A key tenet of the Community Foundation’s approach to catalyzing community is the recognition that we accomplish more together than we do alone. To tackle local homelessness, the foundation facilitated teamwork through its Boulder Homeless Service Collaborative among grantees serving our homeless community – the Boulder Shelter for the Homeless, Boulder Outreach for Homeless Overflow, and Bridge House.
The collaborative first convened in late 2013 to explore ways to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of interrelated emergency and transitional services for homeless adults.
“Our vision was to provide a seamless continuum providing for basic needs and offering opportunities to obtain stable housing, appropriate programmatic assistance, and productive employment,” said Elvira Ramos, Vice President of Programs and Inclusive Leadership at the Community Foundation. “The collaborative developed a model to prevent community members from falling through the cracks, including improved data collection, coordinated entry processes for vulnerable, homeless clients, and expanded case management services.”
In various stages of implementation, the group’s action items included greater interagency collaboration and coordination, using data more effectively to achieve better client outcomes, solving clients’ basic transportation challenges and shelter needs, and more.
