Annual Homelessness Conference Honors Advocates

Each year, homeless providers from around the state nominate staff members to receive awards from the Department of Commerce (Commerce) acknowledging their hard work and dedication to Homeless Services. Those awards were presented at the 2009 Wisconsin Conference on Homelessness on Tuesday, July 21 at the Madison Marriot West, Middleton where 328 homeless services professionals gathered.

This year's recipients were thanked for their dedication to help better the lives of Wisconsin's homeless population and for being exemplary examples to others in their profession by Commerce Secretary Richard J. Leinenkugel who spoke at the conference luncheon.

"You make our homeless providers circle strong," said Secretary Leinenkugel. "Thank you for making a difference in the lives of citizens around Wisconsin."

The award categories include:

• Outstanding Homeless Advocate
• Exceptional Homeless Services Provider
• Successful Program Implementer
• HMIS Expert and Trendsetter
• Innovative Service Provider

2009 Award Winners :

Outstanding Homeless Advocate
Justin Kasdorf, Eligibilty Manager, Shalom Center in Kenosha
Justin has continually demonstrated an intense concern and has actively reached out beyond the call of duty for the well-being of the homeless clients served by the Shalom Center's nightly community homeless shelter program.

His personal commitment on the job is evidenced by his attention to clients' needs and progress; as well as his role as ServicePoint data entry lead for the program.

His personal commitment is visible in the community as being instrumental in the new collaborative community advocacy program, Strengthening Humanity Network.

Justin has also personally visited local homeless sites, for the Fall 2008 Point-in-Time survey, interviewing homeless people and developing a presentation to share with others interested in serving the homeless in Kenosha.

Outstanding Homeless Advocate
Jeanne Lowry, Community Advocates - Milwaukee
Jeanne Lowry has devoted her career to caring for to others in community mental health. Currently, she is Program Manager of Homeless Outreach and Behavioral Health for Community Advocates. She has worked with persons in the Milwaukee area for 20 years dealing with mental health and homeless clients. As the first nurse hired by the American Red Cross of Southeastern WI to assist the homeless with mental health concerns, she provided direct services to those in local shelters.

Jeanne is involved with several professional organizations including the American Nurses Association, American Psychiatric Nurses Association and the National Health Care for the Homeless Clinicians Network. She is active with multiple community organizations and projects."

Jeanne has been working with the PATH grant since 1989 and during that time she has served thousands of individuals who are homeless and have mental health challenges. Jeanne has seen the PATH grant evolve and change and she has been right there with it, making adjustments and doing what needs to be done in order to keep serving the homeless population in Milwaukee. Jeanne has always been a strong advocate in her community and within the Behavioral Health Division.

Exceptional Homeless Services Provider
Patrice Sims, PATH Case Manager, Health Care for the Homeless – Milwaukee (HCHM)
Patrice has been an employee of Health Care for the Homeless for eight years. She started working at HCHM in the HAP program (Homeless Assistance Program). HAP was funded by PATH. HAP was designed to be long-term case management for people that were homeless and mentally ill, that could not get services through the mainstream Milwaukee County Behavioral Health Center.

Patrice began her career with little experience and a lot of determination. Over the years she has grown to be the agency's "veteran" case manager who knows more about the resources available than any one else. When the PATH funding stated that the agency could no longer use the funding to do long-term case management, Patrice was right there to volunteer to transfer over to the new PATH program. Patrice was so flexible in changing her work style from long-term case management to doing homeless outreach and short-term case management.

When few at the agency really knew how to do "outreach", it was Patrice who was the first to venture out to Mitchell Park and start engaging with clients who were living there. Her nominator stated that while Patrice does not have a degree, she's learned everything from experience. She is a single mother with three children who has persevered to be a successful,l professional, working mother. Patrice is well liked and respected by her clients and her co-workers.

Successful Program Implementer
Kim Cable, Homeless and Family Services Department Director, Couleecap, Inc.
During her four-year tenure as the director for the Homeless and Family Services Department at Couleecap, Inc., Kim Cable inspires her co-workers with her passion for helping the homeless Since her short time at Couleecap, the numbers of programs in her department have increased dramatically. Kim assists the grant planning and writing department, completes budgets, manages employees and programs and takes a leadership role in the community as an advocate for the homeless. This was apparent when she led the effort to coordinate a Tenant Based Rental Assistance Program between many La Crosse area agencies several years ago.

Kim continues to take the lead as one of the faces behind the first-ever Homeless Coalition in La Crosse, which piloted an annual Homelessness Awareness Event. Thanks to her initiative on making Couleecap the fiscal agent for the Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program grant application, all partnering agencies in La Crosse, Crawford, Vernon and Monroe counties will be receiving funding for the next two years. This additional assistance means that the area's struggling low-income families will be able to obtain, maintain and stabilize safe housing.

Note her colleagues, "Kim's passion and unbelievable work ethic inspire us and give our clients hope." Kim is widely known for her vast knowledge, spirited activism and high standard of excellence.

Kim oversees the following programs at Couleecap: Supportive Housing, Homeless Prevention, Tenant Based Rental Assistance Social Security Outreach Access and Recovery, Work-n-Wheels and Substance Abuse Prevention. She is a "mobilizer" and a poverty-fighter, she shows the impact a person with passion and expertise can bring to an agency.

Not only is she an advocate on the job, but also at home. She provides respite for a local family and describes her weekend visitor, a gentleman with developmental disabilities, as more like "a brother."

HMIS Expert and Trendsetter
Nina Dunkerson, HALO, Racine
Two years ago Nina knew nothing about homelessness or the HMIS system called Service Point. She was hired at HALO to work as their data collection coordinator. Nina not only learned the whole system but was so gifted in what she learned that she freely shared her newly-acquired knowledge and expertise with others in the coalition.
Within a year, HALO managers asked the state if Nina could be our CoC group administrator. She has now worked in that position for over a year and has increased the number of agencies using Service Point as well as hold trainings so all agencies better understand the system.

Nina also created the proposal and was awarded the grant for HALO to work on SkanPoint. She is now working on reporting tools through Service Point that will be able to be used for United Way outcomes reporting in the Racine community. Nina is extremely knowledgeable, very professional and capable, always willing to help anyone in need and always looking for creative ways to collect and report data. It was a unanimous vote at the Homeless Assistance Coalition meeting to nominate Nina for this award.

Innovative Service Provider
Candice Amil, Hope House Milwaukee
When Candice came to Hope House of Milwaukee in early 2008 she had big shoes to fill. She was taking over the role of Provider Group Administrator for the Milwaukee Continuum of Care from Nancy Monarrez, who herself had done a terrific job of improving the use of HMIS in Milwaukee. With no background in homeless programs or in HMIS, Candice was forced to quickly learn all of the rules and requirements of HMIS.

Candice has demonstrated an aptitude for the role. During her tenure, all of Milwaukee's SHP and state funded homeless programs have maintained their compliance with HMIS rules, often far exceeding the minimum requirements. Candice has trained the Milwaukee agencies so well that there has been only a handful of instances when there has been a need for Commerce HMIS staff to respond to questions or provide assistance to Milwaukee HMIS users.

Thanks to Candice's efforts, Milwaukee is able to participate in the Annual Homeless Assessment Report, or AHAR, for the first time in 2008. Candice has even provided her knowledge and skills to the state as a whole by agreeing to present at numerous statewide HMIS meetings.

-- Melisa Perez & Barbro McGinn