Jackie Rehwald

JREHWALD@NEWS-LEADER.COM

Community Partnership of the Ozarks is hosting four community conversations next week focusing on how to end homelessness in the local Continuum of Care’s service area, which includes Greene, Christian and Webster Counties.

Everyone is invited to attend and participate in the "Every Voice Counts" discussions — residents, consumers, funders, advocates and others interested in helping create a locally-based plan to end homelessness. No RSVP required. Come to one session or all sessions.

Michelle Garand is deputy director of affordable housing and homeless prevention at Community Partnership of the Ozarks.

"The whole idea behind this is to get ideas and innovative thoughts and concerns from the community," Garand said. "Everyone that has a passion for homelessness or has ideas or resources or just wants to hear more about what is going on is encouraged to attend. We would love to have a broad representation from the community."

According to Garand, every Continuum of Care across the nation is required to have a strategic plan to end homelessness in their community.

Community Partnership of the Ozarks has facilitated the local Continuum of Care program since 1995 when HUD established the program nationally in an effort to coordinate housing and services funding for homeless families and individuals. The community’s local Continuum of Care serves as the planning body to address homelessness in Springfield and Greene, Christian and Webster Counties.

Members of the Continuum of Care will gather information and ideas from the public on Monday and Tuesday of next week. On Wednesday, they will use the information to help draft a 10-year comprehensive plan to end homelessness.

June 20 at The Library Station, 2535 N. Kansas Expressway:

• Aligning local goals with the federal plan to end homelessness — 9:00 to 11:00 a.m.

How does the federal plan to end homelessness guide and direct local programming and funding priorities? The expert panel will open the discussion with information about the federal goals and outline local progress to end homelessness for veterans, youth, families and chronically homeless individuals.

• Strategies to address permanent housing needs — 12:00 to 2:00 p.m. (No lunch provided)

Increasing access to safe, decent and affordable housing is a primary goal of the Continuum of Care.

Expert panelists will discuss ways the Continuum of Care and its collaborative partners working to increase access to permanent housing for homeless households. The discussion will center on leveraging local and state funding, as well as collaborating within our community, to reduce barriers to housing for high-risk households.

• Local response to our unsheltered homeless population — 3:00 to 5:00 p.m.

Limited local resources means for some, there are simply no immediate housing options available. This can leave individuals and families unsheltered or living in places not meant for people to live. How do we, as a community, respond to the needs of the unsheltered homeless and the ‘hardest to house’?



June 21, Springfield Art Museum, 1111 E. Brookside

• How do we most effectively prioritize local funding? – 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

As federal and state funding becomes more competitive, we must think creatively about how we can work locally to address issues facing at-risk and homeless households. Expert panelists will share current strategies in place to focus funding to serve those most in need.

• Community Report Out – 3:00 to 5:00 p.m.

Results and recommendations from all sessions will be presented.