Canadian Observatory on Homelessness
The Canadian Observatory on Homelessness is the largest national research institute devoted to homelessness in Canada. The COH is the curator of the Homeless Hub.
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The Canadian Observatory on Homelessness is the largest national research institute devoted to homelessness in Canada. The COH is the curator of the Homeless Hub.
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Author(s): Laura Prescott, Gloria Dickerson, Phoebe Soares, Kristina Konnath, E. Bassuk
Organization: Center for Mental Health Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services
Publication Date: 2009
People who are homeless often experience trauma, mental illness, and/or substance use problems. Recovery happens in relationships that help people move past these obstacles. These ten tips can help your agency create an environment that supports recovery.
1) Create a physical environment that is welcoming and safe, where different ways of expressing emotions are tolerated. Developing a welcoming environment does not necessarily require an expens...
Author(s): Laura Prescott
Organization: Homelessness Resource Center (HRC)
Publication Date: 2008
Definitions of safety can be different for people receiving services and those providing services. Take a look at just how different these definitions can be, and why it’s important for you to consider safety from all perspectives.
A trauma-informed environment begins with creating a safe and open emotional and physical environment. As illustrated below, the definition of safety can often create tension between the people who are providing servic...
Author(s): Laura Prescott, Phoebe Soares, Kristina Konnath, E. Bassuk
Organization: SAMHSA
Publication Date: 2008
It’s easier than you might think to create a physical space that will help people feel welcome and safe. Check out these tips.
The way physical space is designed often reflects how agencies feel about the staff and the people they serve. Designing a welcoming environment isn’t necessarily expensive. . It may require assessing the features of the current space and adapting them so that they are welcoming to individuals and families with histories...
Author(s): Laura Prescott, Leah Harris
Publication Date: 2008
How can your agency successfully integrate consumers as colleagues? Ten tips are described here.
Integrating consumers in homeless services has been shown to improve quality of care (Prescott & Harris, 2007). Here are 10 Tips that set the stage for creating a respectful and inclusive culture – a key ingredient for success in consumer involvement.
1. Establish consumer training teams to provide agency-wide trainings on recovery and related to...
Author(s): Laura Prescott
Organization: National Center on Family Homelessness (NCFH)
Publication Date: 2007
Re-traumatization is a problem that trauma survivors face frequently and as a services provider being aware of the potential for this to occur is crucial. This article provides information that will aid service providers in becoming more aware and critical when dealing with trauma survivors.
Interpersonal violence and trauma permeate the lives of people who experience homelessness leaving trails of silence, terror, rage and pain in its wake. Inti...
Author(s): Laura Prescott
Organization: Mental Disability Rights International
Publication Date: 2007
Finding a few moments in Laurie Ahern’s schedule isn’t easy. Her easy-going leadership style and dry, self-effacing humor belie the hectic pace of life these days. As the Associate Director of Mental Disability Rights International (MDRI) she is often leading teams to investigate human rights abuses against adults and children with developmental and psychiatric disabilities in institutions all over the world. From her office in Washington DC, she...
Author(s): Laura Prescott, Phoebe Soares, Kristina Konnath, E. Bassuk
Organization: SAMHSA
Publication Date: 2008
The Long Journey Home was written as a response to some startling lessons we have learned from the field of homelessness over the last decade. It is intended to serve as a guide to agencies looking for practical ideas about how to create trauma-informed environments. It is best viewed as a template and should be supplemented by your knowledge and expertise regarding the most effective adaptations for working with families in your own program.
Author(s): Leah Harris, Laura Prescott
Publication Date: 2011
This last installment of Moving Forward, Together discusses where to go from here.
Author(s): Leah Harris, Laura Prescott
Publication Date: 2011
Author(s): Leah Harris, Laura Prescott
Publication Date: 2011
Once an organization implements change, it must develop measures to evaluate the integration process, solicit feedback, and adjust policies and practices. This installment of Moving Forward, Together discusses the first of three steps toward sustaining change—establishing a welcoming and accessible environment.
