System mapping is an essential step in rolling out a system planning approach to preventing and ending homelessness. System mapping involves a series of activities that achieve a comprehensive view of a community’s resources connected to homelessness.

Specifically, system mapping includes:

• An up-to-date resource directory for all services available to people at risk of or experiencing homelessness in a community.
• Mapping of the locations of the various community resources to discern location patterns.
• Categorization of all programs by target population, eligibility criteria, geographical scope, service model and focus.
• Real-time occupancy report to show what spaces are available in services.
• Clear eligibility criteria, access/referral process for those looking for help.
• Feedback loop from clients/users of services to each of the resources.
• Performance indicators to track community demand and feedback on services.

This webinar will provide participants with a comprehensive view of system mapping and present some on-the-ground initiatives from Lethbridge, AB and St. John’s, NWD.

Lethbridge’s approach has mobilized diverse funders and service providers to create a real-time system map that connects the dots for people in need, as well as policy makers and funders.

St. John’s has focused on understanding the needs and of the housing and homeless sector with a comprehensive research approach to system mapping that is unearthing significant insights into the workings of the system of care.

Presenters:

• Dr. Alina Turner – Principal, Turner Strategies
• Marty Thomsen – Manager, Community Social Development, City of Lethbridge
• Jennifer Tipple, Performance Management Planner, End Homelessness St. John’s, NWD
• David French – Director of Policy and Planning, A Way Home Canada

This webinar is hosted by the Systems Planning Collective.

This webinar will be presented by Dr. Jeffrey Brook, scientific director of CANUE, Dr. Eleanor Setton, managing director of CANUE, and Dany Doiron, data linkage specialist at CANUE, via WebEx.

The Canadian Urban Environmental Health Research Consortium (CANUE) is a CIHR-funded initiative, which collates and develops standardized urban environmental exposure data and links them to health databases to support environmental health research in Canada.

CLSA and CANUE have collaborated to link data on air quality, neighbourhood factors, weather and climate, and greenness indicators to CLSA data on health and aging. The linked data, now available to Canadian researchers, includes estimated exposures of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, ozone and fine particulate matter, as well as information about nighttime light, normalized difference vegetation index (i.e. greenness), health-relevant climate and weather measures, material and social deprivation indices and the Canadian Active Living Environments (i.e. walkability) index.

This webinar will give an overview of CANUE and of pre-linked environmental exposure data currently available to researchers through the CLSA. The webinar will also touch on methods for expanding the breadth and quality of environmental exposures available to the CLSA and other Canadian cohorts.

In collaborating with the CLSA, CANUE ultimately aims to enable research on how environmental factors affect the ways in which Canadians age and help better inform evidence-based strategies for planning healthy and age-friendly communities and cities across Canada.

This webinar is hosted by the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging.