WEBVTT 00:00:00.258 --> 00:00:06.257 - So thanks for joining us today. For those I haven't met yet, my name's Tatiana Wheeler. I'm Associate 00:00:06.257 --> 00:00:12.314 - Director of Heading Home of South Central Indiana. I have the honor and privilege of working with Mary 00:00:12.314 --> 00:00:18.196 - Morgan and the rest of the team at Heading Home. Today's session is gonna be focused on moving from 00:00:18.196 --> 00:00:24.194 - challenges to opportunities, okay? As Mary stated in her opening remarks, we know what the challenges 00:00:24.194 --> 00:00:26.782 - are. So it may seem silly for me to ask you 00:00:27.042 --> 00:00:32.817 - in this exact moment to look at your table and choose a pink sticky note to write down one specific 00:00:32.817 --> 00:00:38.650 - challenge you're facing in advancing housing stability in your work. So this could be if you're in a 00:00:38.650 --> 00:00:44.425 - job, in a role where you are directly working to advance housing stability or if you're a volunteer 00:00:44.425 --> 00:00:50.373 - or if you're in the faith community and your congregation and house of worship is trying to figure out 00:00:50.373 --> 00:00:54.878 - ways to be a part of the solution. What are current challenges you're facing? 00:00:55.138 --> 00:01:01.406 - And don't worry, we're not gonna stay there. This is just the beginning. We're gonna talk about opportunities 00:01:01.406 --> 00:01:07.104 - later in the presentation. But once you've identified what that challenge is, something that's been 00:01:07.104 --> 00:01:12.916 - ruminating in your mind, I want you to go to this back wall and categorize where that challenge fits. 00:01:12.916 --> 00:01:18.785 - Whether it's a challenge that's systemic, one that's personal, one that's related to your organization 00:01:18.785 --> 00:01:23.230 - specifically, one that's related to policy, or one that's related to funding. 00:01:24.098 --> 00:01:31.802 - Once you've identified what that is, go post it on the back wall. And we'll go ahead and get started. 00:01:31.802 --> 00:01:39.582 - And I hope you know this session is going to be highly interactive. So you will get out as much as you 00:01:39.582 --> 00:01:47.437 - put in. So I hope you're excited to have fun, to think creatively, and to think differently. OK. You've 00:01:47.437 --> 00:01:53.630 - got to be a little subtle with it. And please specifically use the pink stickies. 00:01:54.114 --> 00:01:56.702 - the other colors at your table will be for another activity. 00:02:19.586 --> 00:02:31.002 - And as much as you can, spread out the pink because we're going to be responding with opportunities 00:02:31.002 --> 00:02:36.254 - in a different color later. I don't think so. 00:03:30.978 --> 00:03:38.718 - All righty, thanks everybody. We'll continue on with the presentation. 00:03:41.730 --> 00:03:47.316 - So I'm gonna talk a little bit more about heading home's work briefly just for those who are unfamiliar 00:03:47.316 --> 00:03:52.688 - with our organization and the focus of our work. I'll go into a little bit more depth than Mary did 00:03:52.688 --> 00:03:58.274 - this morning. I'll be talking about the power of perspective and we'll be going through some activities 00:03:58.274 --> 00:04:03.700 - to reframe our perspectives. You have an opportunity to learn from one another, those at your table, 00:04:03.700 --> 00:04:09.662 - those across the room, and then we'll reflect over next steps. Sound good? Are we excited? Where's the energy? 00:04:11.426 --> 00:04:18.129 - All righty, so for those who are unfamiliar with heading home, really, our organization became 00:04:18.129 --> 00:04:25.325 - an organization because of a strategic plan that was created back in 2014. So back when I think I was 00:04:25.325 --> 00:04:32.592 - in eighth grade, there are providers across this region who were developing the strategic plan to make 00:04:32.592 --> 00:04:38.942 - homelessness rare, brief, and non-repeating. In other words, working to end homelessness. 