Homelessness ABCs

Local Policy

Older Adults & Homelessness

Outreach

Partner Roundtable

Peer Integration

Shared Housing

State Policy

USICH

Wild West

Workforce Development

2023 Best Practices Conference 

Session Descriptions & Speaker Bios

Improving Assistance to Older Adults: Exploring ageism, dementia, and care 

Session Speakers: Mathew Jones, Senior Connections and Annie Rhodes, VCU Gerontology 

Session Time: 9am

Session Location: Shenandoah Salon A 

Session Description: Assisting older adults experiencing homelessness requires a different set of skills and support than most homeless providers typically provide. Existing shelter structures or program elements can force older adults and people with disabilities often to remain in unsafe environments, leaving one of the most vulnerable populations exposed. This workshop will start a discussion about ways providers offer specialized support to older adults experiencing homelessness through reflecting on ageism and how we interact with older adults; walking through differences between depression, dementia, and delusion; and policies and protocols that may improve care. 

All In: The Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness 

Session Speakers: Nichele Carver and Erika Jones-Haskins, USICH 

Session Time: 9am

Session Location: Shenandoah Salon B 

Session Description: This session will explore “All In”, a multi-year, interagency roadmap for a future when no one experiences the tragedy and indignity of homelessness—and everyone has a safe, stable, accessible, and affordable home. All In sets an ambitious goal to reduce homelessness 25% by 2025 and encourages state and local governments to use the plan as a blueprint for developing their own strategic plans and for setting their own ambitious goals for 2025. The plan is built around six pillars: three foundations—equity, data and evidence, and collaboration—and three solutions—housing and supports, crisis response, and prevention. 

Nothing about us without us: Opportunities & Challenges of Integrating Professional Peers into Services 

Session Speaker: Tom Bannard, Virginia Commonwealth University 

Session Time: 9am

Session Location: Shenandoah Salon C 

Session Description: In 2016, the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services created a certification process for peers with lived experience with mental health or substance use disorders or their family members. While the certification process largely was focused on integration of peers in reimbursable, clinical services, there has been broad expansion and integration of professional peers into numerous other non-clinical settings. This session will explore the Professional Peer Movement in Virginia, the certification process for Peer Recovery Specialists, the opportunities presented by the professionalization of peers and the challenges for implementation. The conversation will also explore ways to support and elevate peers in your organization, the specific challenges peers may face within and outside of organizations and will explore some of the peer-based initiatives gaining momentum in Virginia. 

The ABC’s of Ending Homelessness  

Session Speakers: Homeward 

Session Time: 9am

Session Location: Blue Ridge Salon DE 

Session Description: Homelessness is a serious problem. Our community is using many tools to combat it. This session is ideal for those new to homeless services and will examine tools and strategies used to end homelessness in our community. 

Connections to Education, Workforce, and the Economy 

Session Speakers: Brian Davis, Capital Region Workforce Partnership, Anna Danese, Community College Workforce Alliance, Danielle Bailey, Equus Works, and Dr. Jeffrey A. Elmore, Richmond Public Schools 

Session Time: 10:30am

Session Location: Shenandoah Salon A 

Session Description: Securing stable housing typically happens though stable, living-wage employment. This interactive panel discussion will first provide an overview of key labor market data for the Capital Region. This data provides the context for how the public workforce system works to ensure that strategies and services are aligned to the needs of industries and occupations most likely to have job opportunities at sustainable wages. Next you will hear from key educational partners and workforce providers who will describe the various resources that are available to advance individuals on a career pathway. At the conclusion, the floor will be yours to share your insights and ideas on how our two service systems can better connect for the benefit of our shared interest in the economic well-being of those we serve. 

Shared Housing: Expanding Housing Options 

Session Speakers: Todd Walker, Judeo-Christian Outreach Center 

Session Time: 10:30am

Session Location: Shenandoah Salon B 

Session Description: Systems commonly have limited resources to rehouse people. Shared housing can help. In this session, learn about the benefits of shared housing on both an individual and systemic level. Presenter will share tools and models to help implement shared housing in your organization including successful strategies to implement and landlord engagement will be discussed. 

