Learning and Practice (the NOFA is here!)

Housing First: Ending Homelessness, Transforming Systems, and Changing Lives.

At MDHA we strive to be a learning organization internally, and we see one of our most important fields of activity in enhancing the knowledge and performance of our grantees and partners through a variety of learning, training, networking and development opportunities. Our President and CEO, Cindy J. Crain, even shares her reading list, as part of the State of the Homeless Address.

Perhaps one of the most important books in our field just came out earlier this year, Housing First: Ending Homelessness, Transforming Systems, and Changing Lives. This book, written by the people who first developed the Housing First model, is eminently readable, as well as well-sourced. We are reading it, and we recommend you do too. We are even posting choice quotes on our social media. We are also brushing up on Opening Doors, the national strategic plan to end homelessness. We will be regularly posting key ideas from this document that guides our work, and the work of our counterparts in every American community, on our social media.

This learning will be tremendously helpful, as we enter the busiest, most critical time of the year for any CoC, the Continuum of Care (CoC) Program Competition. The Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) just came out, and we don't have much time! We have created a dedicated page on our website for the local competition, to help our grantees and potential grantees, which you can bookmark. We will be putting out regular notices on that page, through our CoC listserv, the Constant Contact list, and on our social media. Good luck!