This week I am unveiling our new Recovery-oriented Housing Support Training. One of the areas I felt it necessary to add more time and attention is related to the importance of expressing and exercising empathetic conversation. Being appreciative of the client’s thoughts, feelings and experience is important to meaningful support, but too often I have seen well-intentioned support workers miss the boat when it comes to creating an environment conducive to an empathetic connection. What are some of the common mistakes? Interrupting is a big one. Sometimes it is to provide advice or try to provide a solution or make suggestions when it is unsolicited. I think some support workers think this is helpful and uses their time better. But if recovery is a process and a journey then we need to take time to let it unravel. This may mean multiple interactions over time. Making demands of people rather than honoring decision-making and empowering people with information that they can discern is another common mistake. Part of recovery is respecting that people will make mistakes and then engaging with them to debrief on what has been learned. I think it is often out of these protective instincts that I have seen workers order, direct, warn, threat, moralize or preach to their clients. The action of making a demand on someone is laden with authority and power that disrespect the equality that is necessary in empathetic conversations. Another big one for me is judgment. We all have our personal values, [...]
Last night I had the chance to ride along with an outreach team in Calgary. It was pretty darn cold…less than -25C with the wind chill. I love doing outreach. It takes me back to my days doing community development work and street outreach. It helps me stay grounded in that part of the reality of the front line. The people I did outreach with were two fabulous women. I’d like to dedicate this blog to the elements of them that I was so impressed by. Grace – they honored the people they served through their action, tone of voice and commitment. Dignity – they humbly made people feel worthy of service and reinforced the importance of how much each person deserved a safe place out of the cold. Patience – they demonstrated the capacity to accept delay, trouble, suffering, strife, belligerence, anger, incoherence, difficulty communicating, poor hygiene – and more – without ever getting angry or upset. Humility – they viewed their contributions with meekness and humbleness, genuinely deflecting praise. Logistics – they navigated calls for service with precision in how best to get through traffic and around the city in the most efficient and effective way possible. Solution Focus – they seamlessly and without intrusion focused discussions on the best way to meet each person’s needs, while also reinforcing longer term ways to end their homelessness. Politeness – more than good manners, they genuinely embodied respectful and considerate behavior with people calling the van, passengers, colleagues and other [...]
For more than a decade, in the role of policy-development, as a service practitioner and as a researcher, I have been investigating and trying to understand the allure of Transitional Housing. I have been interested in the outputs and outcomes that Transitional Housing can demonstrate relative to other housing models. I have been interested in the planning processes used for Transitional Housing – from the needs analysis to understanding the population to be served to securing financing to the urban planning and architectural features of Transitional Housing. From a system perspective I have been working to comprehend where it fits in, for which populations and under what circumstances. Throughout my travels I have seen different models of Transitional Housing and different approaches to delivering services in Transitional Housing. I have seen congregate Transitional Housing – some for individuals, some for families, and some blended – that range in size from a handful of units to hundreds of units. I have seen scattered site Transitional Housing through head-lease arrangements. I have seen rented motel rooms that service providers have structured and labeled as Transitional Housing. I have visited some Transitional Housing that has a very fixed length of stay such as 6 months, 1 year or 2 years; and have also visited some Transitional Housing where people can stay indefinitely so long as they are progressing towards a future transition (though what that means is, in my experience, rarely defined). I have seen population-specific Transitional Housing such as for veterans, youth, [...]
This is a very personal blog about my journey to accept my mental illness and to acknowledge how it has helped me to become a much better person, practitioner and teacher. We all seek meaning in life. We want to do things that enrich us emotionally, intellectually, socially, recreationally and spiritually. Indeed, the world can seem like a cold place when we don’t have this multi-faceted enrichment. By most measures, I have had a very successful life. I get to work on homeless and housing issues, which is my passion. I set up and provided direction to one of the most successful housing programs in the world — according to the World Habitat Awards. Work I have created has been honored with numerous national and international awards. My business partner John, who is the Founding Partner and COO of OrgCode, is also one of my best friends on the planet. I have been blessed with a terrific family that is very supportive about how I live my life and what I do for a living. I get to tour around and deliver keynote speeches, seminars, training workshops and the like to people who are also trying to make a difference. I get to do meaningful research and quench my insatiable appetite for knowledge by being engaged in academia. Although I am not even 40, yet, that’s another measure of relative achievement that, perhaps, accounts for my sense of urgency. That is the public presentation of Iain De Jong that many [...]
