Engaging and Empowering People with Lived Experience in the CoC

This survey is to help document how Continuum of Care (CoC) are centering lived experience and putting people with lived experience at the forefront of decision-making, program design and implementation, and evaluation. The data collected in the survey will be used to landscape how people with lived experience have, to date, been involved with CoC efforts to end homelessness; how people with lived experience have been engaged in decision making through authentic partnership; and what resources and practices are currently in place to shift power organizations to ensure full participation by people with lived experience.

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* 1. Please choose your Continuum of Care from the dropdown menu.

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* 2. Which best describes your current role? Please choose all that apply.

CoC staff

Collaborative applicant

Community partner with lived expertise/experience of being unhoused or going through the Homeless Response System

Homeless service provider - direct service provider/frontline staff (i.e. intake specialist, outreach professional, social worker, navigator, case manager, peer specialist, etc.)

Homeless service provider - administrative role, executive leadership, or director level position

State, city, or county system partner

FQHC (?) Federally Qualified Healthcare Center

Other (please specify)

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* 3. The CoC values racial equity and has high expectations for funded organizations to integrate racial principles and practices in their work.

Yes

I don't know

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* 4. The CoC collects information from network providers related to racial equity processes and outcomes and uses this information for its scoring and ranking process.

Yes

I don't know

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* 5. The CoC values authentic engagement and inclusion of people who have lived experience of being unhoused/homeless and has high expectations for funded organizations to partner with and hire people with lived experience at all staff levels of their organization and designing and implementing programs.

Yes

I don't know

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* 6. The CoC values authentic engagement and inclusion of people who have lived experience of being unhoused/homeless and collects information from network providers related to authentic engagement of people with lived experience and uses this information for its scoring and ranking process.)

Yes

I don't know

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* 7. Currently, the CoC partners with people with lived/living experience in the following ways (please choose all that apply):

The CoC uses surveys to collect data from people being served to better understand their experiences and work towards quality improvement.

The CoC conducts regular focus groups and/or listening sessions with people with lived experience to inform system planning and decision-making in policy and procedure development and implementation.

The CoC Lead Agency or Collaborative Applicant has staff members with lived experience of being unhoused.

People with lived experience sit on several CoC committees.

The CoC has an active youth advisory board.

The CoC has a functioning lived experience advisory council/board.

The CoC has had difficulty partnering with people with lived experience and sustaining those relationships.

The CoC has not (yet) engaged partners with lived experience in meaningful ways.

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* 8. What percentage of CoC Governing Council are people with lived experience of being unhoused?

100

Clear

i We adjusted the number you entered based on the slider’s scale.

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* 9. Are those who will be most impacted by decisions typically included in (or informing) the decision-making process? If so, in what areas and how often?

	Never	Rarely	Sometimes	Often	Always	N/A
Funding Decisions (e.g., review and scoring of proposals, resource allocation, etc.)	Funding Decisions (e.g., review and scoring of proposals, resource allocation, etc.) Never	Funding Decisions (e.g., review and scoring of proposals, resource allocation, etc.) Rarely	Funding Decisions (e.g., review and scoring of proposals, resource allocation, etc.) Sometimes	Funding Decisions (e.g., review and scoring of proposals, resource allocation, etc.) Often	Funding Decisions (e.g., review and scoring of proposals, resource allocation, etc.) Always	Funding Decisions (e.g., review and scoring of proposals, resource allocation, etc.) N/A
Policy Decisions (e.g., eligibility, Coordinated Entry prioritization, program standards, CoC governance, etc.)	Policy Decisions (e.g., eligibility, Coordinated Entry prioritization, program standards, CoC governance, etc.) Never	Policy Decisions (e.g., eligibility, Coordinated Entry prioritization, program standards, CoC governance, etc.) Rarely	Policy Decisions (e.g., eligibility, Coordinated Entry prioritization, program standards, CoC governance, etc.) Sometimes	Policy Decisions (e.g., eligibility, Coordinated Entry prioritization, program standards, CoC governance, etc.) Often	Policy Decisions (e.g., eligibility, Coordinated Entry prioritization, program standards, CoC governance, etc.) Always	Policy Decisions (e.g., eligibility, Coordinated Entry prioritization, program standards, CoC governance, etc.) N/A
Data Decisions (e.g., quality assurance, data utilization, data standards, etc.)	Data Decisions (e.g., quality assurance, data utilization, data standards, etc.) Never	Data Decisions (e.g., quality assurance, data utilization, data standards, etc.) Rarely	Data Decisions (e.g., quality assurance, data utilization, data standards, etc.) Sometimes	Data Decisions (e.g., quality assurance, data utilization, data standards, etc.) Often	Data Decisions (e.g., quality assurance, data utilization, data standards, etc.) Always	Data Decisions (e.g., quality assurance, data utilization, data standards, etc.) N/A