00:04:39.170 --> 00:04:46.965 - In 2020, on the rise of the COVID-19 pandemic, stakeholders got together to discuss how housing needs 00:04:46.965 --> 00:04:54.760 - had exasperated across the community around the pandemic. And they determined ways to pivot that plan 00:04:54.760 --> 00:05:02.403 - to shifting and focusing on more solutions. They realized that that plan that they made in 2014 was 00:05:02.403 --> 00:05:05.918 - insufficient, mostly because they were asking 00:05:06.338 --> 00:05:12.314 - service providers who are focused on crisis management to also do that macro system level work. And 00:05:12.314 --> 00:05:18.349 - for those who are service providers in the room, you know that that was not just a daunting task, it 00:05:18.349 --> 00:05:24.504 - was an impossible task. And in 2021, the plan was updated with the addition of staff with heading home 00:05:24.504 --> 00:05:30.241 - with Mary Morgan and I in 2021. And our team has now expanded to a team of 13 in 2025 and 2026, 00:05:30.241 --> 00:05:32.990 - which is huge, remarkable. We celebrate that. 00:05:34.786 --> 00:05:41.333 - So since 2021 and 2022, where our operations really began, we've been working to advance housing stability 00:05:41.333 --> 00:05:48.064 - across the sixth county region with the ultimate goal, again, to make homelessness rare before non-repeating. 00:05:48.064 --> 00:05:54.244 - But in the past four years, we've had to shift our perspective. For those who are part of this work, 00:05:54.244 --> 00:05:59.262 - you know the work can be challenging, right? The work can be defeating. It can be 00:05:59.362 --> 00:06:04.419 - It can be heavy to carry. I mean, I'm not working directly with people experiencing homelessness, but 00:06:04.419 --> 00:06:09.378 - those on our team and those across our region who are, are walking with people who are experiencing 00:06:09.378 --> 00:06:14.336 - tragedy, right? Homelessness, housing instability, poverty. I was in here listening to the Thriving 00:06:14.336 --> 00:06:19.294 - Connections panel. It is a traumatic experience. And I just want to thank every service provider in 00:06:19.294 --> 00:06:24.253 - the room for a second for walking with people through tragedy and helping them in their journeys of 00:06:24.253 --> 00:06:29.310 - stability and finding their paths back home. Can we give it up for the service providers in the room? 00:06:33.538 --> 00:06:39.055 - Thank you for your continued yes. Thank you for continuing to show up. I try to tell our team often 00:06:39.055 --> 00:06:44.571 - and those across our region that the world's a better place every day you show up. So thank you for 00:06:44.571 --> 00:06:47.550 - showing up, especially today for this housing summit. 00:06:49.186 --> 00:06:55.458 - A little bit more about heading home, Mary shared that we like to think of ourselves as a supportive 00:06:55.458 --> 00:07:01.917 - backbone of our region's homeless response system. So what that looks like is heading home is advancing 00:07:01.917 --> 00:07:08.438 - ways to improve our homeless response system. We're coordinating crisis services. We have weekly shelter 00:07:08.438 --> 00:07:14.462 - check-in calls. We have, I don't know if it's bi-weekly at this point, or monthly calls with our 00:07:14.658 --> 00:07:20.616 - Service providers focus on different aspects of our system, so those who are doing street outreach, 00:07:20.616 --> 00:07:26.575 - those who are providing permanent supportive housing, those doing what's called rapid rehousing, so 00:07:26.575 --> 00:07:32.950 - different financial assistance programs. We also have someone now dedicated focused on landlord engagement 00:07:32.950 --> 00:07:39.326 - and unit acquisition, right, because landlords literally hold the keys to housing. Ha ha, so funny, right? 00:07:39.842 --> 00:07:45.477 - Thanks for those who laughed at my petty joke. We're also leading public relations, right? We understand 00:07:45.477 --> 00:07:50.844 - that housing stability takes the community having a shared understanding and us collectively having 00:07:50.844 --> 00:07:56.425 - a shared narrative about what's being done to strengthen housing security. Additionally, one of my most 00:07:56.425 --> 00:08:01.846 - favorite things is that we get to support the people doing this work through cross-agency trainings. 