Heather reflects on the journey of setting up Housing First in Dumfries and Galloway
The Communities of Practice will be held online. Participants can agree the agenda and themes they may wish to explore, and how the meetings are approached.
In Glasgow, the Housing First Consortium have already benefited from Communities of Practice sessions that have been facilitated by Homeless Network Scotland.
Areas for discussion could include:
- Supporting service users to address social isolation and source suitable forms of community engagement
- The importance of choice and control and supporting service users to have their voice heard
- Working effectively to ensure fidelity to the model, picking certain points to drill down on
- Housing First: A commissioners/landlord/external agency perspective
- Drawbacks of time spent travelling
- Moving on/graduating Housing First
- Supporting service users to access other support organisations
- Working with people that don't actively engage in the way we are trying to engage
- Housing First for young people
Over time we would like to recruit a small committee of people who will meet quarterly to progress this area of work involving service providers, membership organisations, commissioners, Housing Associations, etc.
"Membership is a feeling that one has invested part of oneself to become a member
and therefore has a right to belong." (Aronson & Mills, 1959; Buss & Portnoy, 1967)
"It is a feeling of belonging, of being a part." (Backman & Secord, 1959)
A shared common interest can be a powerful force for positive change.
We will be encouraging members to send us topics they would like to be open for discussion. Participants will then be able to join in the virtual conversation.
Community of Practice near you
Community of Practice Sessions will be set up around the country. At the time of writing, we envisage using Zoom to facilitate the sessions. This may change and we will update as appropriate.
Sessions will be focussed on topics that participants would like to discuss, explore or challenge within a Housing First context. The facilitators will ensure that the topic is discussed from all perspectives of colleagues in the room e.g. service provider, commissioner, Housing Association etc. Participants will have an opportunity to agree the agenda prior to a session. You will also be offered the opportunity to co-facilitate a session.
We will advise colleagues about sessions through LinkedIn, Twitter, on the Academy website and through our email mailing list. Sessions will be booked through Eventbrite.
Learning from all events will be collated and shared with our mailing list and with partners in Europe as requested. Further discussions will take place on how best to use this information to develop best practice.
Mailing list
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Communities of Practice benefit both individuals and the wider organisations. This in turn benefits those they support and the wider community.
You can find out more about Communities of Practice in the Housing First Europe HUB.