Other (please specify)

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* 10. To your knowledge, how are people with lived experience, especially those who may still be experiencing housing instability or homelessness supported to ensure authentic partnerships, meaningful participation, and sustained engagement? Please choose all that apply.

Partners with lived experience are compensated at a living wage for their time. (Or the CoC has designated resources (e.g., CoC planning dollars) to provide compensation for partners with lived experience.)

Partners with lived experience are hired as full-time staff.

There is an equitable onboarding process to engage new members. People are oriented to the system, resources, governance structure, policies, language, etc. in order to participate meaningfully.

We do not use system jargon or acronyms in our meetings unless everyone is familiar with the terms.

Partners with lived experience have the support they need to participate meaningfully (i.e., if needed, they are prepped before meetings, meetings are accessible, barriers such as transportation and childcare are addressed, etc.).

The CoC has policies and programs in place to attract, retain, and support people of color to achieve success (e.g., professional development opportunities are offered regularly to build skills and advance leadership).

Partners with lived experience have agency over their objectives and determine the ways in which they want to contribute to the CoC’s efforts to end homelessness.

There is more than one partner with lived experience at the table.

Level of engagement seems tokenistic.

We have not dedicated resources or staffing capacity to develop and sustain authentic partnerships with people with lived expertise (yet).

Other (please specify)

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* 11. In your community, are Black, Indigenous, and people of color with lived experience serving in leadership roles with decision-making power?

Yes

I don't know

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* 12. In your opinion, which of the following best describes the power dynamics (or culture) in your committee(s) and informal decision-making structures in which partners with lived experience participate. Please choose all that apply.

All voices are valued. Everyone is engaged and waited on to share ideas/contributions.

Some participants always speak up, while others usually remain silent.

Everyone's contributions get the same level of consideration.

Some people's ideas and recommendations seem to be more heavily weighted than others.

Everyone has equal decision-making power.

Some participants do not have access to all of the information they need to contribute equally or make informed decisions.

Please add any additional information you'd like to share.

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* 13. The CoC staff who are positioned to build and sustain partnerships with people with lived/living experience are (please choose all that apply):

Trained in trauma informed practices

People who also have lived/living experiences of homelessness

building an infrastructure to ensure shared knowledge and transparency

Trained in cultural humility

Collecting feedback from partners with lived experience about the types of support needed

Connecting PWLE to resources as needed

Education system leaders to disrupt bias, tokenism, ageism

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* 14. What barriers have you faced in trying (Or What support do you need) to develop and sustain authentic partnerships with people with lived experience? Please choose all that apply.

Funding for compensation

Staff capacity to recruit, onboard, and support people with lived experience

The CoC culture is still steeped in white supremacy cultural characteristics (e.g., sense of urgency, one right way, paternalism, power hoarding/gatekeeping, etc.) that make it difficult to keep partners with lived experience engaged in meaningful ways

We need concrete tools and TA such as job descriptions, outreach materials, best practices, etc.

Other (please specify)

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* 15. Do you think it would be helpful to be a part of an ongoing Community of Learning where you can learn from peers how to sustain genuine, power-sharing relationships with people with lived experience of being unhoused?

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* 16. Would you be interested in participating?

Yes

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* 17. What three (3) things do you think we be most impactful in ensuring that people who’ve experienced being unhoused have a power sharing seat at every table?