From Crisis to Connection: A Community-Designed Solution to Prevent Homelessness

Interactive Transcript

spk_0 Think about the way the world is and the way that the world could be.

spk_0 All of our systems are interrelated and interdependent.

spk_0 There's a thousand different voices than nobody years.

spk_0 We're looking at a human being and there's life story.

spk_0 Connection to the people we don't know that live near us.

spk_0 An elevated Denver starts now.

spk_0 Welcome back to the elevated Denver podcast.

spk_0 Since you last heard from us, we have been busy building community-driven solutions to homelessness.

spk_0 We published a community landscape mapping the journeys of 40 unhoused neighbors as they navigated Denver's housing and homelessness system.

spk_0 The landscape showed us that despite everyone experiencing their own journey and story,

spk_0 nearly everyone ran into the same systemic barriers trying to maintain or regain stability in their lives.

spk_0 We knew the system needed to be fixed and that if we tackled each barrier one by one,

spk_0 we could do just that in what we call our collaboratories.

spk_0 Over six sessions, the Collaboratory Participants dug deep into the problem,

spk_0 prototype solutions and land it on something transformative,

spk_0 peer-led resource connection hubs.

spk_0 Through this special three-up-a-sode series, we're taking you behind the scenes of the Collaboratory,

spk_0 the challenges, the breakthroughs, and the solution that's inspiring a new way forward.

spk_0 You'll hear directly from participants about what makes this innovative model and the solution that came out of it so powerful.

spk_0 Homelessness isn't inevitable.

spk_0 We believe it is a failure of systems, not people,

spk_0 and we are shifting power to those most impacted to design solutions rooted in equity, dignity, and shared humanity.

spk_0 Welcome back for our final episode of this special podcast series.

spk_0 If you've been following along, you know that we're solving homelessness by addressing gaps in the system through our collaboratories.

spk_0 You've heard from national and local experts like Jennifer Spate, Don Burns, and Jeff Olivett

spk_0 on the systemic roots of homelessness and the importance of lived expert leadership in solving it.

spk_0 And you've heard from some of the Collaboratory Co-Designers and Champions about our process to examine and collectively solve for systemic breakdown in Denver's homelessness system.

spk_0 Today we're going to talk about that solution, Peer-led Resource Connection Hubs.

spk_0 These hubs are designed to be run by peer support specialists, those who have navigated the system themselves.

spk_0 They'll be based in existing trusted community spaces to allow peers to help guide community members to needed resources.

spk_0 Hubs are rooted in human to human connection.

spk_0 They involve the peers building relationships with other organizations in the community to support those who are on the cusp of homelessness or are newly unhoused.

spk_0 Co-Designer Betsy explains it best.

spk_0 Peer support is a part of the process and the other part of the idea was community-centered, community-driven, localized resources,

spk_0 and breaking down the stigma of getting people to know their neighbors better and design this community center to be people in your community leading it and centered with the peer support, strength-based, person-centered lens.

spk_0 The Peer-led piece of the hubs is critical. Betsy goes on to illustrate the core elements of the hubs that differentiate them from existing resource centers.

spk_0 It's also not a new thing. The difference is that it is peer support-led and that's what makes the difference of humanizing it.

spk_0 The concept of the hubs was designed in the collaboratory and is reflective of the insights in our community landscape that we gained from interviews and meetings with dozens of individuals experiencing homelessness.

spk_0 The hubs address the systemic issue of people not knowing what resources and supports exist, especially for those experiencing housing instability or who have recently become unhoused.

spk_0 The issue the hubs address was emphasized by National Homelessness Advocate Jennifer Spate.

spk_0 Although Jennifer's experience with homelessness wasn't in Denver, her challenges finding support mirror those we've heard about in our community.

spk_0 I came to get help before I was even homeless, but I was told, oh, you're not hurting too bad just yet, you have to wait. If I wait, I'm really spurred. Like, I'm really going to be homeless.

spk_0 But yeah, I had to wait and I had to literally call them from the side of the street from the side of the road. I could not be in anyone's house. I could not be on anyone's couch.

spk_0 And I knew that very quickly on. I could not look like the client. The client is not a person. The client is not humanized. The client is very quickly ostracized. The client is already condemned. And you feel that way. Already feeling institutionalized in a lot of ways.

spk_0 Jennifer goes on to talk about spending years navigating a system that kept her in a state of survival rather than stability.

spk_0 She speaks about how the services she was offered did not meet her needs and illustrates why it's so critical to respect people's own knowledge of what they need.

spk_0 I can say that my expectations of the resources that I would receive I never really got it was demoralizing it was crushing it was a horrible experience and I wasn't able to heal from my past experiences. My voice didn't matter. My experiences didn't matter. But it was my fault. Right. My healing of trauma is a full time job.

