EVENTS - February 2009 Seminar

National Program Development Seminar, February 19 & 20, 2009

Community Partnership for Homeless National Program Department held its first seminar at the Chapman Center in downtown Miami, Florida. We hosted representatives from Atlanta, Baltimore, Charlotte, Columbia (SC), Raleigh, Miami, San Antonio and West Palm Beach for two days of discussion and dissemination of valuable information regarding our model centers. The group toured our downtown Miami facility and were given information regarding our roots in the community, overcoming objections to the project, site planning and development, fundraising, budgeting, staffing, security, operations and programs.

If you would like further information please contact us using the contact form enclosed on this website or via email or telephone as listed herein. We are available to host your group any time at our facility and to visit your community leaders to provide proven guidance and solutions to helping your homeless citizens become self-sufficient.

Please see the photos below:



Philip Mangano, Robert E. Chisholm, Ronald Book, David Raymond



Philip Mangano, Robert E. Chisholm



Alfredo K. Brown, Mayor Carlos Alvarez



Mayor Carlos Alvarez, David Rosemond
 

Mayor Sheila Dixon, Robert E. Chisholm



Board Member Trish Bell, H. Daniel Vincent

H. Daniel Vincent, Robert E. Chisholm, Alfredo K. Brown



H. Daniel Vincent, Armando Codina, Lorenzo LeBrija,
Robert E. Chisholm, Alfredo K. Brown


Seminar Speakers and Topics – For more in-depth information please download our seminar brochure.

Mr. Robert E. Chisholm is the President of R.E. Chisholm Architects: Mr. Chisholm was Chairman of the Design and Construction Committee that facilitated the building of our two centers. He is also the designer of our two centers and presently serves as our Chairman of the Board of Directors.

Mr. Armando Codina, Chairman, Flagler Development Group on the role of the Business Sector:
Mr. Codina described the germination of our public/private partnership and told the group about his involvement along-side Mr. Chapman. There were a lot of hurdles to overcome and Mr. Codina was assigned the task of working on siting of the agency and zoning. His background in real estate development and philanthropy enabled him to work on and succeed in this most challenging project.

Mr. Lorenzo LeBrija, former Program Director of the Knight Foundation on Philanthropic Involvement:
Mr. LeBrija talked about the opportunity grant making foundations have to transform the communities they are involved in. He spoke of the strong support CPH has received from the Knight Foundation. Please see http://www.knightfoundation.org for more about the Knight Foundation and its work.

Dr. Evalina Bestman on Provider Community Involvement:
The fight against homelessness took on a tremendous amount of excitement when Miami-Dade county and its major sectors, public, private and provider decided to seriously address what was considered a growing community/human problem. Initially, the provider community was hesitant to embrace the initiative, wholeheartedly. Providers and the Miami Coalition for Homeless had been advocating for the homeless cause for many, many years. The prevailing belief or thought was that the political and business sectors viewed homelessness as an urban blight. The provider sector viewed homelessness from the human side and by and large thought, “never the three shall meet". As one of the provider representatives to the Miami Dade committee charged with developing the county's homeless plan, Dr. Bestman shared an overview of the role of providers in the development and continued implementation of the dynamic and successful homeless plan.

Mr. Ronald Book, Chairman of the Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust spoke about the importance of having a strong public-private partnership and the difficulties overcome by our founding partners in establishing CPH and the Trust. Please see the Trust’s website at http://www.miamidade.gov/homeless/.

Mr. David Raymond, Executive Director of the Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust told our guests about the continuum-of-care partners working with the Trust and CPH. The Trust was created to administer the proceeds of the one-percent food and beverage tax; to implement the local continuum-of-care plan which is a three-phased plan also known as the Miami-Dade County Community Homeless Plan and to serve in an advisory capacity to the Board of County Commissioners on issues involving homelessness.

