October 22, 2008 - Today we hosted a group of 30 civic, business and
philanthropic leaders from Boston. The represented local colleges and
universities, banks, non-profit organizations and government entities.
We listened to our Executive Director, Dan Vincent talk about the “sea
of homeless” people that lived under our expressways and how Mr. Chapman
felt called to get involved. There was no plan and no coordination of
services back in 1992; through hard work and dedication a coalition of
Miami-Dade leaders, working with Governor Lawton Chiles, created
positive change. The Miami-Dade Homeless Plan was established, a 1% food
and beverage tax was approved by the Florida legislature and the
Miami-Dade Homeless Trust was created to implement the Plan and levy the
tax.
We’ve come along way, as they say, since then. We talked about facts and
figures over lunch, viewed our National Program video then Mr. Brown took
our visitors on a tour of the Chapman Center. Please see the pictures below.
Each tour takes anywhere from 45 minutes up to 90 minutes, depending upon
time constraints. City to City was with us for just a few hours so we moved
quickly for this tour. There’s a lot to see at our centers, from the Family
Resource Centers to our adult classrooms, Head Start, baby and toddler child
care rooms then upstairs to our dormitories that provide residence for 402
people each night. Our guests viewed our medical clinic and mobile dental
unit that travels between our two centers each week. They were escorted
through our Program Services Department where case managers meet with every
resident and work up a case plan to help them on to the next step in the
continuum-of-care. Our last stop was through the kitchen and dining room
then back to our Multi-purpose room for follow-up discussion.
A question and answer session took place before the group boarded a bus
for their next stop. It seemed like we could have talked for hours and we
feel that this visit was very informative and enjoyable for all concerned.
Our guests thanked us for the hospitality and left with a birds-eye view of
what we do here at CPH every day. We think there’s a lot more we can talk
about and hope to hear from City to City in the near future.
To learn more about the City to City Program of the Boston Foundation
please go to www.tbf.org.
City to City Initiative of The Boston Foundation, Boston,
Massachusetts – October 22, 2008
CPH was visited by a representative of the City to City initiative in late
April, 2008. As a part of The Boston Foundation, City to City travels to one
urban community each year to examine and learn about the best practices
there in the hopes these lessons will contribute to the betterment of the
Greater Boston area. The mission of The Boston Foundation is:
As Greater Boston’s community foundation, the Boston Foundation devotes
its resources to building and sustaining a vital, prosperous city and
region, where justice and opportunity are extended to everyone. We fulfill
this mission in three principal ways:
Making grants to nonprofit organizations and designing special funding
initiatives to address this community’s critical challenges;
Working in partnership with donors and other funders to achieve high-impact
philanthropy; and Serving as a civic hub and center of information, where
ideas are shared, levers for change are identified, and common agendas for
the future are developed.
Community Partnership looks forward to this opportunity to present our
model program to this prestigious group consisting of 57 of civic, business
and philanthropic leaders from Boston. To learn more about the Boston
Foundation please go to:
www.bostonfoundation.org.
The Midlands Housing Alliance of Columbia, South Carolina
October 2, 2008
Community Partnership for Homeless National Program hosted a second
visit from the Midlands Housing Alliance in less than a month. This
group consisted of 33 people. It included Mayor Bob Coble, City Manager
Charles P. Austin, United Way of the Midlands President & CEO, J. Mac
Bennett, Midland’s Board Chair, Cathy B. Novinger, five members of the
Columbia City Council, civic and neighborhood leaders as well as the
Superintendent of the Richland School District, a representative from
the Columbia Police Department and a local pastor.
Our day began at 10:30 when the group arrived in a coach dispatched by
the office of Mayor Manny Diaz. We proceeded through introductions
followed by a history of CPH given by our Executive Director, Dan
Vincent, followed with remarks by our Chairman, Robert Chisholm.
When we have large groups we separate our tours into smaller units so
that each person can get a more personal view of our center. These tours
take over an hour as we walk through our classrooms, resource center,
Head Start and childcare rooms then go upstairs to the dormitories.
Guests walk through the family dormitory and single women and single
men’s dormitories where our residents total nearly 402 people every day.
We then walk through our Program Services Department where case managers
work with each resident in establishing a case plan and working towards
the next step in the Miami-Dade Continuum-of-care. The tour ends in our
dining area after walking through our kitchen where culinary arts
classes are held in addition to the preparation of three meals each day,
every day of the year.
After the tours we reassembled for lunch and watched our National
Program video (please see the bottom of our NEWS page for your own look
at the video). A representative from the Miami-Dade School Board
discussed our partnership which provides GED and ABE classes on site as
well as many other offerings at a local vocational school. Our
neighborhood resource officers from the Miami-Dade Police Department
then talked about their close relationship with CPH and how our presence
in the neighborhood has been beneficial to everyone. Our next speaker
was Mr. Ron Book, Chairman of the Miami-Dade Homeless Trust who spoke
eloquently about the accomplishments of the Trust and CPH as well as
its’ other community partners.
Many questions were asked by our guests and in-depth discussion took
place throughout the day. The visit concluded with a bus tour of the
neighborhood around CPH and a stop at the Lyric Theater in Overtown. Dr.
Dorothy Jenkins Fields, one of our board members gave a history of the
neighborhood before the group left for Miami International Airport.
