CoC+Working+Groups

CoC Working Groups
See Calendar for scheduled meetings and locations.

The **CoC Board** is the decision-making and policy body for the Continuum of Care, and guides the efforts and actions of the Continuum of Care membership and CoC’s working committees. CoC Boardmeetings are open to the public, meeting regularly on the last Tuesday of the month, 12:00 noon-2:00 pm at the Sonoma County Community Development Commission, 1440 Guerneville Road, Santa Rosa, CA.

The **Continuum of Care Quarterly Membership Meeting **brings together the widest possible representation from nonprofits, government, service providers, housing developers, law enforcement, faith-based, business, homeless and general communities. The CoC membership meets quarterly to discuss emerging issues, plan solutions, prioritize community needs, share information, and prepare the annual CoC funding submission. Meetings are open to the public, taking place on the 3rd Thursday of January, April, July and October, from 1:00-4:00 pm, at the Sonoma County Community Development Commission, 1440 Guerneville Road, Santa Rosa, CA.

The CoC is guided by its ** 10-Year Homeless Action Plan**. The original 10-Year Plan was adopted January 2007; an update was published August 2014.

Committees addressing homeless subpopulations:
The **Homeless Veterans Committee** works to increase transitional housing, and permanent supportive housing for homeless, disabled veterans and to link veterans to mental health, primary health, and substance abuse treatment. More than 400 veterans are homeless in Sonoma County on a given night. Chaired by Kym Valadez, the North Counties HUD-VASH Coordinator, the Homeless Veterans Committee meets monthly on the first Thursday, from 12:30-2:00 pm at the Sonoma County Community Development Commission, 1440 Guerneville Road, Santa Rosa, CA.

The **Best Practices and Integrative Health Committee** works to expand mental health and substance abuse treatment capacity for homeless individuals and improve their access to services. This committee is on hiatus following the retirement of its co-chairs, stay tuned. The Best Practices and Integrative Health Committee spawned a Seeking Safety Learning Community dedicated to supporting each other in developing our capacity with this evidence based practice. For more information about the Seeking Safety Learning Community contact Tom Bieri, Executive Director of Community Support Network, tom@csn-mh.com, (707) 575-0979.

The **SOAR Steering Committee** was established in 2015 to implement SOAR (SSI/SSDI Outreach, Access, and Recovery) methodology throughout Sonoma County. SOAR Technical Assistance is provided by SAMHSA in order to increase access to SSI/SSDI benefits to eligible adults who are experiencing homelessness. Training of providers will begin in January 2016, and the committee meets on a bimonthly basis. For more information, contact the CoC Coordinator, Michael Gause at Michael.Gause@sonoma-county.org

The **Homeless Youth Task Force **meets on a bimonthly basis to address the needs of over 600 homeless transitional aged youth in Sonoma County and develop best practicies and standards for providers working with homeless and formerly homeless youth. For information, contact Tom Bieri , tom@csn-mh.com.

The **Housing Location and Placement Committee** was formed in 2015 as a collaborative effort to house homeless individuals and families and address rising rents and a vacancy rate of 1% in Sonoma County. The committee meets on a monthly basis and includes representatives from nonprofits, homeless service providers, local government, and landlords/realtors. For more information, please contact Jennielynn Holmes at jholmes@srcharities.org

A new working group on **Homeless People and Animals **met for the first time on March 14, 2014. For more information contact Gillian Squirrel. Notes will be posted here.

Other CoC Strategic Planning Initiatives:
The **Coordinated Front Door Assessment Task Force** is developing common assessments and triage methods to ensure homeless families and individuals waste no time in getting to the services they need. The planning effort will resume February 19, 2013, 12:00 noon-2:00 pm at the Sonoma County Community Development Commission offices, 1440 Guerneville Road, Santa Rosa. For more information contact Jenny Abramson, CoC Coordinator at jenny.abramson@sonoma-county.org.

A **Vocationalizing Homeless Services Initiative** to define a living wage for exit to permanent housing, increase employment of homeless individuals and families at exit to 21% system-wide, and ensure that people experiencing homelessness have the opportunity and support to re-enter the job market. For more information contact Jenna Garcia, jennagatcots@gmail.com.

The **Quality Assurance Committee** is responsible for tracking the HEARTH goals and performance, Sonoma County's Homeless Management Information System, and performance of its CoC-funded programs. For information contact Dee Schweitzer, dees@buckelew.org.