My thanks for the blog request on this specific topic. I’d be hard pressed to think of a housing support worker/case manager that deliberately tries to make the life of any client worse. People go into this type of work because they tend to want to help others. But I think we need to take time to reflect on when helping becomes hurting – even when it is unintentional…when our actions aren’t actually helpful at all. Understanding the differences between enabling our clients and supporting our clients is an important part of self-reflection as a practitioner and is an essential distinction to be made in the type of help we are providing to people. I look at support as the art and act of encouraging a person to achieve goals. It is the function of working with the clients we have the privilege of assisting, not working for them. We want the individual to deliberate before making decisions, have information to make informed choices, and to experience and understand the consequences of their actions. In a supportive relationship, we want our clients to accept full responsibility for their life – to increase their self-awareness and self-management to the point where they can reframe and rebuild their life. Through supportive relationships we are respectfully presenting opportunities – at times challenging opportunities – for positive life changes while increasing opportunities for growth, learning and awareness. I look at enabling as the act of encouraging or failing to prevent a person from engaging [...]
We’re winding down another year here at OrgCode. Heck, we’re even going to shut the door and turn off the phones for a week between Christmas and the New Year and that will be a first since we re-booted the company in Q4 2009. God rest us merry gentlemen and gentlewomen. It’s hard to believe that it has been two years since John Whitesell and I shook hands to grab the reins of OrgCode together – and a real honor for me given John had been leading the company as Managing Director for over 25 years. Taking a retrospective gander at 2011 there are some things that stand out for me as great opportunities as well as lessons learned. They are: Our professional integrity remains intact. We truly want to be catalysts for better outcomes and when we were challenged in a “bait and switch” RFP to be the mouthpiece for somebody else’s agenda after we won the project, we noisily declined to continue and ended the engagement. If you listen carefully, sleepless nights can be informative in and of themselves. The National Alliance to End Homelessness still rocks. I just totally dig their staff and everything the organization stands for. The fact that they decided to let me start guest blogging this year is and honor and icing on the proverbial cake. Speaking of blogs, I finally got the hang of taking point for the OrgCode blog this year. The 10 part series on the essential elements of successful [...]
I have been a funder. I have been a practitioner. I remain a researcher. I am a faculty member at a rather excellent university. I am now a consultant. I am going to do my best to not make this blog a rant. In my attempt to remain professional, allow me to make this an open letter to all funders of homeless and housing programs for marginalized populations, as well as administrators of community-based grants programs. Dear Funder, I’ve been meaning to write for sometime now. I know I see you in crowded meetings when there is a new initiative to be launched. About once or twice at other times in the year you call or visit to make sure I am using your money wisely. I get a lot of directive-type emails from you (which are way too long for the number of hours in the day by the way). Truth is, I have missed you. You are important to my work. For some reason, though, I think you think I only exist to give you stats. Sometimes I feel like you don’t know me at all. Day in and day out, deep in the trenches, we work our butts off to meet the needs of people who, for better or worse, society have decided should have their needs met by us. It is a privilege and I don’t want you to think we are ungrateful of our responsibility. Money didn’t drive us to do this work. We felt [...]
