The document outlines voluntary case management strategies presented at the NAEH Family Homelessness Conference, emphasizing the importance of choice, respect, and individual empowerment in addressing homelessness. It highlights the shift from acute to long-term models, aiming to provide housing as a basic human right and facilitate participant-driven support. Additionally, it addresses common misconceptions about voluntary services and stresses the need for meaningful engagement and collaboration between service providers and participants.

1. Voluntary Case Management
Strategies
NAEH Family Homelessness Conference
February 10, 2011
Anna Melbin, NNEDV
&
Andrea White, Housing Innovations

2. Purpose of Our Work
 Social justice
 People are the experts in their own lives
 Our motivation, purpose
 Our program’s purpose, mission, goal
 Beliefs about the work
 Housing is a basic human right, not a reward
for good behavior
“When you do this work on behalf of other
women, you become stronger”
– Lynn Rosenthal
© NNEDV. All rights reserved

3. What are Voluntary Services?
 Goal based
 Structured around real expectations:
 Lease, eligibility standards, legal issues, CPS requirements
 Provides information and choice
 Addresses identified needs

4. Transition
 Transition from an acute model to a long term model
 From a symptom-based model to goal-based models
 From crisis response to long term planning
 Look at long term change
 Provide housing as a base

5. What Are People Asking For
 A Safe Affordable Place To Live
 Community
 Services Appropriate To Their Needs
 Choice and Respect
 Money Enough To Live On
 A Role In The Community And In Their Families
 A Chance For Their Children And Themselves To Get
Ahead

6. Why Voluntary Services?
 A critical component of Accessibility
 Research indicates Best Practice
 National trend and increasingly a
grant requirement (OVW, FVPSA)
 Participants support this approach
 Don’t worry, be happy!
 staff say they’re happier, chaos didn’t ensue,
& the world didn’t end © NNEDV. All rights reserved

7. Common Misconceptions ~
Voluntary Services means…
 I can never ask participants to do
anything, or initiate unsolicited contact.
I always have to wait for them to come
to me.
 I can’t intervene, even for a concern
about safety or emotional well-being.
 I can’t institute any rules, even for
legal reasons or safety.
© NNEDV. All rights reserved

8. Common Misconceptions ~
Voluntary Services means…
 Participants will ‘sit around and do
nothing’
 If I don’t require services, I’ll never
know if the program is ‘working’.
 I can never ask anyone to leave the
program, unless for illegal behavior or
if their time is up.
© NNEDV. All rights reserved

9. Consider this….
“It is not just an issue of whether
problems are solved or needs are
met, but rather the manner in
which mobilization of resources
occurs that is a major determinant
of the empowerment of individuals
and groups.”
Dunst, C. J.&Trivette, C. M. (1994). What is effective helping? In C.
J. Dunst, C. M. Trivette,& A. G. Deal (Eds.), Supporting and
strengthening families: Vol. 1. Methods, strategies and practices
(pp. 162-170). Cambridge, MA: Brookline Books.
© NNEDV. All rights reserved

10. Tasks
 Ask people what they want, where they want to be
in 5 years
 Connect people’s dreams and goals for their
families to housing as the first step
 Educate people about available housing options
and expectations of each
 Identify skills and supports needed to maintain
chosen housing options
 Establish housing access or housing stability as a
primary goal
 Assist people to secure an income

11. Tasks
 Prepare for the expectations of each housing
opportunity
 Plan for and assist in maintaining housing
(paying rent, apartment maintenance and
upkeep, complying with the lease and following
house rules, accessing aftercare services and
supports)

12. Case Management:
Engagement Strategies
• Pro-active outreach
• Introduce yourself and how you can be helpful
• Repeated, predictable, non-intrusive patterns of
interaction
• Responding to felt needs
• Respecting boundaries
• Allowing people as much control as possible over
interactions
• Be patient and persistent
• Listen

13. Goal Based Engagement
and Assessment Strategies
 Explore what the persons/ family’s choice means
 History (i.e. housing, employment)
 How person/ family became homeless, lost
employment/ income
 Preferences
 Financial Issues
 Implications of disabilities or service needs and
how this relates to goal
 Long term goals, particularly as relate to children

14. Finding Common Ground
 Negotiation Strategies
 Link proposed option to client’s aspirations
 Frame move as intermediate
 Reflect on clients experience in housing to better
understand current needs
 Open up discussion of other options
 Test available options with peers
 Negotiate to improve skills/resources to
access/maintain preferred option

15. Finding Common Ground
 Worker should be forthright about the
reasons for assessment and what they are
able to access
 Worker should anticipate reactions to
disagreement and remain connected

16. Begin: Developing the
Plan to Work Together
 Elicit and listen to the parent and reflect back
to clarify and check understanding
 Goal setting is an individual process
 Empathize about goal setting and unmet goals
 Listen to resident’s perception of past
successes and struggles in reaching goals
 List and discuss strengths that may facilitate
reaching goals

17. Engaging Participants
 Individualized services, policies and approach
 Meaningful opportunities for participant-input,
to increase relevance and appeal
 Recognize the power of language
 Informal opportunities to get to know
participants – fun, recreation, interaction
 Use resources as method (excuse) of
checking-in
 Rely on natural consequences to
relationship-build © NNEDV. All rights reserved

18. Engaging Staff
 Measure and reward what is important
to your program: What does excellence
look like?
 Track changes over time (journals)
 Create “VS Committee”
 Explore and challenge personal biases,
values and beliefs
 Build staff relationships and trust. Have
fun, foster mutual respect and self-care.
© NNEDV. All rights reserved

19. Program Level
 Clarify program goal/mission
 Let go of “savior” persona
 Review policies and rules often
(annually). Put them to the test:
Effective? Necessary? Respectful?
Enforceable?
 Examine outcomes and measures of
success
© NNEDV. All rights reserved

20. Community Level
 Create buy-in - referral sources,
program reputation, other’s funding
issues
 Manage funder’s expectations –
outcomes, goals, definition of success
 Re-define success: program and
participant
© NNEDV. All rights reserved

21. A Word About Outcomes
“An outcome is a change in knowledge,
attitude, skill, behavior, expectation,
emotional status, or life circumstance due to
the service being provided”
 Success is participant-defined; not defined
solely by “numbers”
 Adapt services to meet participant’s goals
 Adapt grants and other funder-related
documents
 Some participants still may not be
“successful”
© NNEDV. All rights reserved

22. Voices From The Field
“The VS approach is really based in trust, respect,
removing power imbalances and focusing on
how we as service providers are more alike
than unalike the people we serve.”
“The only insight that I have in doing this work is
that you will never figure it all out. Life is
messy. Violence and trauma do horrible things
to people. Poverty and oppression can bring
out the worse in people. We can not develop
the perfect set of rules (even the most well
intentioned) and guarantee that everything will
be perfect…we cannot and should not control
other people. We truly do need to listen to
what women are saying that they need. Not
what we want them to have.” © NNEDV. All rights reserved

23. Food for Thought…
 Relationships are everything!
 Attendance at classes and groups may
decrease
 Some participants may not need or
have time for additional supportive
services
 Program may need to redefine program
outcomes and meaning of Success.
 Some participants still may not ‘be
successful’ © NNEDV. All rights reserved

24. Resources
 National Network to End Domestic
Violence
 TA and training
 Template policies, program materials
 Interviews with survivors in transitional
housing
 State “No Rules” Projects

25. THANK YOU!
Anna Melbin Andrea White
207-847-3199 andrea.white.ny@gmail.com
amelbin@nnedv.org
www.nnedv.org