Homelessness 101 is a series of trainings covering essential material needed for working in homelessness and supportive housing. It is best suited for staff who are newer to the field or for staff looking for refreshers on best practices. Currently, the six modules included are: Principles of Housing First & Harm Reduction, History of Homelessness, Client Engagement, Boundaries & Ethics, Trauma Informed Care and Cultural Awareness. We believe that these six trainings cover content every person in the field should have for a basic understanding as we work towards the goal of preventing and ending homelessness.  

Homelessness 101 will be offered 2-3 times a year utilizing Zoom at this time.

When able to be in person, we offer 2 models:

MODEL 1: 2 consecutive days of training (3 modules per day).  This model requires attendance at both days.  This training will take place in the 2nd and 4th quarters of the year.

MODEL 2: 3 –  1/2 days (One 1/2 day per month)  This model may be signed up for 1, 2 or all 3 days as fits your schedule.  If you would like to experience the full 101 series, we recommend registering for all 3 days.  This training will take place in the 1st quarter of the year.

  • History of Homelessness will examine the socio-economic and political factors that cause homelessness, as well as attitudes and responses toward people experiencing homelessness through several major periods of history.
  • Maintaining professionalism and healthy personal boundaries are critical if you want to do good work, avoid burnout, and really help empower your clients to achieve their goals. Boundaries & Ethics will address some of the most common ethical challenges you might face when working with people who experience homelessness, and will use real-life scenarios to challenge your thinking about this topic.
  • Client Engagement will cover basic tools and strategies for engagement, including motivational interviewing and the stages of change as this can be one of the most difficult tasks when working with people experiencing homelessness, especially when increasingly program services are voluntary
  • Trauma informed Care has become a bit of a cliché and many funders are requiring a “Trauma Informed Approach” but what is it really? This workshop takes a look at Trauma Informed Care from the perspective of someone who has experienced a traumatic event and then dives deeper into the psychology of trauma and recovery.
  • Principles of Housing First & Harm Reduction: Harm Reduction is a best practice approach to quickly and successfully connect individuals and families experiencing homelessness to permanent housing without preconditions and barriers to entry, such as sobriety, treatment or service participation requirements. Housing First is also a philosophy that shapes the crisis response system and Coordinated Entry and is important knowledge for everyone, not just those working in Housing First programs. In this training we discuss the overlapping principles of these two strategies and how they fit into supportive housing programs.
  • Cultural Awareness 101: Cultural awareness is defined as a set of behaviors and attitudes that enable you to work effectively in multicultural situations. Cultural awareness is achieved by developing skills and practices important in cross cultural interactions and using knowledge about individuals and groups to create practices and policies to create an inclusive environment. This course was created to help individuals become more inclusive and self-aware by providing discussion, experiential activities and real-world examples that will enable them to implement change, by taking a deeper look at others as well as themselves. This workshop offers the knowledge and skills needed to enable us to recognize, respond to, and redress conditions that deny some people access to housing and other opportunities enjoyed by their peers. This workshop was constructed with an acknowledgement of both the strengths and limitations of existing frameworks for engaging the full diversity of program participants. Objectives:
  • Understand the Definition of Diversity, Culture, Equity, & Inclusion
  • Understand how diversity dimensions shape workplace identity
  • Learn practical tips for inclusion across cultures

Upcoming Dates:

We don’t want cost to be a barrier for anyone to access quality training. Please contact Michele at events@mesh-mn.org for scholarship and membership questions.  MESH membership allows discounted pricing for all MESH trainings.  Click HERE to join MESH.