Increasing access to housing through State and Local Policy   

Session Speakers: Jovan Burton, Partnership for Housing Affordability, and Brian Kozol, Virginia Housing Alliance 

Session Time: 10:30am

Session Location: Shenandoah Salon C 

Session Description: With a growing population, rising costs, and lack of funding, the greater Richmond region has a shortage of roughly 39,000 affordable homes. We need both long-term strategies to build a lot more housing and address short term interventions. This panel will explore regional and state-level policy solutions and how to support affordable housing efforts for individuals and families experiencing homelessness. 

Learning from other communities: Q&A with out of state speakers   

Session Speakers: Jon Decarmine, Grace Market Place and Ross Schaefer, Flagstaff Shelter Services 

Session Time: 10:30 am

Session Location: Blue Ridge Salon DE 

Session Description: This Q&A session is with two experienced providers working in housing-first outreach, shelter programs in Florida and Arizona. Through their daily work on the streets and in shelters, they have gained unique insights into the challenges faced by individuals experiencing homelessness and the strategies that can be effective in helping them. Our panelists will answer questions and share their perspectives. 

Improv for Wellness 

Session Speaker: Elizabeth Byland, VCU Arts 

Session Time: 1:45pm

Session Location: Shenandoah Salon A 

Session Description: Improv for Wellness is an Arts Wellness & Performance Technique using Improvisation as groundworks to help people uncover their creativity, cultivate awareness & self-worth, and learn to love their unique identity, all while learning the tenets of Improv. This session will combine wellness practices, improvisation, and theatre techniques to empower participants’ mind, body, and spirit. No performance experience is ever necessary. 

Housing-focused Coordinated outreach   

Session Speaker: Jon Decarmine, Grace Market Place, Florida 

Session Time: 1:45pm

Session Location: Shenandoah Salon B 

Session Description: People experiencing unsheltered homelessness are especially vulnerable. Grace Market Place in Florida has stood up effective outreach coordination infrastructure. This session will share how Grace has shifted existing outreach teams to a housing focused model. 

Lessons from the Wild West of homeless services 

Session Speaker: Ross Schaefer, Flagstaff Shelter Services, Arizona 

Session Time: 1:45pm

Session Location: Shenandoah Salon C 

Session Description: When Ross left Richmond to become executive director of a shelter in Flagstaff, AZ, she entered a different world. She worked within her community to build coordinated entry and a housing-first approach. The pandemic caused a need for more changes. Now her organization is considering equity of their indigenous neighbors and using the one-time funds to build affordable housing from hotels. This session is a story of thinking creatively with the resources we have available to us in order to make the biggest impact. 

Partner Round Table Discussions 

Session Speakers: 

Session Time: 1:45

Session Location: Blue Ridge Salon DE 

Session Description: Our community is filled with incredibly knowledge individuals. This roundtable discussion aims to foster collaboration and shared learning among community partners serving individuals and families experiencing homelessness. Through a facilitated discussion, participants can identify gaps in services and resources, share best practices and innovative solutions, and explore opportunities for collaboration and joint advocacy efforts. 

Speaker Bios 

Danielle Bailey is an experienced Project Manager who has demonstrated success in working directly with customers, staff and partner agencies in various contexts. She currently serves as the Project Director at EQUUS Workforce Solutions. Through several years of experience working with at-risk youth and adult populations in education and workforce development capacities, accomplishments have been made in both formal and administrative settings. Strategic in implementing new ideas and services to the population at hand and is well-organized and efficient in accomplishing performance goals to achieve and/or maintain the prosperity of any given project. 