Harm reduction approaches can be seen as controversial when working with many populations, including unaccompanied youth. Some will cite reasons pertaining to the illicit nature of certain substances, the age of maturity, psychosocial development and the like. Others hold on to the “just say no” mantra. Harm reduction has gotten a bad rap in some circles because it is not well understood. Some erroneously think it is willy-nilly state sanctioned consumption and participation in risky behavior without consequences. Let’s try working with this definition: Harm reduction is an action-oriented response through policy and programs that reduces the harmful effects of behavior. It uses a range of approaches that aim to be non-judgmental. Harm reduction employs strategies that increase skills, resources, knowledge and supports for individuals, their families and communities. The individual, their family and community can thereby make decisions to be safer and healthier. A harm reduction approach is pragmatic. It aims to acknowledge the dignity of all people. It is neutral – it neither condones nor condemns the activity that is causing the harm. It focuses on the harm to the individual and the community. It prioritizes the ability to meet immediate needs, while also encouraging a range of intervention options (which can include reduction, less risky use, and working towards abstinence if that is the individual’s desire). It believes that people who have experience with higher risk behaviors have an important voice in shaping programs. In addition, harm reduction approaches have public health benefits, decrease policing costs, and [...]
Part Nine: Planning for Success throughout Phases of Housing Stability My pal (and Founding Partner of OrgCode), Dr. John Whitesell, has reinforced in me over the past dozen years the usefulness of the Sigmoid Curve to represent change, growth and development within people and organizations. He has also ingrained in me the ability to chunk the S-Curve into three main phases: Formative; Normative; and, Integrative. While appreciating that everyone experiences housing support services somewhat differently, John and I meticulously went about trying to typologize various client characteristics in program phases relative to the S-Curve. Upon review of a whack of case files, interviews with staff in some highly successful housing programs, interviews with dozens of clients, mining of various data sets and reflecting on my own experience in creating and leading a rather successful housing program, we arrived at the following broad-stroke phases as experienced by the client, and as supported by the case manager: Stage Client Characteristics What the Case Manager Should Do & Expect Formative Period of adjustment in being housed and becoming oriented to the new environment and supports Characterized by new learning and adaptation Goals and priorities more likely to shift More likely to be pre-contemplative or contemplative in many areas of individualized service plan Changes to social network are common May feel a sense or urgency or panic to be “normal” or “do the right things”, yet more likely to miss appointments Often emotionally unpredictable Expect unpredictability & do not be frustrated Focus on small [...]
PART EIGHT: Professional Works Gets Professional Results Successful housing programs have a professional orientation. Well-trained staff deliver the housing program. Successful housing programs tend not to be those operated in a charity context where “well intentioned” is sufficient to get the job done. There is too much at stake, and generally too much complexity for a layperson without training to help a client achieve long-term sustainability. I am not anti-charity. There is a time and place for it. And in fact it is often charitable organizations that hire the professional staff to deliver the housing program. The mistake, however, is when untrained staff are directly involved in client interactions. Truth is, it can do more harm than good. With the properly trained staff, housing programs get better outcomes. Here are some of the essential ingredients for ensuring your housing program is provided by professionals who get professional results. Start with the Right Job Description I love to take a poll when I do training about whether the job people are in with their organization is exactly how it sounded on paper when they applied. My non-scientific polling results would suggest that between 90-100% of people in any given audience say the job is different than how it looked in the job description. I encourage organizations to pull together professionally polished and accurate job descriptions for their housing staff team. (You can learn more about the staff compliment for a successful housing team here.) Be clear on the qualifications that you [...]
PART SEVEN: Objective-Based Home Visits Successful housing programs require case managers/housing support workers to visit their clients in their homes. You can’t have a successful housing program by having clients only come to your office. You can’t do it over the phone or by text message or email. Home visits are absolutely critical. A common mistake that case managers make is to show up at a client’s home and say, “How are you today?” This type of open-ended question takes the conversation and purpose of the visit off the rails from the start. Yes, I want case managers to care about the welfare of their clients. Yes, I believe in conventional niceties in society. But I have very specific reasons for wanting Objective-Based Home Visits to be structured differently. During the weekly case review meeting (as discussed in an earlier blog in this series) I want each case manager to identify the three objectives that they have for their next home visit. Each of these three objectives must be related to goals and anticipated outcomes identified in the individualized service plan. Some of these objectives may also be related to facilitating change with the client that is being supported. The objectives selected week to week will be directly related to the amount of time that the case manager and client have set aside for the meeting, as well as where the client is at in their service plan journey. A conversation when a case manager shows up to conduct a [...]
