Engagement Center
Strengthen efforts to prevent people from becoming homeless is one of the five specific Blueprint goals. To achieve this goal, CHIP assembled a task force and is leading efforts to develop a temporary shelter or “engagement center” for people who are publicly intoxicated and without a home, and to provide them with shelter, safety, and access to treatment.
In 2008, CHIP engaged consultants to prepare three planning documents for such a facility, including a location plan, a development plan, and a sustainment and operations plan. On the basis of those planning documents and ongoing advocacy from CHIP, in April 2009, city leaders along with health, housing and homeless advocates, traveled to Columbus, Ohio, to tour Maryhaven, a highly successful engagement center and program in that community.
Taking information gleaned from the Maryhaven visit and the planning documents already produced by CHIP and its partners, city leaders asked CHIP to coordinate a series of meetings for local stakeholders to begin the process of securing funding, identifying an operating entity, and defining the scope of services for an engagement center in our own community. In 2009 and 2010, CHIP will convene and work with a group of city leaders, service providers and business owners to seek funding and partners to implement this initiative.
