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MDH has re-launched its COVID-19 Vaccination Request Form for Congregate Settings: COVID-19 Vaccination Event Request Form for Congregate Settings. The form is open to staff at congregate settings, such as shelters, transitional and supportive housing facilities, and day centers, as well as food shelves and outreach programs. Settings can request vaccine clinics for COVID-19 first shots, second shots, and boosters, as well as the annual influenza vaccine. Settings can also request to have a Harm Reduction Team available at the clinic to offer overdose prevention and response training, distribution of opioid overdose reversal kits (i.e., naloxone), distribution of safer use supplies including syringe exchange (distribution of sterile syringes, collection of used syringes), rapid HIV/Hepatitis C testing and linkage to care.
Join the webinar today from 1:00 – 2:00 p.m. to hear from the MDH team about these updates and ask any questions you may have. If you have any questions about your registration, please email
The Interagency Council on Homelessness continues to work in phases to complete a strategic plan focused on achieving housing, health and racial justice for people experiencing homelessness. In June, we completed Phase 1 with the Council’s commitment to the justice definition. As you may remember, the justice definition was developed over several months this spring through the process led by Rainbow Research and their team of consultants with lived experience of homelessness. This definition will serve as the basis for driving the Council’s work on preventing and ending homelessness. Check out the definition here!
Phase 2 is focused on identifying a set of results that moves our work to prevent and end homelessness towards justice as well as developing the specific strategies to achieve those results. These three pieces form the framework of our next plan:
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Justice Definition: the foundation for all our work and serves as the North Star for the Council’s next strategic plan.
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Results: The big, bold outcomes that will drive movement towards justice. No one agency will be responsible for any of these results. Each of them will require interagency commitment and collaboration.
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Strategies: The specific, measurable commitments by agencies and interagency teams to achieve the results.
The ten consultants with lived expertise and MICH staff have worked together to synthesize all of feedback we have received into five bold results. The process to develop these results has been collaborative and iterative. On the webinar last week, the consultants shared the five results and asked for your thoughts and input. We want to hear from you! Visit https://mich.mn.gov/justice-strategic-plan#phase-two to review the results and share your reactions and thoughts. You can add your comments by responding to the questions posed on the bottom of the justice strategic plan page. We are beginning the work with agency teams to develop the specific strategies and will continue to share updates as that work progresses.
The Minnesota Interagency Council on Homelessness hosts a weekly webinar and the opening 20 minutes of the webinar on the first Wednesday of each month is reserved for speakers bureau members to share. Anyone who has lived experience of homelessness is welcome to sign-up to share through the Speakers Bureau. This is open time each month for lived experience experts to share ideas and feedback with the webinar audience. Additional details can be found on this flyer.
The next webinar Speakers Bureau will be on Wednesday, December 7 at 1:00 p.m. There is a monthly prep session held the Tuesday before the webinar. The prep session will be Tuesday, December 6 from 3:00-3:30 p.m. Follow this link to join the prep session. This is an ongoing opportunity that happens each month. Please email elizabeth.dressel@state.mn.us or call Elizabeth at 651-248-5548 with any questions or to sign up.
Cases among people experiencing homelessness and the staff who support continues to remain steady this week. The MDH team continues to monitor cases and our team continues to plan alongside local public health and emergency management on ways to be best prepared to support people experiencing homelessness through any future surges. If you are looking for any information or resources, you can find information at https://mich.mn.gov/covid-19 or email Health.R-Congregate@state.mn.us.
- At the end of October, HUD announced proposed changes to the race, ethnicity, and gender identity data elements within the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS). These changes would modify questions asked at intake and enhance the information available about homeless service systems through data collection. HUD is asking communities to try out these changes and collect feedback. Join the National Alliance to End Homelessness webinar, Contributing to How Race and Gender are Defined within Homelessness, to share your thoughts. The webinar is tomorrow, November 17 from 2:00 – 3:00 p.m. CT. and you can register here. This webinar will highlight ways communities can partner with the Alliance to gather feedback and inform the final versions of the data elements.
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Help us spread the word about a new newsletter for engagement opportunities for people who have faced or are currently facing homelessness. The Minnesota Interagency Council on Homelessness is building a new newsletter list to share opportunities for people who have faced or are currently facing homelessness to share their input, ideas, and expertise. Interested individuals can sign up for the newsletter by filling out this form. We will share a range of opportunities in this newsletter from state agencies and partner organizations and the newsletter will be sent out as opportunities are available. Please email elizabeth.dressel@state.mn.us if you have questions.
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