Dr. Angela Burrafato, Dr. L. Chalasani, Jackie Master, A.R.N.P. of Jackson Health Systems described our medical, dental and psychiatric services provided to residents while at our centers. All residents go through a triage process and are offered the services of a dentist and psychiatrist. Other services and medication are provided through the hospital and residents are given nutritional guidance as well as other helpful medical information.

Mr. Christian DePace of McKinsey & Company presented the findings of his company regarding the cost of homelessness to the Miami-Dade community and the great benefit of providing continuum-of-care services to the homeless in contrast to their being funneled through our emergency room, police stations and evening shelters. Please see www.McKinsey.com for more information about their global services to non-profit institutions such as CPH.

Mr. Philip Mangano, the Executive Director of the United States Interagency on Homelessness talked about increases in the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s budget which adds new targeted and mainstream resources to prevent and end homelessness in the nation. Three of the areas slated to receive funding are Homeless Assistance Grants, Homeless Veteran’s Demonstrations and New Research on Prevention and Youth. Runaway and Homeless Youth (RHY) programs were also increased, as are Health Care for the Homeless and Projects for Assistance in Transition from Homelessness (PATH). Community Services Block Grant increased to $700 million, an increase of $46 million. Compassion Capital Fund to emulate model social service programs and to encourage research on the best practices of social service organizations was funded at $47.6 million. For more information please go to www.usich.gov.

Mayor Carlos Alvarez, Mayor of Miami-Dade County, Florida talked about the strong partnership between the County and CPH. Miami-Dade County’s Outreach Team refers the homeless to our centers and the County police department also works very closely with our program and the continuum-of-care partners.

Mr. David Rosemond is the Executive Director of the Neighborhood Enhancement Team in Miami. The mission of the NET program is to improve the quality of life and business for Miami residents by: facilitating professional, courteous and efficient delivery of municipal services; developing partnerships which bridge the gap between the public and private concerns; and enhancing and revitalizing Miami’s diverse neighborhoods. The teams are involved in issues such as homelessness, abandoned vehicles, street maintenance, graffiti, overgrown lots, unsafe structures, etc.

H. Daniel Vincent is the Executive Director of CPH and previously served with the Salvation Army as an ordained/commissioned officer with the rank of Major. He talked about the history of CPH in the community and the people who worked so hard to put together the public-private partnership that serves homeless citizens in Miami-Dade County.

Mr. Howard Rubin is the Chief Financial Officer of CPH. He discussed budgeting resources as well as developing and maintaining a strong donor base.

Mr. Alfredo Brown is the Deputy Director of CPH and Director of National Program Development. Mr. Brown has been with CPH for over 15 years in several capacities and now heads up the National Expansion Program to replicate the CPH model in other communities.

Mr. Mac Bennett, President and CEO of the United Way of the Midland, Columbia, South Carolina: “CPH has proven that a comprehensive approach to addressing the needs of the homeless will work. Along with the Knight Foundation’s commitment to seeing this model replicated, CPH offers 15 years of working evidence, a model for replication and experienced staff to provide support for communities seeking solutions for the growing challenges of homelessness”.

Ms. Judie Gibson, homeless advocate in Palm Beach County, Florida: “My fellow homeless advocates and I have been working with the folks at Community Partnership for Homeless for many months. We have visited their facility several times and each meeting has been a gift of support and encouragement along with valuable and insightful strategies into establishing a homeless assistance center. We have much work ahead of us and knowing that CPH is there for guidance makes us more confident that we will realize the goal of helping the homeless in Palm Beach as effectively as possible.”

Dr. Robert Marbut, Executive Director, Haven for Hope, San Antonio, Texas: “CPH is one of the most outstanding homeless service organizations in our country. CPH's transformational homeless assistance centers are first-class operations which set the service bar for the rest of the homeless programs in the United States. During the development of Haven for Hope in San Antonio, CPH was utilized as a best practice model for our design, construction, culture and operation. CPH is truly a shining example of the best of humanity.”