Foothold Technology’s Supportive Housing Resource Center Visits Chicago

Supporting Dialogue and Encouraging Information Exchange

For the last two years Foothold Technology has been honored to partner with CSH at their Supportive Housing Summit. This annual gathering convenes hundreds of providers, partners, individuals, and advocates to discuss the most pressing issues surrounding homelessness. Participating at the Summit is always an enriching experience. At this year’s event, held last month in Chicago, we co-presented a workshop, hosted a video lounge where attendees could revisit our Voices of Supportive Housing series from the 2015 Summit, and we brought our online Supportive Housing Resource Center (SHRC) to life with an in-person setup of the Resource Exchange.

The Supportive Housing Resource Center (SHRC) was created for organizations and individuals working to address homelessness around the country. It serves primarily as an online gathering place where providers can share resources, tips, and stories in various ways. The SHRC itself can be used as a learning tool for partners and providers wanting to share ideas on how to address the complex needs of those facing or experiencing homelessness. The SHRC includes information on the importance of keeping data and documentation clean and tight, information about the common challenges experienced by providers and advocates, links to news articles, and other helpful resources including videos. One of the most interactive aspects of the SHRC is the Supportive Housing Resource Exchange.

Think of the Resource Exchange as a forum or message board where providers share tips, ask questions, provide answers and share ideas with fellow providers. For the 2016 Summit, we took this concept and set up a physical version of the exchange. If you were at the Summit, you probably saw us at the house built from large lego-like pieces. We created this physical space so attendees could share ideas on site, and enter questions and answers into the Resource Exchange immediately following sessions. This allowed anyone not at the Summit to follow along from home, from the office, or in the field. For a flavor of the types of conversations that occurred in the physical version of the Resource Exchange, we recommend checking out these short videos of attendees sharing their thoughts on supportive housing.