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A record turnout marked the Community Forum on Homelessness on
Feb. 16 at the Jubilee Christian Center in Fairfax, with at least
180 people in attendance. In her opening remarks, Sharon Bulova,
chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, reaffirmed the
Board’s commitment to the goal of ending homelessness in our
community.
Since the 10-Year Plan was adopted in March 2008, significant
progress has been made, not only in reducing the number of people
who are homeless, but in transforming the system of services to be
more effective in preventing people from becoming homeless or to
rapidly re-house people who do lose their housing. Earlier this
month, the first annual Community
Snapshot was released to provide a comprehensive view of our
collective efforts including new unduplicated data, 10-Year Plan
goal highlights and a baseline for measuring future progress. At
the forum, updates were provided on:
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Progress in implementing the 10-Year Plan and the HOST model
(Office to Prevent and End Homelessness (OPEH) Director Dean
Klein and Program Manager Toya Codjoe).
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Trends in basic needs in the Fairfax-Falls Church community (Dot
Groce, process manager, Fairfax County Coordinated Services
Planning).
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Initiation of a process for all participants to identify services
provided by their organizations in seven broad categories
throughout the four human services regions in our community (Jody
Tompros, director of Transitional Housing and Residential
Services, Reston Interfaith).
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“Homeless Connect”, a concept in which a wide range of providers
and volunteers come together for a day to provide service
directly to people who are homeless.
This event was very effective thanks to the collaborative efforts
of county staff and nonprofit agencies across the community.
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