My name is Colin Penman, Senior Policy Advisor for the Alberta Secretariat for Action on Homelessness. We are the first Province to actually write a provincial plan to end homelessness in ten years and the underpinning of the plan is Housing First. Two of us flew to Toronto in the beginning stages of the plan to gain a clearer understanding of the Housing First philosophy and practice. At this time, Iain De Jong was the Manager with the City of Toronto charged with the responsibility of addressing homelessness in that city. He donated three hours of his time and that of his senior staff to give us a comprehensive training session on Housing First and to answer all our questions. Further, his senior leaders took us around to see some of the sponsored wrap around programs that made Housing First a success in Toronto.
Since that initial connection, the Alberta Government and the Secretariat for Action on Homelessness have utilized Ian De Jong to train Housing and Urban Affairs staff on the Housing First concept so that our whole department would be on board, supportive and knowledgeable about what the province of Alberta was attempting to do in ending homelessness in 10 years. We were joined by three other Ministries for this presentation which has led to positive cross ministry connections to work on inter ministerial goals to work together on ending homelessness. Iain was also hired by Housing and Urban Affairs to build an assessment tool to measure the success of the Housing First endeavor across Alberta’s seven major cities.
I have attended some of Iain’s community training sessions throughout Alberta and been amazed at the rapport he can build with a large group of strangers and within minutes have them engaged both in understanding Housing First and appreciating the value of never giving up on a human being. The power of a request assertively asked can work miracles with the homeless population and Iain is a practiced master with this concept, both in applying the concept and effectively teaching it.
Iain’s humour and teaching ability are remarkable. His ability to engage an audience and win them over as friends and believers in a concept is incredible. In my thirty five plus years in this field and being exposed to many teachers of concepts, Iain is, without a doubt the most impactful, knowledgeable and caring instructor I have met in my career.
Iain discerns character in people clearly and I would not hesitate to say that the colleagues he has chosen to work with him are as strong and able as the team he built when he was with the City of Toronto.
It is without any hesitation that I recommend Iain and his team to join with you to work miracles on any issue or problem that you or your organization faces.
Colin Penman