Our Director of Marketing, Patricia Vila was interviewed by a reporter
from The State newspaper in Columbia on October 1st. Please click the
link below to read the article published on October 2nd.
Columbia, South Carolina Midlands Housing Alliance Visit, September 10,
2008
CPH staff met with a group from the Midlands Housing Alliance on
September 10th. The group consisted of Mr. Mac Bennett, the President
and CEO of the United Way of the Midlands; Ms. Susan Patterson, Knight
Foundation Community Partners Program Director; Ms. Cathy B. Novinger,
Chair of the Board of Directors, MHA; the Honorable E.W. Cromartie, II,
Councilman, Columbia City Council; Mr. Robby Aull of Stevens & Wilkinson
of South Carolina, Inc. (architects); Mr. Jim Prater of the Earlewood
Community Association and Mr. David E. Roberts of the Elmwood Park
Neighborhood Association.
The group toured the Chapman Center then participated in a telephone
conference with Mayor Alex Penelas who served with Mr. Chapman on the
Governors Homeless Task Force which led to the establishment of CPH.
After lunch there was an open forum of discussion covering such topics
as the food and beverage tax in Miami-Dade County and the Homeless
Trust; neighborhood involvement to engage all players i.e.; business,
residents, advocates, philanthropists and civic leaders; our holistic
approach to providing services to our residents and many other subjects.
The meeting adjourned with a plan for the alliance to return in early
October with two busloads of Columbia stakeholders. This meeting will
begin on October 2nd and end the following day, mid afternoon.
Please see the picture below of our meeting on September 10, 2008. If
you wish further information regarding CPH efforts to help the Midlands
Housing Alliance please contact Mr. Alfredo K. Brown at 3050329-3013 or
at www.abrown@cphi.org.
CPH National Program visits Columbia, South Carolina to lend support
to a new homeless initiative.
In April 2009 Mr. Alfredo K. Brown, our Director of National Program
Development was asked to visit Columbia, South Carolina by Ms. Susan
Patterson, Program Director of the Knight Foundation there. Mr. Brown
reviewed plans for a new homeless assistance center and provided a
written assessment of its strengths and weaknesses as well as
suggestions. This report was included in a grant request made to the
Knight Foundation and was also given to the Midlands Housing Alliance,
the group behind the homeless assistance center plan. As a result of the
grant request by the Alliance and the CPH National Program assessment,
Columbia was awarded a $5 million dollar grant by the Knight Foundation.
Please click on the link below to view the John S. and James L. Knight
Foundation press release of June 26, 2008.
Republic of Colombia, Senator Luz Elena Restrepo – July, 2008
Colombia is the 26th largest nation in the world and has a population of
over 44 million people. It is the third most populous country in South
America. Some reports indicate a 17% rate of homelessness and an extreme
rate of poverty in 45% of the general population. Senator Restrepo had read
about CPH and requested to visit our Homestead center. She was escorted
by our Director of National Program Development, Mr. Alfredo K. Brown, on a tour then met with CPH
staff over lunch to discuss her country’s situation. The Senator indicated
her intentions to return in the near future with a contingent of her fellow
Senators and their goal of submitting a report to the full Colombian Senate
on their findings. We were very pleased to host this meeting and look
forward to the next visit from Senator Restrepo and her colleagues.
June 20 - 24, 2008
U.S. Conference of Mayors Annual Meeting in Miami, Florida
The 76th U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCM) annual meeting took place at
the Intercontinental Hotel. City of Miami Mayor Manny Diaz not only hosted
the event but was inaugurated as the 66th president of the organization on
June 24th.
Mayor Diaz gave CPH the incredible opportunity to introduce our National
Program initiative at this event. We produced a very informative brochure
containing our new video which was included in the 1200 give-away bags of
the participants. If you wish to review the brochure please see the link on
our website or use the contact page and we will forward a hard copy to you
immediately.
The brochure introduces the fundamentals of our homeless plan along with
the stories of four former residents who have become self-sufficient. The
video highlights our model concept with interviews of local leaders and
former residents discussing CPH philosophy and programs as well as footage
of both facilities and the grounds and amenities which provide on-site
services to a total of 702 residents.
CPH also hosted the Hunger and Homelessness Task Force meeting of the
USCM at our downtown Chapman Center. This meeting was hosted by Mayor T.M.
Franklin Cownie of Des Moines, Iowa and Mayor Gavin Newsom of San Francisco,
California. Mr. George McDonald, founder of The Doe Fund made a video
presentation of their efforts to help homeless men in New York City and Mr.
Philip Mangano, Executive Director of the United States Interagency Council
on Homelessness (USICH) presented a PowerPoint entitled “The National
Partnership: Investment, Innovation and Results in Ending Homelessness”. Ms.
Patience Butler, Senior Manager of Share our Strength reported on her
organization’s efforts to end child hunger.
CPH presented our video to the group after which they were escorted on a
tour of our facility. The response to our facility was extremely positive
and we received many inquiries for further information about our programs.
Several organizations are collaborating to establish a multi-service
center to provide integrated services in helping move people out of
poverty and into a life of self-sufficiency. We hosted four
representatives in March, 2008 who toured both of our facilities. The
group presented a series of questions covering the following topics:
Copyright 2008 - Community Partnership For Homeless
National Program