Updated

Rotary Club of Halifax Northwest Honours CAH's Claudia Jahn with their highest honour !

Claudia Jahn, Program Director at CAH, will be be recognized and honoured at tonight's annual charter dinner of the Rotary Club of Halifax Northwest with a Paul Harris Fellowship. Paul Harris was the founder of the Rotary movement, and the Fellowship is the highest honour that a club can award.

The fellowship is awarded to those who have shown outstanding service in their community within the principles of Rotary International. Claudia is recognized for her passion, leadership and outstanding work on homelessness initiatives.
Rotary International is the world's oldest organization of service clubs, with nearly 33,000 clubs in more than 200 countries and geographical areas.

Rotary is an opportunity to fund and implement a broad spectrum of charitable projects in their community and abroad. Members provide humanitarian service, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations and help build goodwill and peace throughout the world.

Exciting News! The NS Housing & Homelessness Network's Interactive Web-based Communication Tool

The NS Housing and Homelessness Network’s interactive web based communication tool. Please check it out at www.nshousingnetwork.org/blog.

Stay connected, share your ideas, thoughts and expertise on housing & homelessness issues. Offer your help, ask questions and find solutions, tell us about your projects, and receive the latest updates on your Network.

We are looking forward to hearing from all our partners from across the province.

With kind regards,
Claudia Jahn
NS Housing & Homelessness Network

Homelessness and Housing Stragegy for Nova Scotia Raised in the Legislature

Kelly Regan, MLA for Bedford-Birch Cove, and Official Opposition critic for Community Services and Housing, met recently with Claudia Jahn from the NS Housing & Homelessness Network. As a result of that meeting, Ms. Regan raised the issue of a homelessness and housing strategy in the Legislature on April 4th.

Read the full Hansard text: http://t.co/tK2JcKUk

New Report from The Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness

CAEH has released their Report, ‘A Plan, Not a Dream: How to End Homelessness in Ten Years’, aiming to start a national movement to end homelessness in Canada.

The CAEH will champion an end to homelessness in Canada by mobilizing communities and governments across the country to develop and implement their own 10 Year Plans to End Homelessness (10 Year Plans).

As a partner of the Canadian Alliance of Ending Homelessness, CAH endorses this plan as it is in line with local efforts to develop a strategic plan to end homelessness in Nova Scotia.

Download the Report.

“Progress Women of Excellence Award” - Claudia Jahn, Program Director at CAH !

Honouring inspirational and accomplished women leaders of our community, the awards and fundraising event is the only one of its kind in Eastern Canada.

Now in its 22nd year, it has raised more than $1 million. Proceeds of the event support the Phoenix, a long-term shelter for homeless and at-risk youth as well as other local charities.

Claudia exemplifies excellence in developing and implementing strategies to address homelessness in Halifax and across Nova Scotia. Having a place to call home is one of the cornerstones to both individual health and community wellness, and Claudia consistently works to address the many barriers faced by those in precarious housing.

Over the last two years, Claudia has been pivotal in convening and working with a small group of service providers, researchers and private partners to develop the Partners in Affordable Housing Taskforce. As a result of Claudia’s work, the Taskforce was able to share their presentation and analysis with relevant private and public partners, resulting in new investments in supportive housing. The strategy includes a $400,000 investment by the Department of Community Services to hire seven new housing workers to help shelter users transition into housing.

Claudia has also been a key player in spearheading the Nova Scotia Housing and Homelessness Network (NSHHN). The Network seeks to coordinate efforts being made across the province to address housing and homelessness concerns and work with key government and business partners to effectively meet housing needs.

In 2009, under Claudia’s leadership, Community Action on Homelessness released the first ever report on Health and Homelessness: A Report on the Health Status of Halifax’s Homeless Population. This report, combined with the annual Halifax Report Card on Homelessness, has been a key piece of research that has helped shaped policy and the development of better health related supports for homeless individuals.

