PiT Count Module

How HIFIS can help communities record and submit their PiT counts

HIFIS CC Workshop, Oct. 21-22, 2015

Glossary

• HIFIS – Homeless Individuals and Families Information System – A.k.a. Canada’s Free HMIS

• SP – Service Provider; e.g. shelter, Housing provider, Outreach…

• Site – A HIFIS installation/database. Can be one or more SPs

• CE – Community Entity

• COORD – The Data Coordinator is an entity that has agreements with

HIFIS Sites to receive anonymized data for analysis. A CE would be a perfect example.

First off, Which HIFIS?

• The future of HIFIS is HIFIS 4

• Today, the quasi-totality of HIFIS sites are still on HIFIS 3

• For early 2016, the PiT module will be in HIFIS 3

• It will later be added to (and greatly improved upon in) HIFIS 4

Why HIFIS?

• Readily available at hundreds of sites

• Easily obtainable at any site

• Can be used for PiT regardless of what tool a community usually relies on for operations (e.g. SMIS, ETO)

• If HIFIS is the current tool, minimal user training is needed

• Proven method of securely sending data

• No cost to obtain or to get support for

• No need for new data sharing agreements at current sites

The overall process

• This 1st iteration will be traditional; i.e. paper-based

• Data will come from two sources: – In-shelter

– On the street

• Data is collected on paper forms

• It is then entered at a central location

• Data is exported to HPS

• Optional exports within community

• Reporting ensues…

The HPS PiT Count

• The HPS PiT Count will consist of up to three parts: – HPS-provided CORE questions (mandatory)

– COH-provided additional questions (optional) • Communities will have the option to:

– Use all, some or none of the COH questions

• Some are extensions to the Core questions

• Others are just other questions

– Community-based additional questions (optional) • Communities will have the option to:

– Create their own questions

• Only the HPS portion is forwarded to HPS

Sending out PiT Data

• Exports to HPS

– If using HIFIS, there is an established method that sends 38 fields of HIFIS data electronically to HPS.

– At HPS, the data is automatically integrated into a national database for analysis

– Existing HIFIS users: • Are covered by their DPA

– PiT-only HIFIS sites: • Can sign the DPA for the duration and discard afterwards

• Exports to Community Entity (CE), if needed… – HIFIS has a built-in feature to send anonymized data to any recipient

– CE can use HIFIS to receive this data and do their own analysis

The Survey Process

Start

Able to Engage?

No

Tally: Observed

Yes

Already Surveyed?

No

Willing to Participate?

Yes

Sleeping in A-G?

Tally: Screened Out

Sleeping in H-M?

Do Survey

No

Tally: Declined

Yes

Tally: Already

How it will work…

• Before PiT day, you will need to define the:

– PiT Event (When, what questions, etc…)

– Volunteers

– Unsheltered locations

– Shelters

– Survey Shifts

• Volunteer(s)

• Location

• Time

The Morning After…

• You enter:

– The Surveys

– The Tally Sheets

• You export to HPS

• You can start reporting

A Sneak Peek…

The PiT Sub-Menu

PiT Event Settings

Local Questions Designer

Volunteers (People)

Unsheltered Locations (Places)

Sheltered Locations (Shelters)

PiT Shifts (List)

PiT Shifts (Details)

PiT Tally Sheets

PiT Surveys (01-06)

PiT Surveys (07-12)

PiT Surveys (Additional COH)

PiT Surveys (Local Questions)

The Truth About HIFIS