The Awesome Foundation named Advancing Equity Together (AET) its July grantee. AET is an initiative of the West Central MN Continuum of Care (CoC). The CoC is a collaboration of local and regional partners working to make homelessness rare, brief, and onetime. The Awesome Foundation grant will provide funds for up to five persons with lived experience of homelessness (PLE) to participate in the Clay County AET LE Advisory Group meetings and be trained and supported in taking on advocacy and educational opportunities. The Clay County AET advisory board is one of three in the ten-county CoC region.
“Recognizing that inequities exist in our system, the CoC formed the AET in fall of 2021 as a vehicle to help build a more equitable homeless response system,” said Carla Solem, the West Central Minnesota CoC coordinator. “The CoC feels strongly that PLE need to be at the center of any efforts to improve equity in our system. These individuals bring unique perspectives and first-hand experience to the discussion. To help empower these individuals and the populations they represent, we have centered work on PLE Advisory Boards.”
The AET initiative was designed to help identify goals and measurable action steps that increase equity in our homeless response system. From the fall of 2021 to the spring of 2022, the CoC hosted five focus groups for Indigenous or persons of color with PLE and formed a leadership team to develop equity goals. The team included the CoC Coordinator, CoC Chair, two LE representatives, and AET Chair. The AET LE Advisory Groups are building on this by reviewing feedback and identifying additional needs, concerns, and ideas for system improvement.
“These populations, along with disabled and LGBTQIA+, are overrepresented among homeless persons in our community,” said Solem. According to 2023 HUD data, people of color and Indigenous make up 9% of our regional population and 22% of people in poverty, but 51% of those experiencing homelessness in our region. Solem also stated that there is a significant increase in returns to homelessness for these individuals and generally less positive outcomes when seeking assistance. For example, 2022 data showed that people of multiple races had a return rate of 14% versus representing only 8.82% of the population of those in the system (a +5.18% difference) and Blacks had 20% returns vs. a 12.48% representation (a +7.52% difference), compared to Whites who had a 50% return rate vs. representing 64.80% of people in the system (a -14.89% difference).
Progress stalled in early 2023 due to funding and staffing challenges but was recently reinvigorated after hiring a new facilitator focused on helping to support and empower LE members to not just set goals, but collaboratively work with the CoC to achieve them.
In June, the reconvened AET LE Advisory Group identified three priority goals to improve equity among the homeless population.
- Increase awareness and access to resources that would help people transition off services to stable housing.
- Create a system of resources to help navigate a challenging system.
- Develop a training academy to help empower PLEs to take on staff and volunteer leadership, service, and advocacy roles.
For more information on the AET LE Advisory Group or to get involved with the West Central MN Continuum of Care please email Solem at h2hcoordinator@gmail.com.
The Cass-Clay chapter of the Awesome Foundation awards a $1,000 gift each month for awesome ideas of all sorts. Grant recipients do not need to be associated with a nonprofit. Applications can be made at awesomefoundation.org/en/ chapters/cassclay