Connection & Action Sprint

You are about to embark on the work of a lifetime.

If your community is committed to ending homelessness, then consider kicking off your work, or pairing your annual Point-in Time (PiT) Count with a Connection & Action Sprint. 

Overview of the Toolkit

Collecting person-specific data is the key to ending homelessness for our most vulnerable (and often anonymous) homeless neighbours. A Connection & Action Sprint is a coordinated outreach process to connect with people experiencing homelessness with resources and supports and engage the broader community in both deepening their understanding of homelessness and taking action. A Connection & Action Sprint can be easily be paired with an annual PiT Count or can be undertaken at anytime to strengthen or kick off your By-Name Data.

This Toolkit walks communities step-by-step through the planning and execution of a local Connection and Action Sprint. Information unique to a Connection & Action Sprint and a range of sample forms and templates are included that you can use and adapt for your own local needs. As many elements of a Connections & Action Sprint are similar to a Point-in-Time Count (e.g. forming a leadership team, recruiting and training volunteers, surveying, analyzing data, etc.), the Connection & Action Sprint Toolkit also includes information on Point-in-Time Counts to which you can simply include another step – build in a consent to add people to your By-Name Data. For further information, check out this June 28, 2024 – Adding a Connection and Action Sprint to a PiT Count – Recording and PDF.

2024 PiT Count

Everyone Counts 2024, the fourth nationally-coordinated Point-in-Time (PiT) Count, is set to take place between October 1 and November 30, 2024. The PiT Count is used to estimate the number of people experiencing homelessness in a community on a single night, and is accompanied by a survey that helps communities to better understand who is affected by homelessness and their experiences. Conducted over subsequent years, PiT Counts help communities track progress in reducing homelessness and identify changes in the population over time where people are staying overnight.

To support data collection, the PiT Count module in HIFIS 4 and HIFIS Lite, a version of HIFIS where only the PiT Count module is enabled, are available. For step-by-step instructions on how to navigate the PiT Count module in HIFIS, consult the HIFIS 4 Point-in-Time Count Module User Guide. Contact the HIFIS Client Support Centre at support@hifis.ca for more information.

Information about the 2024 PiT Count can be found on the HICC website. If you are new to the counts, check out the PiT-Kit 2024 for a high-level overview of the project and links to key resources. Other new or updated resources and tools are being shared on the Homelessness Learning Hub every week.

Communities who participate in the counts this fall and share their data with HICC, will be helping to build a more comprehensive understanding of homelessness in Canada. Join in the fall because every community counts! If you have any questions about the PiT Count or how to participate, please contact the PiT Team at hpd.data-donnees.dpmi@infc.gc.ca.

The Toolkit

The toolkit contains a variety of printable and editable files in various formats. All documents mentioned in each section can be found in the “Downloads” area at the bottom of each page. You may also find it helpful to refer to Australia’s Registry Week Toolkit.

  1. Getting Started
    In this section, you will find materials and resource that will help you understand the scope of what a Connection and Action Sprint entails and plan for each step in the process.
  2. Building a Strong Local Team
    The documents listed in this section should give you a good sense of who should be involved in your Connection and Action Sprint and how you can effectively work together.
  3. Clarifying Your Demand
    There are steps that can be taken to estimate the number of people experiencing homelessness in your community and the types of resources and supports they need. This section of the Toolkit is around clarifying that demand.
  4. Volunteers: Planning and Recruitment
    In this section of the Toolkit, you’ll find a wealth or materials that will help you with the entire process of recruiting and managing volunteers during your Connection and Action Sprint.
  5. Mapping Survey Locations
    This section of the Toolkit provides you with examples of what some communities have done to map survey locations during their Connection and Action Sprint.
  6. Budgets and Supplies
    There are a variety of costs and supplies that you will need to make this Connection and Action Sprint a successful initiative, and this section of the Toolkit contains a few sample budgets that you can reference from other communities that have done Registry Weeks.
  1. Lining Up Housing
    Learn how to work on lining up a supply of housing, supports and resources to meet the demand in your community.
  2. Training
    Advice on training your volunteers on conducting the survey prior to a Connection and Action Sprint.
  3. Data
    This section outlines how to capture individual, line-by-line data of your survey respondents and considerations for displaying and reporting the data.
  4. Headquarters
    This section of the Toolkit provides resources for you to create a central headquarters for the Connection and Action Sprint volunteers and activity coordination.
  5. Survey Packets
    All teams that will be doing surveying will need a variety of materials. This section of the Toolkit provides you with a list of helpful items to put in these survey packets.
  6. Community Debrief
    A powerful component of the Connection and Action Sprint will be your community’s ability to share the results of surveying your neighbors experiencing homelessness and to set the stage for the next steps to end homelessness in your community.

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