spk_0 Alexis, a co-designer, shares how she sees the hubs addressing a critical barrier in our current system.

spk_0 I believe that to create sustainable change in accessing services one needs to recognize that there are different power dynamics in almost every human interaction by using peer-led initiatives elevated Denver is creating a non-judgmental space to eliminate the complex barriers that many people face accessing services.

spk_0 I'm extremely hopeful that the solution we all contributed to helps individuals get connected to needed resources as effectively as possible.

spk_0 I hope it creates new opportunities for people and I hope it mitigates the suffering individuals on the streets face every day.

spk_0 Lizzie, a Collaboratory Champion, explains how hubs address this critical system gap.

spk_0 Any time that we can be person centered and get folks face to face you just see an immediate result. So it's not just the support of navigating but having a person there with you and the added advantage of having it as a peer I think is just so vital.

spk_0 Part of my role with JFS is I oversee our central intake team which performs resource navigation and right now it's a team of two and we get hundreds of calls every month and that's one anecdotal example of how big this need is but I think having these peers in these hubs around the area can help build trust.

spk_0 Now not only do we have that support for the community but we have a clear throughput a feedback of gaps or like these really actionable spaces that maybe we can fine tune and I think it's not just a solution for now it's a foundation for building in the future.

spk_0 I'm excited about it. I think it's a really clever idea and I think again throughout this whole process it's just been a firm foothold and like equity and client voice and client perspective.

spk_0 And to me I think that just makes the end result or this solution so much more impactful.

spk_0 Through the first four sessions of the collaboratory we explored what was and wasn't working in the current system.

spk_0 We built off what was working and came up with two final ideas. We knew prototyping these possible solutions with community members who are currently or have experienced homelessness was critical to understanding what would work.

spk_0 So we tested the hub and a separate digital navigation tool both designed in the collaboratory and the peer led resource connection hub emerged as the clear winning solution.

spk_0 One prototype participant noted with tears in her eyes that in all the years she had been engaging with case managers and others in the system.

spk_0 She had never felt so seen and heard as when she tried the hub.

spk_0 Another community member noted that the hub eliminates a lot of the barriers people often face when trying to seek services like not knowing who to call what is available or even where to start when they are in crisis.

spk_0 That alone can cause people to spend hours trying to get a hold of someone who can help often being told they don't qualify or come back another time.

spk_0 The value of the peers is that they know better than anyone or any website what resources are available and how to access them.

spk_0 And through the hub peers will have the time to sit and talk with someone who is in crisis create a safe space and help them navigate to what is available and best for them.

spk_0 This reinforced our belief that solutions designed by lived experts those who have navigated the system themselves are the ones that will work.

spk_0 Collaboratory co-designer at least talks about this.

spk_0 The solution we came up with the peer lead resource connection hub.

spk_0 I think the input we received from peers and folks with lived experience is vital and something that is very different from services and programs throughout the city.

spk_0 This idea of a peer lead resource connection hub is proof that this model of thinking and design works.

spk_0 We came together and we are able to build an idea that is realistic and achievable.

spk_0 This hub is not meant to replace any existing service rather it's filling in need that has been expressly identified.

spk_0 Champion Lindy elaborates.

spk_0 Because the commitment has been there for the very beginning to use peers and that was the feedback that was given by the people who are involved that have had experience with trying to get resources in the past.

spk_0 How much more meaningful it is for them to be talking to someone that also has had an experience like that.

spk_0 That is huge.

spk_0 We strongly believe the hub can reshape the homelessness response system in Denver and beyond.

spk_0 Feedback from co-designers and champions reflected their shared belief in the hub's potential to provide accessible immediate support for those at risk or newly experiencing homelessness.

spk_0 Co-designer Myra spoke to this.

spk_0 I think the solution that I was a part of creating the peer lead resource hub is something bigger than the systems that are out there, the programs that are out there.

spk_0 It is something where people can identify with each other and help each other which they are already doing on a small scale.

spk_0 I think that this is going to be huge, it's going to be something that is going to be well received by the people that are using this system.

spk_0 I'm really excited about this solution and I'm glad I was a part of it.

spk_0 Lizzie, a collaboratory champion, also shared her perspective.

spk_0 I was surprised by how many people really were on the same page about what was needed and how to address it.

spk_0 It was really interesting to me because there were folks from every professional area that works with us and just folks who lived experience.

spk_0 I was just really surprised that from day one it felt like everyone was like, no, this is what we need, this is what the community needs, this is how we can make a dent in making things better.

spk_0 To solve homelessness, we know we must include solutions like the hub that are aimed at prevention.

spk_0 Jeff Olivet, National Leader and Expert on Homelessness, who we talked to in episode two reinforces this point.

