The Durham At-Risk Housing Network Evaluation

Description

By Skylar Onistchenko-Abrantes, Date of Project Submission: April 2015., Completed for: Community Development Council Durham; Supervising Professor: Sharon Beaucage-Johnson; Trent Community Research Centre, FRSC4890 - Forensic Community-Based Research Project, The purpose of this project was to evaluate a housing network within the Durham Region (Durham At-Risk Housing Network) by comparing it to other similar networks, identifying the impact the network has had on its members, their clients, and any improvements that could be made to better suit its members. A literature review was conducted to determine the existence of similar housing networks, while surveys were administered to the members to determine the network’s success and possible improvements. It was determined, that the network is successful from the perspective of its members, as 95% of the networks members use the information presented to them during the meetings at least once per month and 91% agreed that they were a member because it improved their work. It was demonstrated that 55% and 25% of participants either agreed or strongly agreed that their clients had benefitted from their participation in the network. The Durham At-Risk housing network has been extremely beneficial to its members in providing information about resources available to the homeless, thereby positively impacting the member’s clients. Members would find it beneficial to determine topics of discussion, broadening the scope of the Durham At-Risk Housing Network (DARNH) to all aspects of homelessness, increasing the frequency of the meetings, increasing the number of organizations in the network, and creating an online forum to increase the amount of inter-organization communication to facilitate change.