Author(s): Laura Prescott, Leah Harris
Organization: PATH Technical Assistance Center
Publication Date: 2011
Just as individual recovery depends on opportunities to change and grow based on the lessons learned, the process of organizational change is also dynamic. Creating partnerships with consumers as colleagues helps set a tone in the agency that reinforces values of choice, connection, and voice. This installment of Moving Forward, Together discusses the third of three steps toward creating a range of opportunities for consumer integration—building...
Author(s): Laura Prescott, Leah Harris
Organization: PATH Technical Assistance Center
Publication Date: 2011
Just as individual recovery depends on opportunities to change and grow based on the lessons learned, the process of organizational change is also dynamic. Creating partnerships with consumers as colleagues helps set a tone in the agency that reinforces values of choice, connection, and voice. This installment of Moving Forward, Together discusses the second of three steps toward creating a range of opportunities for consumer integration—identify...
Author(s): Laura Prescott, Leah Harris
Organization: PATH Techncal Assistance Center
Publication Date: 2011
Just as individual recovery depends on opportunities to change and grow based on the lessons learned, the process of organizational change is also dynamic. Creating partnerships with consumers as colleagues helps set a tone in the agency that reinforces values of choice, connection, and voice. This installment of Moving Forward, Together discusses the first of three steps toward creating a range of opportunities for consumer integration—the devel...
Author(s): Laura Prescott, Leah Harris
Organization: Projects for Assistance in Transition from Homelessness
Publication Date: 2011
This installment of Moving Forward, Together discusses how to create a culture of recovery. The PDF version includes an organizational self-assessment. (Authors)
Moving Forward, Together: Create a Recovery Culture in the Agency
Over the last decade, the concepts and principles of recovery gained wide acceptance in mental health, substance use, and trauma services. Part of that acceptance emanated from the understanding that almost everyone, at s...
Author(s): Laura Prescott, Leah Harris
Organization: Project for Assitance in Transition from Homelessness
Publication Date: 2011
This section of Moving Forward, Together concentrates on the primary concerns about consumer involvement: stigma and discrimination; boundaries/multiple relationships; stress/burnout; and challenges related to finances and time.
Moving Forward, Together: Challenges to Consumer Integration
The challenges to consumer integration overlap and are complex, affecting individuals and agencies in interrelated ways. These issues are worthy of greater elab...
Author(s): Laura Prescott, Leah Harris
Organization: Projects for Assistance in Transition from Homelessness Technical Assistance Center
Publication Date: 2011
This installment of the Moving Forward, Together series addresses the benefits to implementing consumer involvement. Advantages to consumer involvement include benefits to current consumers, consumer-providers, and agencies as a whole.
Moving Forward, Together Why Integrate People with Experiences of Homelessness?
Integrating people with experiences of psychiatric disability, substance use, trauma, and homelessness is necessary to transform orga...

Author(s): Laura Prescott, Leah Harris
Organization: Projects for Assistance in Transition from Homelessness
Publication Date: 2010
First in the Moving Forward, Together series, this introduction addresses the value of recovery, the history of consumer involvement, steps to get started, and the reason why the authors chose to use the word “consumer” throughout the series.
Moving Forward, Together
Introduction
Homelessness is traumatic. Like other traumatic experiences such as interpersonal violence, natural disaster, and wartime conflict, the impact of homelessness is devasta...
Author(s): Laura Prescott, Leah Harris, Steven Samra
Organization: SAMHSA
Publication Date: 2009
This free HRC webcast, which aired on July 23, 2009, highlighted principles of recovery and benefits and common barriers to participation as they relate to consumer integration. The presenters discussed potential roles for people formerly or currently experiencing homelessness.
Click here to listen to a podcast of this webcast.Click here to view the transcript of this webcast.Click here to view the PowerPoint presentation of this webcast.
note:...
Author(s): Laura Prescott, Steven Samra
Organization: SAMHSA
Publication Date: 2009
This FREE HRC webcast, which aired on Thursday, July 9, 2009, highlighted principles of recovery, benefits, and common barriers to participation as they relate to consumer integration. The presenters discussed potential roles for people formerly or currently experiencing homelessness. This webcast was Part I of the two part series on consumer integration.
Click here to listen to a podcast of the presentation.Click here to view a transcription of...