Community Training Resources

The Nevada Continuum of Care (CoC) offers various training opportunities to its members and the community. In this section you will find various trainings that are designed to promote countywide commitment to permanent solutions to end homelessness in Washoe County. 
We welcome all to view these trainings to learn or review why and how the work is taking place. 

 

Best Practice 

+HUD's Equal Access Rule & Preventing Family Separation Training

This training provides an overview of HUD’s Equal Access Rule and preventing family separation in the provision of homelessness response and housing services. The HUD Equal Access Rule works in conjunction with the federal Fair Housing Act to establish anti-discrimination protections, with a focus on LGBTQIA+ and diverse family populations, throughout HUD-funded projects - including those in the Northern Nevada Continuum of Care. 

 

 

 

 

+Northern Nevada Best Practices Training

Best practices are a set of counseling styles, approaches and working strategies where people working with people  experiencing homelessness engage in motivational interviewing, trauma informed care and implement a hard reduction strategy.

 

 

 

 

+Northern Nevada Housing First Training 

Housing First is an approach where people experiencing homelessness are provided immediate access to housing and then offered the supportive services that may be needed to foster long-term stability and prevent a return to homelessness. This approach removes unnecessary barriers and assumes that supportive services are more effective in addressing needs when the individual or family is housed – when the daily stress of being homeless is taken out of the equation.

 

+Excel 101

This is short introduction to the core features and interface of Excel. It includes a review of commonly used functions, and offers a practical application example for housing provider partners using data in HMIS.  

+ Project Management

Offers an overview of the project management process, its core components including a detailed Gantt chart.  

 

 

Coordinated Entry  

+Northern Nevada Coordinated Entry Training 

Coordinated Entry is a community wide process meaning no agency has control, and no one agency is left to face the problem alone. To implement Coordinated Entry the Northern Nevada CoC will be utilizing a standardized assessment called the Community Housing Assessment Tool (CHAT). Multiple agencies will be assessing clients using the CHAT creating multiple entry points for access to housing. The CHAT assessment utilizes the federal Homeless Management Information System (HMIS), a database widely used in the Northern Nevada CoC, and through the HMIS system it creates a prioritized Community Housing List. The Community Housing List (Queue) will then be used as the community waiting list for housing – creating fair and equal access.

+Northern Nevada CoC Eligibility Documentaion Guide 

This document provides guidance on how to meet eligibility documentation requirements for HUD-funded CoC programs. To view this document click here.

+Northern Nevada CHAT Do's and Dont's for Assessors 

To view this document click here.

 

Emergency Shelter 

+Jon DeCarmine - Housing Focused Sheltering Training

This training dives deep into the key elements of housing-focused sheltering, low-barrier services, and meaningful  engagement with program participants, through the lens of someone who has worked on the frontline for years. To view training document, click here.

 

 

 

 

+Jon DeCarmine - Part l: Low-barrier Services & Engagement 

 

+Jon DeCarmine - Part ll: The Continuum of Difficult Behavior

+Jon DeCarmine - The Art & Science of Diversion

 

 

+Effective Diversion: A Key Strategy for Ending Homelessness

This webinar provides an overview of diversion, the best diversion practices, and how communities are implementing diversion to ensure that new federal COVID-19 homelessness resources are most effectively and efficiently targeted. 

 

 

 

Homeless Management Information System (HMIS)/ Data 

+HMIS/Data 

Provides an overview of Northern Nevada’s Homelessness Management Information System (HMIS), its purpose, and how to enter and maintain client data while upholding client confidentiality.

+HMIS Exit Data Reference Guide 

This document is intended to provide a reference to consult when there is question about how to classify a participant exit.

To view the full document, please click here. Last Revised 10/2023.

 

Victim Services/ Domestic Violence  

+ Victim Service and Domestic Violence Provider Confidentiality & Policies Training

To view training document click here. 

 

+ Client Confidentiality & De-identified Profiles

Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) is a local information technology system used to collect client-level data and data on the provision of housing and services to homeless individuals and families and persons at risk of homelessness. The Northern Nevada Continuum of Care (CoC) utilizes HMIS software that complies with HUD's data collection, management, and reporting standards. This training overviews new policies and procedures to de-identify profiles in HMIS. To view training document, click here

 

Additional Information 

If you are interested in additional information on the Northern Nevada Continuum of Care (CoC) trainings, please contact Washoe County Housing and Homeless Services at: RegionalHomelessServices@washoecounty.gov