Cowichan's Indigenous-Centered Coordinated Access System
Setting the Stage for Coordinated Access
Reaching Home, the Government of Canada’s redesigned homelessness strategy, supports communities to address the needs of those experiencing or at-risk of homelessness. This initiative replaced the Homelessness Partnering Strategy and officially launched April 1, 2019. Reaching Home is designed to support the goals of Canada’s National Housing Strategy and positions communities at the forefront of tackling homelessness.
Reaching Home also introduced Coordinated Access as a program priority. The shift to Coordinated Access (CA) supports an integrated systems-based approach where service providers, local communities, and orders of government work together to achieve common goals.
The goal of Coordinated Access is to help communities ensure equity of access to appropriate resources, prioritize those most in need of assistance, and streamline services.
What is Coordinated Access?
Coordinated Access involves a connected system where individuals and families who are experiencing homelessness or at-risk of homelessness are directed to community access points where a shared assessment tool is used by trained staff to evaluate an individual or family’s depth of need, prioritize them for housing support services, and help match them to available housing-focused interventions.
Why is Coordinated Access Important?
Coordinated Access is the most effective way to serve people with housing challenges. It is not a program; it is an integrated process that streamlines access to available services in a community.
Without a coordinated approach, those in crisis must navigate a complicated web of connected – but uncoordinated – services. They are forced to repeat their story multiple times and place themselves on numerous waiting lists to have their housing issues addressed.
Using a person-centered approach reduces the frequency of a mismatch between peoples’ needs and the services they access, poorer housing outcomes, continued diminished quality of life, and inefficient use of limited resources.
To learn more about the Coordinated Access System, click below.
For more information on the work being done to create a Coordinated Access System contact us at 250-597-1938 or send an email here.
Coordinated Access is a community initiative made possible through funding from
Reaching Home: Canada's Homelessness Strategy and the United Way.