spk_0 If we don't turn off the faucet into homelessness, we will never end homelessness.

spk_0 There will always be more people slipping through the cracks, ending up on the streets in the tents, in the shelters.

spk_0 It's got to be a both-and mentality. It is both-housing and services. It is both emergency response and upstream prevention.

spk_0 It's got to be a more expansive, ambitious way of approaching this that's going to really get us there to the place where we can say, remember when we used to have homelessness in this country?

spk_0 While we are confident of the impact the peer-led resource connection hubs will have, we also know sustaining and scaling the hubs is something that needs to be considered for true system change.

spk_0 Here's Jeff again, talking about the importance of local solutions and the need for sustainable funding for scaling.

spk_0 I think the federal government has a huge role to play in shaping overall policy direction and in funding programs at a scale necessary to solve the problem.

spk_0 Having said that, you don't solve homelessness at the federal level. You solve homelessness at the local level. That's where the people are.

spk_0 That's where the people experiencing homelessness are. That's where the service providers who know the barriers they face and know what's working and what's not.

spk_0 That's where the local leadership really puts their money where their mouth is around trying to solve problems.

spk_0 I believe that it is at the local level that the real work happens. There needs to be a lot of flexibility for local experts, including experts who have been homeless at every table, by the way.

spk_0 There's got to be a lot of flexibility for them to deploy those resources as needed to solve the problem in the way that they know how best to do.

spk_0 The hub is one step in a reimagined homeless response system in Denver.

spk_0 More solutions are needed and we believe the collaboratory model that you heard about in depth in episode one is the path to more solutions.

spk_0 This type of collaboration that puts power into the hands of those with lived experience is critical for change. As Jeff said,

spk_0 if the nonprofits aren't working well together and if the nonprofits and the city and state funded services and the county funded services aren't collaborating,

spk_0 the people who suffer are the people who those programs are supposed to serve.

spk_0 When we talk about collaboration, that's a daily commitment. It's a recommitment. It's an investment of time. It's an investment of building relationships with individuals and with people at all levels of different organizations.

spk_0 That's just got to be a fundamental value that an effective homelessness response holds.

spk_0 Jamie, the facilitator, also talks about what makes the collaboratory effective, learning from each other across power structures and honoring the humanity of the issue.

spk_0 People are willing to shift their ideas about how things get done and what matters when we're doing things together and when we're collaborating.

spk_0 I think we succeeded in creating a space where people did share power when it wasn't just lip service to that idea.

spk_0 I think we saw it playing out in real time. People and their stories and their experiences regardless of what they were, were humanized.

spk_0 People felt that and relationships were built at those tables that will serve this work, other work, other collaborations in the future.

spk_0 With true collaboration, homelessness is solvable. That's why we are committed to not only piloting and scaling the hub, but running more collaboratories, elevating the voices of lived experts to create lasting solutions.

spk_0 I think it's critical that we hold out hope that it is possible to solve homelessness. If we come together around a shared goal, understanding all of the strength that each of us brings to it, then I think we can accomplish remarkable things.

spk_0 We couldn't agree more. The homelessness crisis is urgent and we must take this opportunity to design systems that truly work for people, honoring their humanity and expertise along the way.

spk_0 We're taking these lessons from Jeff, Jennifer, and Don, as well as Collaboratory, Co-designers, and Champions into future collaboratories.

spk_0 Our goal is to continue developing viable and impactful solutions. We hope to inspire other communities to take bold steps toward equity-centered collaborative systems change.

spk_0 Elevated Denver's Collaboratory is more than a model. It's a movement for designing just systems together.

spk_0 This Elevated Denver Podcast series is made possible with the help of a broad community and the support of Don and Lynn Burns.

spk_0 Thank you both for your ongoing support of our work and of the podcast. Thank you also to Sal and Mimi Tripati for your support.

spk_0 We could not do our work without the expertise and engagement of the co-designers who participated in the Collaboratory, the Champions who provided critical feedback and input, and others we have learned from along the way.

spk_0 Thank you for lending your voices here, but more importantly, forgiving shape to a new future in which homelessness is solvable.

spk_0 The podcast is produced by the Elevated Denver team. Editing, sound design, and music are composed and provided by Jesse Boyton at the Olympic Recording Studio.

spk_0 If you found this episode interesting and would like to learn more or engage in our work, please visit us at ElevatedDenver.co and sign up for our newsletter.

spk_0 Be the first to be notified when the Collaboratory Issue Briefing Toolkit are published. And stay tuned as we pilot the solution and build our next Collaboratory.

spk_0 You can also find us on Instagram and LinkedIn. Follow along, share our work, and join the movement. It's going to take all of us to build an Elevated Denver.

From Crisis to Connection: A Community-Designed Solution to Prevent Homelessness

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