Adapting to Better Serve: How OrgCode has Adjusted in the Pandemic
For over three months we have all experienced upheaval. OrgCode is no different. We used to travel all the time and be present in community after community. Obviously, a pandemic can quickly change that approach to supporting communities. I wanted to take a few minutes to outline how we are adapting our approach to assisting communities in light of COVID-19 and share what is new and exciting with us.
Because of demand for training, even amidst of a pandemic, we have been retooling our most popular trainings. This isn’t just delivering the same content as before but in a webinar. No, we have been researching the most effective way to deliver online training and amending presentation materials. Take a look at the offerings planned from July through to the end of December. Register before July 1 and take 20% off the training cost with the discount code ORGCODE
Beyond the webinars, we are offering two online learning collaboratives that kick off in July and are focused on assisting communities in enhancing their service delivery. One collaborative assists agencies with the transformation of shelter operations to amplify housing focused and trauma informed service delivery. The other provides coaching and supports for the transformation of street outreach as a primary connect to permanent housing led solutions. Over a six month period OrgCode team members will assist with the following: analyze and recommend improvements to policies: collect and analyze performance data; provide considerable and customized coaching in between group sessions; and, offer four dynamic and comprehensive instructional sessions. We are confident that both of these learning collaboratives will be a game changer for organizations that wish to be truly focused on ending homelessness through shelter or outreach services. You can read more about them in the Online Training section of our website. Space is limited for the collaboratives because of how intensive the supports will be. Register before July 1 and take 10% off with discount code ORGCODE
If you have any questions about the Online Training or Learning Collaboratives, contact our team.
OrgCode continues to engage with communities for specialized consulting assignments across North America. Currently we are helping communities shift shelters and street outreach to becoming truly housing focused, reviewing and recommending refinements to coordinated entry systems, reorganizing larger non-profits that deliver homelessness and housing programs, completing program evaluations, and developing standards for practice. Big chunks of this work are happening remotely in the new pandemic reality.
The other area of practice we continue to be available to assist communities is in HMIS. Did you know that OrgCode is the HMIS system administrator for some communities? For smaller and mid-sized communities, this is a very cost-effective way of ensuring HMIS compliance and reporting is taken care of by HMIS experts. If this is of interest to you, reach out to David.
Let’s end with a bit of good news, shall we? If you missed it a couple weeks back, we released the next versions of the VI-SPDAT for Single Adults for USA and Canada. The Family VI-SPDAT has also updated and released. Training videos, background materials, and how we went about updating the tools over the past two years are available for anyone to take a look at. You will also find guidance documents for completing the tool with two population groups thus far. We are grateful to partners in the Indigenous community that helped create guidance for completing the tool with people who are Indigenous. We are equally grateful to partners in Domestic Violence related services who helped create guidance for completing the tool with people impacted by household violence. Tools for youth will be available on Friday, June 26 and the next versions of the full SPDAT assessment products will be available in the coming weeks.