It’s time for the annual Homeless Count, Thursday, January 24, 2019, 7pm-Midnight, and if you’ve seen one Homeless Count, you’ve seen them all, right? Wrong! In 2016, the Metro Dallas Homeless Alliance (MDHA) radically changed the way it conducts its annual Homeless Count, in order to get much more reliable data. So, what changed?
Volunteers prepare for the Homeless Count on the night of January 26, 2017
- We recruit more volunteers – With more volunteers, we can canvas more areas, and that means improved accuracy. Last year, MDHA recruited about 1,550 volunteers, making the 2018 Count the largest of its kind in Texas history. MDHA leverages its relationship with its many service providers, funders and supporters, most notably, United Way of Metropolitan Dallas, lending their hand to the recruitment effort. Faith Forward Dallas at Thanksgiving Square (FFD@TGS), a diverse coalition of Dallas’ faith leaders, also helps us as part of our shared homelessness initiative.
- Volunteers count the unsheltered homeless only – We know where the sheltered homeless are. They are sheltered, after all! Shelters provide MDHA with an accurate count of these folks, electronically. That way, our volunteers can concentrate on finding and counting the unsheltered homeless.
- We ask volunteers to register in advance as teams – This helps us plan the exact routing of volunteers, streamline the Count, and better utilize volunteers’ time during the evening of the Count.
Counting Us app (Courtesy of Simtech Solutions)
- There’s an app for that – If in previous years, we used paper surveys printed out on double sided legal-size pages, in 2017 we said goodbye to paper, with the Counting Us app from Simtech Solutions! This app eliminates the need for volunteers to return to their deployment sites to drop off completed surveys, as well as the need for more volunteers to transcribe hundreds of surveys in the weeks following the Count. Instead the app uploads each survey immediately, and records the exact location of each survey interaction. The app also allows us to see survey data as it is being gathered in real-time, in a virtual command center, full of intuitive dashboards and maps, and better analyze the data after the Count. Volunteers can already download the app, and use Count key Dallas2019 to practice. This year, that same key will be used for the Count itself.
- We use geographic information system (GIS) mapping software – The software helps us plan volunteer routes, as well as tier them, according to the likelihood of the presence of homeless persons in any given area. This year, Simtech Solutions is helping us draw new and more precise maps for Dallas County.
- Use of the app helps us help our homeless friends, the very next day – The app automatically records the exact latitude and longitude, of each person counted, using GPS. Then, the night of the count MDHA supplies outreach teams with this information, so they can go out the very next morning to assist individuals who may qualify for specific programs, including youth, veterans and persons with specific medical diagnoses.
Register today to volunteer: https://dallascounts2019.eventbrite.com
Share: #dallascounts2019
Dallas Counting Us command center – January 26, 2017