Tom Bannard (he/him/his), CADC, CPRSS, MBA, is the Associate Director for Substance Use and Recovery Support at Virginia Commonwealth University. Tom is a Certified Alcohol Drug Counselor and a Certified Peer Recovery Support Specialist. A person in long-term recovery, Tom is passionate about changing the way we treat substance use and firmly believes that we must improve our systems of care by focusing on long-term recovery supports, allowing easier access to treatment and recovery resources, educating and supporting family members, and reducing stigma around substance use. 

 
Tom directs Rams in Recovery, the largest Collegiate Recovery Program in Virginia and oversees an expansion grant through the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services to expand recovery supports at 9 schools in the Commonwealth to expand Collegiate Recovery Supports. Tom loves to help people in recovery find purpose and passion in their career paths and especially enjoys teaching and expanding the peer recovery workforce and profession. Tom spent the first 7 years of his career working with people experiencing homelessness at CARITAS. Tom lives in Richmond with his partner Julz, his daughter Inez, and his dog Murphy, and reluctantly shares a dwelling with Julz’s worm farm. 

Jovan Burton is the Executive Director for the Partnership for Housing Affordability, a nonprofit focused on creating greater access to housing opportunity through policy, research, and collaboration. In this role, Mr. Burton works with local governments, developers, community groups, and key stakeholders to advance housing policy and educate decision makers on the region’s needs. He also launched and helps direct the Housing Resource Line, a phone based program that serves over 7,000 residents annually and is currently administering the PDC Housing Program grant for Richmond, which has allocated $3 million to help produce 270 units of affordable housing over the next three years. 

Mr. Burton serves on the board of directors for Housing Families First, Area Congregations Together in Service, and Vice Chair of the Greater Richmond Continuum of Care. Additionally, he is a participant in the Valentine Museum’s Immersion Trustee program. He is also a member of Greater Richmond’s African American Nonprofit Leaders Collective, the Amandla Fund for Racial & Economic Justice, and Virginia Commonwealth University’s Real Estate Circle of Excellence. 

Mr. Burton is a graduate of Hampden-Sydney College with a bachelor’s degree in government and foreign affairs and has a master’s degree in public administration from the Douglas L. Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs at Virginia Commonwealth University. 

Elizabeth Byland has a joint position as Professor of Improv with VCUArts and Director of Applied Health Improv with Center for Interprofessional Education and Collaborative Care at VCU. 

Nichele Carver has 26 years of experience leading teams in the mental health and homeless services sector. She led Virginia’s homeless services system through the COVID-19 pandemic and ensured access to safe shelter for people experiencing homelessness during the implementation of stay-at-home orders. During her tenure, Virginia decreased overall homelessness by 34% and was the first state to functionally end veteran’s homelessness. Nichele previously served as the co-chair of the Council of State Community Development Agencies’ national homeless committee, is a nationally recognized speaker on racial equity, and is committed to uplifting the voices of people with lived expertise. She was named one of the Virginia housing field's top 40 under 40. She has a bachelor's in psychology from Virginia State University and a master's in rehabilitation counseling from Virginia Commonwealth University. 

Anna Danese has worked in the non-profit sector for 18 years, and has served on the Board of Directors for three community-based organizations and one statewide collaborative. She served as the Director of Mortgage and Family Services for both the Richmond and New Orleans Habitat for Humanity affiliates for a combined total of 12 years (2006-2018). In New Orleans, she led a staff that qualified hundreds of clients to become first time homebuyers in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Anna served as the Director of Workforce Partnerships with United Way of Greater Richmond and Petersburg (UWGRP) for 3 years. In this role, through a collective impact model, she backboned a regional collaborative of over 45 workforce development and wrap around service organizations. Primarily serving clients with barriers to employment, the collaborative is focused on partnerships, streamlining referral mechanisms, and professional development opportunities for members. Anna represented UWGRP as a core member of the WorkforceCoalitionRVA that implemented a new technology platform in the region called Network2WorkRVA in fall of 2021. In February 2023 Anna moved to the Community College Workforce Alliance to become the first Director of Network2WorkRVA. Anna has a passion for collaboration, connecting resources to needs, empowerment through education, and intentional strategies to address inequities in the region 

Brian Davis serves as the Executive Director of the Capital Region Workforce Partnership, a position he has held since 2014. In this role, he has oversight of a $5 million annual budget that supports workforce development solutions for job seekers and employers in the greater Richmond area. He has over 25 years of local and state planning and policy experience, with more than 15 years focused on workforce development systems and programs.
Other professional highlights include serving as a workforce development specialist in the office of Virginia Governor Tim Kaine, Special Assistant to the Vice Chancellor for Workforce Development at the Virginia Community College System and Workforce Development Director for Virginia’s Central Region in the Lynchburg area. 