Claudia has also been a member of the Palliative Care committee, seeking humane and appropriate palliative supports for homeless individuals.

Recently, Claudia has joined the Board of Directors of Hope Cottage. With Claudia’s input, work is currently underway to consider a new building that houses a hospice, convalescence space, controlled alcohol consumption site and harm reduction units.

With optimism and a keen ability to bring together those needed to make change, Claudia extends the same degree of respect and genuine care to all stakeholders, whether those experiencing homelessness or government policy experts.

2011-2014 Homelessness Partnering Strategy (HPS) Community Plan for HRM

Greetings,
The Community Advisory Board (CAB) is very pleased to be able to launch the 2011-2014 Homelessness Partnering Strategy (HPS) Community Plan for HRM after it received ministerial approved by the Honourable Minister Diane Finley.

The Plan identifies the existing conditions, gaps and priority areas in HRM as identified by stakeholders through an extensive and inclusive community consultation process. From this process and housing and homelessness related data analysis, ten key issues emerged which formed the basis of the final priorities:

Supportive housing for homeless individuals and families
Renovations to ageing shelters and service providers' spaces
Community coordination and partnership development
Housing placement and housing retention for youth, individuals and families

Affordable Housing Association of Nova Scotia (AHANS)

Report Release

'Housing Nova Scotians: A Fresh Look'

June 27/11: In 2009-2010, AHANS undertook a consultation process in eight provincial communities, Halifax, Sydney, Yarmouth, Dartmouth, Bridgewater, Kentville/Wolfville, Truro and Antigonish.

AHANS gathered anecdotal evidence of the considerable hardships encountered by housing consumers in their real life struggles to find and retain affordable housing. We also heard from the stakeholders directly involved in the delivery of housing across the province, thereby establishing the specific elements of a more effective and broadly inclusive housing policymaking and delivery process that would inform the development of a Housing Strategy.

The data collected at these roundtables resulted in a report, titled: ' Housing Nova Scotians: A Fresh Look'. Download a Summary of the Report.

With our release event and press conference in Halifax on June 27th, we have now finished reporting back to the communities with whom we consulted in the fall/winter of 2009/10. Our advertised purpose at the time was that we would want to hear back from those we were consulting to make sure we had their stories straight. We have also been concerned whether our respondents would be comfortable with our 'spin' and recommendations. We promised to alter the final document if we had it wrong in any respect. As it has turned out, alterations have proven unnecessary.

Happily, most if not all of our reporting-back sessions were better attended than our first round meetings. They were certainly no less enthusiastic and were every bit as lively and informative. Prior to our meetings, many of the participants had downloaded and read the Report, 'Housing Nova Scotians: A Fresh Look'. Indeed, we are most pleased to report that every group felt we had heard them clearly and reported their concerns accurately. "You nailed it", a member of the Bridgewater group told us. In addition, all of the groups were comfortable with our interpretation of their respective inputs and the propositions to the Government of Nova Scotia into which we had rolled them. Finally, with respect to our recommendations to the Government that it first establish a sector-wide consultation on housing and homelessness and then follow it up with the establishment of a permanent Secretariat on Housing and Homelessness, all were supportive. Better still, several of the groups saw little purpose in yet another consultation, preferring instead to get on with organizing an N.S. Secretariat on Housing and Homelessness.

It will come as no surprise then that news of the joint initiative of AHANS and Community Action on Homelessness (CAH) to establish a N.S. Housing and Homelessness Network…a sort of Secretariat-in-Waiting…was very well received.

Finally, it remains for us to thank all of our hosts and participants in Sydney, Truro, Bridgewater, Antigonish, Yarmouth, Kentville/Wolfville, and Halifax/Dartmouth. Thank you all for your gracious hospitality as well as your energetic and heart-felt contributions. Without you, there would be nothing to report.

Sincerely,

Grant Wanzel
Acting President for AHANS