PART SIX: Using Data to Drive Program Improvements Data. I know it is a four-letter word. It makes policy wonks salivate lustfully and makes many front-line practitioners run for the hills (or the bottle). Truth is, data doesn’t have to be scary or cumbersome or a nuisance. Done right, data is the ace up your sleeve to make your program transition from good to great. As a starting point, know that there are resources out there that can help you if you are unfamiliar or uncomfortable with data. The National Alliance to End Homelessness has a range of nifty resources. I especially like What Gets Measured Gets Done. Data and performance measurement is also a subject matter I get asked to speak about a lot. So, if you want to check out some of that – littered with “Iain-isms” – feel free. Plus there are a few previous blogs (not part of this current series) where I have talked about performance measurement, data and organizing information in the context of functioning like a system instead of a collection of projects. This one in particular is short and the feedback we’ve received suggests it is my most entertaining blog entry (fire alarms, vibrating bed, strobe lights, knocks on the door in the middle of the night – how can you go wrong?). A couple of other articles may be a useful read if you are unfamiliar with some of the core concepts of data and performance management, or want to better [...]
PART FIVE: Helping Landlords Help You There should be a range of housing options for clients of your housing program to consider. In the best of circumstances this will include everything from permanent supportive housing to private market housing (with or without vouchers or rent supplements) and public/social housing. It will hopefully include a wide variety of units from multi-unit residential buildings to suites in the secondary market like basement suites or rented houses. It may also include the likes of well-maintained and managed rooming houses or boarding homes. And I could go on with the diverse types of housing. The key is to have a range of options that clients can CHOOSE from. Choice is fundamental to housing program success. If your organization does housing placements instead of offering housing choices, you are missing an important part of program success. In one research study it found that clients who felt that they had a choice in where they lived were most happy with their housing, whereas those who felt that had less choice were much less happy with their housing. The latter is also more likely to move and/or experience a return to homelessness. For the purpose of this blog, I want to focus attention on working with private market landlords – even if your organization does not have access to any type of financial assistance to provide to landlords. In a perfect world there would be an infinite number of subsidies to provide; immediate access to subsidized housing; [...]
PART THREE: The Structure of the Housing Team and Its Functions Successful housing programs have three different types of positions: Team Leader – supervises the work, coaches team members and creates opportunities for professional development, assigns households to different case managers, sets priorities and ensures fidelity to the approach. (Read more about Team Leaders, their importance and why they need specialized training.) Housing Case Manager – provides direct support to households (individuals or families) that have been housed and works with them to create an individualized service plan that will help them achieve housing and life stability. Housing Locator – works directly with landlords, property management firms, etc. to secure available units for the housing program. (There is an entire future blog dedicated to how to make this work.) My experience suggests that in most cases social workers tend to make crappy landlords and landlords tend to make crappy social workers. While there will always be exceptions, I would argue that keeping them separate functions helps. The best Housing Locators I have ever met, for example, are not schooled in social work or other helping professions. They know how to speak “landlord” and how to make the business transaction part of the housing program work. But I digress…and again getting ahead of myself and a future blog. Each housing case manager can serve a MAXIMUM of 20 households at any one time. Any more than that and you have a list of people that you aim to serve, but truly [...]
In this multi-part blog series we are examining the essential elements of successful housing programs that focus on ending homelessness. We pick up here in Part 2 looking at the Service Orientation that is necessary. PART TWO: Service Orientation The secret to a successful housing program? Meet people where they are at in their life journey. Don’t set up barriers or unattainable expectations. Accept the decisions that people have made in their life and how they became homeless at face value, help them achieve housing, and then provide the supports necessary to help them achieve long-term residential stability. In case you missed the subtlety – house people, then support them. If you put together an elaborate service plan or case plan prior to helping someone get housing you are doing it “bass ackwards”. House people then support them. The evidence is clear that people achieve better long-term housing outcomes and achieve a more positive quality of life when this is the sequence of evidence. While it remains popular for there to be life skills training, budgeting classes, skills upgrading, addiction treatment, etc prior to helping people achieve housing, the evidence would suggest that this is unwarranted and actually results in poorer housing outcomes long term. We shouldn’t have different standards of behavior for people who access human services compared to others in society generally. For example, sobriety is not a precondition for successful long-term housing. Statistically, most people who are alcoholics or who use other substances are housed, not homeless. [...]
