McKinney/Vento Technical Assistance Highlights The following examples illustrate the depth and breadth of TAC's TA efforts. Community-wide Discharge Planning • In 2004, through Local McKinney-Vento TA funds leveraged with funding from Hawaii’s Adult Mental Health Division (AMHD), TAC conducted three one-day training workshops designed to end chronic homelessness by: (1) improving discharge planning from state-funded mental health facilities in Hawaii; and (2) promoting partnerships between mainstream subsidized housing/Section 8 agencies and mental health services providers.  The workshop included information on mental health services and housing options for chronically homeless people, including linkages to Section 8 rental subsidies, mental health “bridge subsidies,” and crisis services for chronically homeless people with mental illness.  Permanent Housing for Chronically Homeless Persons • From 2002-2004, TAC provided technical assistance to the Clark County CoC in Washington, resulting in the successful development of more than 60 new McKinney-Vento permanent supportive housing units targeted to chronically homeless people using SHP resources leveraged with County HOME and CDBG funding and mainstream mental health and substance abuse services resources. • Since 2001, TAC has developed, customized, and conducted 12 permanent housing training workshops or TA interventions in response to requests from HUD Field Offices in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Oregon and Pennsylvania.  Overall, 160 agencies have been assisted, and at least 17 new permanent housing projects for homeless and chronically homeless people have been funded. Effective Grant Administration • During the past year, TAC has conducted numerous “start up” trainings for the Boston Regional Office on effective McKinney-Vento grant administration.  Over 150 participants took part in the trainings.  Post-training evaluations indicate that 30-40 percent of attendees significantly increased their knowledge of grant administration requirements, and that 75-85 percent reported an increase in key grant administration skills as a direct result of these trainings. • At the request of the Kansas City Regional Office, TAC developed and delivered a customized training on the Technical Submission for 50 participants from lead agencies.  Post-training evaluations indicated that over 80 percent of participants found the training to be very useful and 83 percent of participants increased their knowledge of the Technical Submission. Coordinating Mainstream Resources with Housing Units • Since 2003, based on requests from four separate HUD Field Offices, TAC developed and delivered a mainstream resources training, Making the Most of Mainstream Resources, which has been customized and presented in nine states—Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington, DC.  In order to customize materials for each locality, TAC:  (1) researched each state’s policies relevant to the 11 mainstream programs; (2) coordinated and conducted the workshop in partnership with relevant state officials; and (3) prepared a customized written manual and resource guide for each state.  As a result of this TA activity, over 660 grantees improved their knowledge of mainstream resources and strategies including state policies to improve systematic coordination and linkage for homeless people. National TA • Using McKinney-Vento National TA funds, TAC, in partnership with CSH and Policy Research Associates (PRA), is developing tools to assist in the creation of community-wide plans for serving individuals exiting publicly funded jails, prisons, health and behavioral health, and youth systems.  The first module on criminal justice was presented on HUD’s behalf at the National GAINS Center for People with Co-Occurring Disorders in the Justice System conference in 2004.  • Through our National McKinney-Vento TA award, TAC, CSH, and PRA are assisting HUD to identify and document evidenced-based and promising practices that improve outreach to chronically homeless people for the purposes of placement in permanent housing.  From this information, training modules will be developed to provide TA in HUD Field Office jurisdictions.  Anticipated outcomes include immediate learning on effective outreach approaches for 50 percent or better of attendees.
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