00:08:01.846 --> 00:08:03.134 - So this could look like 00:08:03.234 --> 00:08:08.393 - providing trainings for agencies across our system, things like housing problem solving, which we just 00:08:08.393 --> 00:08:13.601 - did a training in partnership with the National Alliance on Homelessness back in March. And we had over 00:08:13.601 --> 00:08:18.961 - 70 providers across our system show up for that. And that's helping people divert and prevent homelessness 00:08:18.961 --> 00:08:24.019 - from ever occurring, right? That's something to celebrate is that we don't want people to experience 00:08:24.019 --> 00:08:28.126 - homelessness. We want to divert and prevent a housing crisis from ever occurring. 00:08:29.058 --> 00:08:34.584 - Conditionally I've already shared where our strategy lead we have a couple different strategic plans 00:08:34.584 --> 00:08:40.219 - out out in the world in the in the interweb our biggest one being our heading home plan, which was our 00:08:40.219 --> 00:08:45.800 - Inaugural strategic plan as well as the housing action plan, which is specific to Monroe County We're 00:08:45.800 --> 00:08:49.630 - also working with partners in Morgan County to develop strategic plan 00:08:49.730 --> 00:08:56.362 - plans there as well. We have a data dashboard on our main website as well. Prior to Heading Home's existence, 00:08:56.362 --> 00:09:02.573 - there was a lot of misconceptions about how many people were just experiencing homelessness across our 00:09:02.573 --> 00:09:08.602 - region. And so through a partnership with a national organization called Built for Zero, we've made 00:09:08.602 --> 00:09:14.812 - a data dashboard to make that data public and transparent to people. If you look at the data dashboard 00:09:14.812 --> 00:09:19.696 - today, you'll see that 2026 data is missing. We are in process of reconstructing 00:09:19.696 --> 00:09:26.847 - the website to the data dashboard to have even more data. And so we hope to have that within this quarter 00:09:26.847 --> 00:09:33.661 - back to being up to date. And as Mary shared, we have regional initiatives. We run a Lawrence County 00:09:33.661 --> 00:09:40.744 - Housing Task Force. I sit on the board of Wellspring, which is a family shelter and permanent supportive 00:09:40.744 --> 00:09:43.038 - housing program in Morgan County. 00:09:43.266 --> 00:09:48.657 - And we do a lot of other things. But that's not necessarily why we're here today. I just have to give 00:09:48.657 --> 00:09:54.048 - you that rundown. I'm going to keep going in our slide deck. To one of our biggest initiatives, which 00:09:54.048 --> 00:09:59.386 - is the newest, which is why Heading Home has expanded from a team of two to a team of 13, is that in 00:09:59.386 --> 00:10:05.041 - 2025, Heading Home, in partnership with the Community Foundation of Bloomington and rural county, received 00:10:05.041 --> 00:10:09.534 - a Lilly Endowment grant that has transformed Heading Home's services and programs to 00:10:09.666 --> 00:10:14.973 - help individuals and households experiencing unsheltered homelessness, and as well as divert people 00:10:14.973 --> 00:10:20.333 - and prevent people from ever experiencing homelessness to begin with. This is a five-year grant, and 00:10:20.333 --> 00:10:25.693 - now includes six street outreach workers. Thanks for the claps. And now includes six street outreach 00:10:25.693 --> 00:10:31.106 - workers who are embedded at partner agencies, three diversion and prevention case managers. Again, we 00:10:31.106 --> 00:10:36.679 - have a landlord engagement. Well, Mayor Hamburg, Strategic Partnerships Director, is focused on landlord 00:10:36.679 --> 00:10:38.430 - engagement and unit acquisition. 