What is quality improvement?
Community Solutions, Inc.
We deploy innovative problem-solving tools towards creating a lasting end to homelessness that leaves no one behind.
The Lake County, Illinois, veteran team is sustaining functional zero by leveraging a discipline harnessed in manufacturing and health care.
In December 2018, the Built for Zero community of Lake County/North Chicago, Illinois, achieved functional zero for veteran homelessness. As they continue to sustain that milestone and drive reductions in homelessness for other populations, the community has modeled a discipline at the heart of the Built for Zero methodology:?quality improvement.?
This practice has transformed fields like manufacturing and health care, and?now it is changing how communities solve homelessness.? Also known as improvement science, quality improvement expresses the idea behind systems thinking — the idea that outcomes are the product of systems, and that improving outcomes requires changes to the system.
For Yareli Salgado, Continuum of Care Coordinator at Lake County, quality improvement means enacting little changes that can add up.
“So instead of trying to make one big change that you might get a lot of resistance to,?it’s incremental changes that’ll still get you to that big end goal that you want, but are more achievable in the small bursts.”
Bright spot
Stratford-Perth-St. Marys, Ontario, Canada, achieved a 10% reduction in chronic homelessness.
?The time is now
领英推荐
Last week, we were all confronted with a tragic reminder of?what is at stake?in our shared responsibility to end homelessness.?The death of Jordan Neely reminds us of the threats of violence that our unhoused neighbors face at every level — interpersonally and structurally — and the irreparable costs of allowing this unacceptable crisis to persist.
It is on all of us to protect each other and our communities.?One action we can take is to highlight the truths about homelessness,?like the fact that people experiencing homelessness are disproportionately more likely to be victims of violent crime.?
We want to recognize that Mr. Neely’s life and death may be heavy on your hearts and minds. We hope?this resource ?may be of value as we affirm not only the truths about homelessness, but the possibility of creating a different reality when we face those truths head-on.
Mental Health Awareness Month
Watch how Gulf Coast, Mississippi, partnered to strengthen their efforts to link people experiencing homelessness with mental illness services.
Built for Zero news
The Housing Stabilization Learning Cohort was designed to create community-based approaches that coordinate and target homelessness prevention to reduce inflow and advance racial equity.
In the news
Read Maine’s progress as they continue their statewide approach to ending homelessness through Built for Zero.