure a crisis does not happen in the first place?
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What are our key priorities in regards to prevention and relief of homelessness?
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Which organisations do we already have relationships with?
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What statistics already exist that indicate our impact on homelessness? What data and intelligence do we already have?
What are the opportunities for us to do more to prevent and relieve homelessness?
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What gaps exist within our universal prevention space?
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What gaps exist that prevent people staying in the mainstream system?
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What gaps exist that result in homelessness crisis occurring?
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What are we doing less of now? What have we stopped doing? What have we never done?
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What organisations do we need to collaborate with to succeed that we don’t currently interact with?
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What are the gaps within our own systems and processes?
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Where are our gaps in knowledge and what further statistics could we produce that could indicate our impact on the prevention of homelessness?
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What would success look like?
What are the opportunities for us to do more to prevent and relieve homelessness?
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What further opportunities exist to prevent and relieve homelessness and what role do we play in those opportunities?
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How can we turn the identified gaps into opportunities for improvement?
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What opportunities exist within our universal prevention space?
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What further opportunities exist in move-on support and creating a settled home and what role do we play in those opportunities?
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What more can we do to prevent a crisis?
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What can we do to move our activity towards universal prevention and away from crisis support?
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What more could we do to aid moving on from a homelessness experience and into a settled home?
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What further processes could be established to ensure this is effective?
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What else can we do to contribute to keeping people in mainstream systems?
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What organisations could we collaborate with?
- What would success look like
Use these example pledges and actions to help participants think about their own organisation.
Example Pledges
- We will recognise our role in reducing homelessness.
- Affordable and suitable accommodation is made available.
- GPs in my area will accept people with no fixed abode into their practice.
- Those experiencing homelessness in any form will report improved communication and availability of information that is important to them.
- We will connect with service user groups and make use of their skills and expertise.
- Local hospitals and mental health institutions will alter their discharge processes to account for those without anywhere suitable to live.
- Accommodation is considered as part of prison release, and prisons will not release prisoners without anywhere suitable to live.
- Those that are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless will receive all of the support, benefits and services they are legally entitled to.
- Our staff will understand our role in homelessness and the impact we can have. 10 There will be an increase of people with experience of homelessness employed within our organisation
Example actions
- We will review our processes to ensure we are accessible to all.
- We will review the language used in our communication material to ensure it is easily understood and located where it can be seen.
- We will review our activity within crisis care and consider how it can be utilised before the crisis even happens.
- We will identify organisations that we can collaborate with to help prevent and relieve homelessness.
- We will link in with family services to ensure we are involved with early intervention.
- We will create a catalogue of client case studies to help us identify further opportunities for improvement.
- We will review our actions and evaluate their impact.
- We will take ownership of the collaboration process and ensure we drive continuous improvement following these discussions.
- We will ensure our own staff are aware of housing services.