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Our Mission

Partners Ending Homelessness works to encourage public understanding of the causes and conditions of homelessness and lead a strong and stable system of care for individuals and families to reduce homelessness in Guilford County.

 

Our Strategy: Partners Ending Homelessness focuses on generating housing, strengthening prevention and supportive service efforts, and increasing coordination, collaboration and access through the continuum of care in our community.

Partners Ending Homelessness seeks to:

• Engage existing and new partners to unite the voice of stakeholders and achieve a shared vision of ending homelessness
• Develop greater visibility and support of the efforts of Partners Ending Homelessness to end homelessness
• Advocate for strong policies that address the root causes of homelessness and initiatives that strengthen our current system of care
• Provide technical assistance and training to homeless service delivery agencies
• Develop and implement strategies and best practices to end homelessness, inclusive of Guilford County’s 10-Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness and the five objectives identified by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development
• Consolidate efforts to increase resources for ending homelessness in Guilford County ensuring that all areas of needs are being addressed
• Evaluate efforts towards ending homelessness overseeing the collection, use, and security of data to determine the effectiveness of outcomes and make adjustments in strategies to improve outcomes

Our Beginnings

Under the direction of the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness and the non-profit National Alliance to End Homelessness, many communities across the nation were having success in reducing homelessness by developing and implementing a business plan approach with strategies, benchmarks, and budgets. Guilford County became the 210th community nationwide to commit to develop a ten year plan to end homelessness. In February 2006, the Guilford County/High Point/Greensboro Task Force on Ending Homelessness was appointed by the Guilford County Commissioners, High Point City Council and the Greensboro City Council. The Guilford County Task Force to End Homelessness was a comprehensive and focused effort by the community to improve the quality of life for all residents of Guilford County by ending chronic homelessness and reducing all types of homelessness by 2016. An extensive plan, Partnering to End Chronic Homelessness in Guilford County developed by the task force, was unveiled on June 4, 2007 to the community. The plan has two major objectives, Housing and Prevention and Supportive Services, directed around the housing first approach. In 2008, the Partners Ending Homelessness initiative began actively implementing, evaluating and updating Guilford County’s Ten Year Plan to end chronic homelessness.

 

In August of 2009, recognizing that partnership is the best way to reduce and prevent homelessness, the Homeless Prevention Coalition of Guilford County and the Partners Ending Homelessness Initiative began exploring the possibility of a strategic alliance. After five months of researching national best practices, exploring Guilford County’s needs, resources, and current efforts to address homelessness, a structured alliance task force comprised of members of both groups proposed the creation of a new non–profit, Partners Ending Homelessness, which would focus on ending homelessness and strengthening the system of care, ensuring a more effective approach to homelessness. Partners Ending Homelessness would be the result of the consolidation of two groups: the Ten Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness in Guilford County (the Partners Ending Homelessness Initiative) and the Guilford County Continuum of Care (the Homeless Prevention Coalition of Guilford County (already a 501c3 agency). The strategic alliance was motivated by the desire to achieve one coordinated effort with one voice, increase advocacy and education about the issue of homelessness, consolidate efforts to increase resources for ending homelessness in Guilford County and improve the efficiency and accountability of services while providing administrative oversight of efforts to end homelessness.

 

Our Current Work

The organization is developing long-term solutions to help those living below “self-sufficiency” levels to get the additional education and skills to become self-sufficient, attain safe and secure housing, as well as helping service providers to further develop our homeless delivery system. Homelessness is a critical issue for communities across North Carolina and in Guilford County, the issue is a complex one, as homeless people are diverse and the factors that led them to become homeless are equally diverse and vary over time. No one sector or level of government can alone address the problem of homelessness in our community. Through strategic partnerships, Partners Ending Homelessness is tackling the issues that matter most in our community through:

 

• Increasing resources for affordable housing, permanent housing, prevention and supportive services
• Increasing awareness of homelessness issues among the general population and among leaders in business, government and philanthropy
• Creating stronger case management services to help households who are struggling financially to access resources in the community
• Improving access and awareness of services in Guilford County through increased coordination between mainstream support services and housing providers; fostering collaboration and creating new partnerships between service providers and expanding the coordinated portal of entry system
• Building provider capacity through training, education and technical assistance based on data and results-based best practices
• Increasing data collection and reporting capability through coordinating agencies into a seamless system for homeless consumers, easing access to housing and services and working towards full implementation of the Carolina Homeless Information Network (CHIN) 
• Implementing action steps identified in the ten year plan

It is essential that all groups pool their resources and coordinate efforts by strengthening existing partnerships and creating new ones. Our community has great needs, but through your support of Partners Ending Homelessness we can help …connect…support ….and restore lives. We know that Time Counts and that with your help, together we can ensure that Guilford County will be a community that ends homelessness.

Partners Ending Homelessness Staff

K. Jehan Benton-Clark, MSW Executive Director Partners Ending Homelessness Jehan@PartnersEndingHomelessness.org 1500 Yanceyville Street Greensboro, NC 27405 201 Church Avenue High Point, NC 27262 336.553.2715  Office 336.553.2716  Fax

Myla P. Erwin Community Resource Specialist Partners Ending Homelessness Myla@PartnersEndingHomelessness.org 1500 Yanceyville Street Greensboro, NC 27405 201 Church Avenue High Point, NC 27262 336.553.2715 Office 336.553.2716  Fax

 

Get Involved...

Partners Ending Homelessness · 902 Bonner Drive · Jamestown, NC 27282 · info@PartnersEndingHomelessness.org

Special thanks to Carolinanet for their gifts of Web development, Web hosting, and technical assistance and to Vanderveen Photographers for their gifts of photography and technical assistance to make this Web presence possible for all the citizens of Guilford County.