Tuesday, September 28, 2021
By: Kimberly Johnson
The Upstate Homeless Training Resource System is a collaboration between the Professional Development Program (PDP), Rockefeller College, University at Albany, SUNY, and the NYS Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance. This project aims to reduce time individuals spend experiencing homelessness by providing trainings for homeless services providers. The purpose of these trainings is to enhance direct service providers’ knowledge and skills for working with people experiencing homelessness and to foster a sense of compassion for individuals living unhoused. The project is grounded in the belief that enhanced skills and knowledge, combined with an attitude of compassion will increase job satisfaction and reduce staff turnover, which will, in turn, enhance service provision to people experiencing homelessness.
This project recognizes that service providers at all levels have meaningful interactions with shelter residents. Because of this, all trainings are open to workers at all levels and positions, from front-line workers such as intake specialists and residential aides to specialized services (e.g., case managers and housing specialists), to program and project administrators.
Trainings are delivered in 90–120-minute, facilitator-led, interactive webinars, with topics ranging from trauma and homelessness to how to increase staff effectiveness in interviewing, documentation, and goal setting. Training content ranges from concrete skills such as conflict and crisis management to knowledge such as vocabulary surrounding specific subpopulations (e.g., the LGBTQIA+ community) and understanding the medical model of addiction.
In addition to concrete skills and knowledge, each training focuses on teaching skills that foster a resident experience of partnership, empathy, and the use of a strength-based perspective. To foster partnership, we encourage training participants to recognize interactions with residents as collaborations between experts; the resident is an expert in their own life and the shelter worker is an expert in listening and making referrals. We do this by providing practice activities to enhance communication skills in each training and by demonstrating how to use free state and federal databases to find local service providers. These trainings encourage direct service providers to foster a sense of egalitarianism within the professional relationship between the staff and the resident and to provide supportive and insightful interactions rather than providing mandates or advice.
To promote a sense of empathy toward residents, trainings present multiple frames of reference as reasonable, useful, and valid. Understanding how and why someone perceives a situation as they do helps shelter workers place the client’s perspective at the center of services. These trainings include videos and scenarios used to spark discussions about the different ways in which people can see and react to a set of circumstances.
Finally, promoting the use of strength-based perspectives is achieved by activities in which the training participants engage with a scenario then are asked to list strengths that the resident displays. The participants then recommend strategies that the shelter workers in the scenario could use to draw on these strengths and to support and encourage the resident. These activities reinforce the notion that all individuals have strengths, are worthy individuals, and are capable of moving toward stable housing and re-integration into society.
As noted by Miller and Rollnick (2013), without context, skills such as empathy and partnership can be rote, or even manipulative. To counter this, a humanistic ideology undergirds all the courses offered. Humanist ideology is a philosophy that centers each individual’s potential and innate ability to strive toward self-actualization. This philosophy forms the underlying belief structure for the problem-solving and strengths-based methods that are highlighted in each training, and by taking multiple courses, participants receive not only training in specific topics but also an education that promotes critical and creative thinking by marrying skills and knowledge with an attitude of compassion.
A 2015 survey indicated that turnover in non-profit organizations, including organizations that provide services to people experiencing homelessness, is high due to low wages and excessive workloads. Workers also noted a lack of training and professional development opportunities and the resultant inability to receive promotions as an important reason for high turnover rates.
2018 data indicates that staff turnover rates for direct service shelter providers ranged from 50-60% annually, with employment tenure averaging 18 months. The time needed to replace workers averaged about 3 months, and while organizations were in the hiring process, other workers were expected to take on extra duties until a replacement worker was hired.
Recognizing budgetary constraints that make increasing hourly and annual salaries difficult if not impossible, this program focuses on reducing turnover by increasing job satisfaction and offering concrete evidence of ongoing training that can be used to support career advancement applications. We offer certificates of completion for all classes, and these certificates are currently being used by employers to verify attendance at ongoing professional development opportunities and to differentiate between applicants when hiring for positions above entry-level. Volunteers also collect certificates and use them to bolster their applications when applying to for paid work at a shelter.
PDP’s Upstate Homeless Services Training and Resource System project aims to enhance homeless services by providing trainings specific to homeless services providers’ experiences. The purpose of the trainings is twofold: to increase the providers knowledge, skills, and ultimately attitude in working with people experiencing homelessness and to help foster a career path for participants. We believe that increased feelings of competence along with the potential for advancement will lead to enhanced job satisfaction and reduced turnover. By providing trainings and support to homeless service providers, we ultimately aim to improve services offered to people experiencing homelessness.
Resources:
William R. Miller, & Stephen Rollnick. (2013). Motivational Interviewing, Third Edition: Helping People Change: Vol. Third edition. The Guilford Press.
Wong, P. T. P. (2017). Meaning-centered approach to research and therapy, second wave positive psychology, and the future of humanistic psychology. The Humanistic Psychologist, 45(3), 207-216. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/hum05624000062
Larry E. Sullivan. (2009). The SAGE Glossary of the Social and Behavioral Sciences. SAGE Publications, Inc.
Nonprofit HR. (2015). 2015 Nonprofit Employment Practices Survey Results. Accessed from http://www.nonprofithr.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/2015-Nonprofit-Employment-Practices-Survey-Results-1.pdf Accessed on 5-5-2021.
Kroman, D. (2018, June 4). Case workers: ‘A paycheck away from being homeless themselves’. Crosscut. https://crosscut.com/2018/05/case-workers-paycheck-away-being-homeless-themselves Accessed 5-5-2021.
Kim is a leader at University at Albany’s Rockefeller School of Public Policy in the Professional Development Program (PDP) on a contract with the NYS Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance that provides training to homeless services providers in upstate NY and Long Island. She is the lead curriculum developer for the project.