Homeless Veterans Committee

Trauma-Informed Care for Women Experiencing Homelessness and their Children  

The threat of homelessness is traumatic. The experience of homelessness is traumatic. Imagine being a mother with children losing her home, desperately trying to find a safe place to be with your children. There is a good chance that she has experienced trauma and violence in the past, as a child and as an adult. How does her encounter with emergency homeless services and supports consider the impact of trauma on this woman's life?

This issue discusses trauma-informed care, particularly from the angle of trauma-sensitive programming. While it is absolutely critical to understand the impact of traumatic events past and present on an individual's ability to rebuild, it is equally important to think about how an organization structures and operates its programs to take trauma sensitivity into consideration. How are staff expectations set and how does professional development occur? What are the program rules, why do they exist, and how are they enforced? How do programs build trust with families when it might be perfectly natural for a family not to trust the program right away?  

[Read More]

Grant Announcement: Veterans’ Workforce investment Program - Deadline june 15, 2012
DOL will award at least 10 grants in 10 states

WASHINGTON, DC — The Department of Labor is now soliciting applications for approximately $12 million in grants to provide job training and skills development services that will help approximately 6,000 veterans succeed in civilian careers. Through funds provided by the Veterans’ Workforce Investment Program (VWIP), veterans will receive skills assessments, individual job counseling, labor market information, classroom or on-the-job training, skills upgrades, placement assistance and crucial follow-up services. Veterans also may be eligible for services through other Workforce Investment Act programs for economically disadvantaged or dislocated workers.

The Department will award at least 10 grants in 10 states on a competitive basis. Eligible applicants are state and local workforce investment boards, local public agencies, and nonprofit organizations, including faith-based and community organizations. Grantees must be familiar with the areas and populations to be served, and must have demonstrated that they can administer effective programs. The deadline for grant applications is June 15, 2012.

The VWIP Solicitation for Grant Applications can be viewed here: www.dol.gov/vets/programs/vwip/main.htm. Applications can also be submitted through www.grants.gov.

For more information about the Department of Labor’s unemployment and re-employment programs for veterans, go to www.dol.gov/vets.

Performance Improvement Clinics from the Center for Capacity Building

The Alliance has changed the name of the HEARTH Academy Implementation Clinic to the Performance Improvement Clinic. This intensive one-and-a-half day clinic helps communities prepare for changes made by the Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing (HEARTH) Act and focuses on improving community performance by analyzing community data and encouraging implementation of strategies that help achieve desirable HEARTH Act outcomes. The Performance Improvement Clinic will continue to include group discussions, system design and modification planning sessions, and presentations on best practices. Clinic participants will also receive hands-on technical assistance with data analysis and system assessment as well as follow-up support. While the overall goals and structure of the Clinic are the same, Clinics are customized to the conditions in each community.

[More Information]

Veteran Poverty by the Numbers

Vets Will Face Increased Challenges if Support Programs Are Cut

With the end of the war in Iraq and the involvement in Afghanistan winding down, the United States can expect to see about 100,000 veterans return home. Many will need help and support from safety net programs or job training to transition to civilian life, but that help isn’t guaranteed to be there.

That’s because this past fall the congressional "super committee" charged with developing a plan to reduce the deficit did not come to an agreement. As a result, if Congress fails to act, automatic cuts will be triggered in January 2013 to both nonwar defense spending and domestic discretionary spending, including many human needs programs that provide greater opportunity to veterans and nonveterans alike.

[Read more at AmericanProgress.org]