leveraging the spaces between

Many efforts to address family homelessness occur at macro-policy levels (housing, jobs, community infrastructure) and immediate-needs levels (realtime shelter, food, and safety). But there’s much to be discussed in the spaces between these macro and micro levels. How can we tailor organizations that cultivate opportunity in robust, locally-responsive ways?  There is no cookie-cutter strategy for fixing homelessness, but my research finds four organizational practices/characteristics to be especially promising:

1.  developing and responding to embedded understandings of family homelessness;
2. emphasizing brokering along with (and often over) service provision;
3. relentlessly experimenting amid shifting landscapes of homelessness; and
4. targeting the improvement of high dosage spaces in families’ lives.

I’ll be writing, speaking, and continuing to learn about these four “space between” practices and conditions in the months ahead.