He serves as Co-Chair of WorkforceCoalitionRVA, Vice Chairman of the Virginia Association of Workforce Directors and is member of the Greater Richmond Continuum of Care. 

Jon DeCarmine has more than 20 years of experience developing, implementing, and improving services to people without housing. He has provided training and workshops for a wide range of agencies and organizations, including the National Alliance to End Homelessness, the Canadian Shelter Transformation Network (with OrgCode Consulting), the U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services, the Florida Coalition to End Homelessness, the Florida Association of Counties, the Florida Free Speech Forum, the Southern Conference on Homelessness and Housing, and others. Jon has led the team at GRACE, a low-barrier shelter and homeless assistance campus, since starting the program in 2014, leading to a 47% reduction in local homelessness and a 69% reduction in unsheltered homelessness. In 2019, Jon developed the nation’s first housing-focused safe camp as part of the closure of Dignity Village, a project that has been recognized as an emerging best practice by the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty’s Housing Not Handcuffs campaign and the National Alliance to End Homelessness. At GRACE, he oversees emergency and permanent housing programs, street outreach, strategic planning, and visioning. His work is guided by two core principles — that everyone deserves a safe place to call home, and that the idea of human beings sleeping on our streets is not “normal,” but rather an unacceptable indication of policy failures and broken systems. 

Dr. Jefferey A. Elmore has worked in adult education since 1995, serving in many different roles. He began as an English as a Second Language instructor in South Korea and then transitioned to teaching GED in a state women's prison here in Virginia. Following that, he provided professional development for adult educators throughout Virginia, and is now the Regional Program Manager for the Capital Region Adult Education Program. 

Matthew Jones is the Director of Service Coordination at Senior Connections, The Capital Area Agency on Aging. He has a demonstrated history of working in the non-profit organization management industry. Skilled in Nonprofit Organizations, Grant Writing and Management, Data Analysis, Program and Volunteer Management. He earned his Master of Social Work (M.S.W.) from Virginia Commonwealth University. 

Erika Jones-Haskins (she/her) is Acting Director for Policy Initiatives for the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH). Prior to joining USICH, she served as the Program Manager at the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Service’s Individual and Family Support Program. She has more than 20 years of experience working in human services, housing, program design, and evaluation. Her prior experiences include serving as the Special Needs Housing Officer for Virginia Housing, working for Richmond, Virginia Continuum of Care as the Director of Program Initiatives, supporting Virginia Department of Health’s Tobacco Control and Comprehensive Cancer Projects as the Project Evaluator, and working as a program analyst for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service. Erika has a M.S.W. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a B.A. in Government from the University of Virginia. 

Brian Koziol has been with the Virginia Housing Alliance since the fall of 2019. Prior to joining VHA, he was the Director of Policy and Research with Housing Opportunities Made of VA. Brian has worked on a variety of housing-related issues both as a researcher and as a consultant to local governments across the country helping them to advance equitable housing policy. Brian holds a master’s degree in Urban and Regional Planning from Virginia Commonwealth University and resides in the Northside of Richmond. Contact Brian at brian@vahousingalliance.org 

Dana Newcomer is the Associate Vice President of Sector Strategies and Training Programs for the Community College Workforce Alliance, the workforce development division of J. Sargeant Reynolds and Brightpoint Community Colleges. As a Certified Project Management Professional, she strategically guides her teams to build robust, affordable, and flexible educational pathways for jobseekers to gain skills and credentials that serve as a runway to obtaining family-sustaining careers. As the President of the Hopewell/Prince George Chamber, and a partner to economic development organizations and workforce development boards, she is experienced in collaborating with businesses and community organizations to develop workforce solutions and talent pipelines for in-demand jobs in the region, as well as evolving programs to better support students and to remove barriers to their success as they prepare to enter the workforce. Dana has demonstrated success in program and grant management, including multimillion-dollar initiatives focused on work-based learning and supporting minority and at-risk populations. Prior to joining the workforce development profession, she was a Career and Technical Education Teacher for 14 years, guiding and developing our youth to enter the workforce as well. Dana is passionate about helping others better position themselves to grow their professional selves and to live a healthier life. 

Annie Rhodes is the brain health triage coordinator for the Richmond Brain Health Institute. She also is an instructor in the Master's program and research analyst for The Virginia Center on Aging. She has been awarded for her work in inclusive gerontology, is a 2018 age wave scholar, and a 2021 "VCU ten under ten" honoree. She currently serves as the chairperson for the public policy and advocacy committee for Southern Gerontological Society. 

Ross Schaefer was born and raised in Richmond, Virginia where she watched her mother serve as the Executive Director for a homeless services organization for 17 years called Pennies for Heaven. After completing her undergraduate degree at Virginia Commonwealth University, Ross completed a two-term role as an AmeriCorps program director in Chicago, IL working with children experiencing homelessness. Since then, Ross has served as the Executive Director for multiple non-profits serving individuals and families experiencing homelessness including Housing Families First and since 2014, has served in this role at Flagstaff Shelter Services. At each agency, she has prioritized housing as the solution to homelessness for thousands of vulnerable neighbors. 

Virginia Housing Coalition named Ross as one of the top 40 under 40 in Housing in Virginia. Additionally, Ross was chosen by The Greater Richmond Community Foundation as a recipient of the Stettinius Awards for Nonprofit Leadership. The Flagstaff Chamber of Commerce and the Arizona Daily Sun named Ross one of 2017’s Top 20 Under 40 and Northern Arizona University gave Ross the 2021 Community Award for the Commission on Status of Women. Most recently in 2023, Ross received the ATHENA Award from the Flagstaff Chamber of Commerce. 

Ross serves on the City of Flagstaff’s Housing Commission, serves on the Board of Directors for the Southwest Fair Housing Council, co-chair for the Coconino County Continuum of Care, and a member of the Arizona Balance of State Governance Advisory Board. Ross is also currently working to get her Masters in Business Administration at University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill - Kenan Flagler Business School. 

Todd Walker is a true believer in the Housing First philosophy. His goal for the Judeo-Christian Outreach Center (JCOC) is clear -- eliminate hunger and homelessness in Virginia Beach; tackle recidivism; and ensure homelessness is rare, brief, and non-recurring. 

Walker began leading JCOC as Executive Director in 2012. He soon started implementing evidence-based practices to make emergency shelter, transitional housing and permanent supportive housing programs more client-centered and housing focused to address each individual’s barriers. In 2014, JCOC began to utilize a shared housing model within their rapid rehousing initiatives to make housing options more affordable, establish a housing path for individuals with no income and create more client movement in the housing response system. All of JCOC’s Housing Programs incorporate Housing First strategies and help equip clients with tools to become productive citizens in the community long term. JCOC also facilitates hunger relief programs, including a daily community dinner and food pantry. 

Having served in leadership positions for the past 25 years, Walker’s experiences include working in the areas of substance abuse, mental health, juvenile and adult corrections, and homelessness. Walker holds a bachelor's degree in criminal justice from Indiana University (Bloomington) and a Master of Public Administration degree from Troy University. Walker was named the Daniel M. Stone Humanitarian of the Year in 2018 by the Virginia Beach Human Rights Commission and JCOC was named Non-Profit of the Year by the Hampton Roads Chamber in 2022.