In this multi-part blog series we are examining the essential elements of successful housing programs that focus on ending homelessness. Our thanks to Scotti Coles with Jasper Place Health and Wellness Centre for coming up with the suggestion. www.jphawc.ca PART ONE: Ensuring People Who Are Homeless Get the Right Housing Intervention and Supports to End Their Homelessness “The homeless”. Ugh. What a bland, homogenizing and completely inaccurate phrase. There are homeless people. There are homeless individuals and families. But “the homeless” is downright demeaning in my opinion. There is considerable diversity within the homeless population. While there may be some striking similarities when it comes to indicators of why/how a person becomes homeless, rarely are two paths into homelessness the same. Understanding the heterogeneity within homeless populations allows us to provide the opportunity of the right supports and right housing to the right person at the right time for the right reason. To be clear, the focus is on ending homelessness. Housing is the only known cure to homelessness. Homeless service systems need to have meaningful intake and assessment processes where acuity is determined. They cannot be “first come, first served” if they truly want to end homelessness. Truth is, some individuals will have rather complex needs and a higher acuity warranting one type of intervention, while other individuals will have needs nowhere near as complex and with lesser acuity. In the same way that these two individuals are not the same, the services that are offered and the expectations [...]
In working with housing and homeless information throughout my career it has always been my mission to get people to think and act like a system instead of a collection of projects. Truth is, funders like to attach the word “Program” to a lot of the work that they do, and this orientation has led many communities to organize their services by funding source rather than by what the outcomes are that the funding is trying to achieve. Across various funding programs there can be comparable, complimentary outcomes that are intended. So let’s take a closer look at how to organize information as a system instead of a collection of projects – which ultimately means organizing our projects like a system too. It is my ardent belief that housing and homeless programs and services exist to end homelessness. A system-based approach places this belief at the center of the organization of information and wraps program areas around the central belief of ending homelessness. This means that all of the programs that are funded must be seamlessly linked to ending homelessness. Outreach services? Exist to end homelessness. Prevention services? Exist to end homelessness. Rapid Re-housing services? Exist to end homelessness. Emergency shelters? Exist to end homelessness. And I could go on with other program areas. If we truly belief in ending homelessness – and we know that housing is the only known cure to homelessness – then each of these program areas needs to have a housing orientation as well. This [...]
Yogi Berra once famously said of Bill Dickey, “Bill is learning me his experience.” I have the great privilege of being a mentor to about a half dozen people throughout the US and Canada. Of all the many things I do, this is one of the most rewarding. Mentors have had a phenomenal impact on my life. They have helped shape my career track, instilled confidence, taught me different communication and problem-solving styles, given me a safe outlet to share, learn and grow. I will forever be grateful to people like Gerry Lalonde, Barbara Rahder, Noreen Dunphy and John Whitesell. (Prior to John and I becoming business partners, he mentored me for the better part of 10 years.) We need more mentors – and not just because it helps those who receive the mentoring. Many studies show that it improves retention (see Ragins, Gibb, Lewis). Other studies demonstrate that it increases diversity and gender equity in work environments (see Henford, Tennent). The evidence is also clear that it helps create both leaders and managers. Consider some of these facts: A meta-study by Blanchard et al found over 90% of organizations that encourage mentorship have more positive outcomes A 2006 study by Gartner showed people who received mentoring were 5 times more likely to improve their salary. The same Gartner study also showed that Mentors were 6 times more likely to advance in their careers and Mentees were 5 times more likely to advance in their careers compared to people not [...]