00:10:39.234 --> 00:10:45.478 - Aaron Reynolds Nyland is the one overseeing our frontline staff. And this five-year grant also includes 00:10:45.478 --> 00:10:51.781 - a housing stability income supplement pilot program, which is not run through Heading Home, but actually 00:10:51.781 --> 00:10:57.965 - run through SCAP. It also includes endowment matching funds. And the most transformational, aside from 00:10:57.965 --> 00:11:00.606 - the people, of course, is flexible funding. 00:11:00.738 --> 00:11:06.649 - for unification for those who have supports in other communities, housing stability, so moving people 00:11:06.649 --> 00:11:12.792 - from the streets into stable housing, and risk reduction funds. So again, preventing and diverting people 00:11:12.792 --> 00:11:18.587 - from ever experiencing homelessness. Transformational. We're so thankful for our team. If you are a 00:11:18.587 --> 00:11:24.499 - part of the Heading Home team, can you give a wave in the room? I just wanna shout you out. Thank you 00:11:24.499 --> 00:11:25.310 - to your work. 00:11:28.546 --> 00:11:33.687 - Now, if you're interested in learning more about heading home, please grab your phones. If you have 00:11:33.687 --> 00:11:38.930 - a smartphone, if you do nothing else in this presentation, scan this QR code. Look at our 2025 impact 00:11:38.930 --> 00:11:44.071 - report. It'll give you more in-depth information about some of our ongoing initiatives and projects 00:11:44.071 --> 00:11:49.314 - and even opportunities for you to continue to be a part of the solution and partner with heading home 00:11:49.314 --> 00:11:53.118 - on some of these. Everyone who scanned it got it. I'll give you a second. 00:12:00.386 --> 00:12:12.000 - All righty. Now this is an image. I want you to look at every color. Identify on the count of your hands 00:12:12.000 --> 00:12:23.283 - how many colors you see. OK. Can someone shout out, what do you see? What stands out in this image to 00:12:23.283 --> 00:12:27.486 - you? Someone said sky. OK, what else? 00:12:31.650 --> 00:12:45.746 - Sample gates. Who else sees anything else? What was it? Athletics? Oh, legs. Okay. Flowers. What else 00:12:45.746 --> 00:13:01.086 - do you see? A person. Anyone see anything else in this image? Trees. Anything else? It's not a trick question. 00:13:03.330 --> 00:13:11.362 - A steering wheel? OK. Out of curiosity, anyone when they're a child or now in your adulthood, just look 00:13:11.362 --> 00:13:19.085 - at the clouds and see different shapes? Yeah, this is kind of like what this activity is. For those 00:13:19.085 --> 00:13:26.963 - who said sample gates, you're right. It was sample gates. So look at the gates and look at the image. 00:13:26.963 --> 00:13:32.446 - Gates, image. So those who didn't see sample gates, do you see it now? 00:13:33.314 --> 00:13:40.108 - Yeah. But wasn't it interesting that people saw different things? Some were parts of the picture that 00:13:40.108 --> 00:13:46.768 - were obviously a part of the image. Others, like a steering wheel, no shade, were not a part of the 00:13:46.768 --> 00:13:53.495 - image. But it's interesting how each of us saw something maybe just a little bit different, a little 00:13:53.495 --> 00:14:00.288 - more specific. And in this presentation, I want to talk about the power of perspective. We understand 00:14:00.288 --> 00:14:02.686 - that the housing crisis is complex. 00:14:02.914 --> 00:14:08.909 - But yet, I want to encourage you that it is not unsolvable. If you're interested in learning more about 00:14:08.909 --> 00:14:15.422 - communities across the nation who are proving that homelessness is solvable, I want you to go to Built for Zero. 00:14:15.746 --> 00:14:20.968 - or communitiesolutions.org, and read their blogs. There are a lot of communities, over 50 communities 00:14:20.968 --> 00:14:26.445 - across Indiana, or across Indiana, across the United States who have proved that homelessness is solvable. 00:14:26.445 --> 00:14:32.077 - And so while I want to acknowledge the real challenges that you identified at the start of this presentation, 00:14:32.077 --> 00:14:37.503 - I want to tell you that the challenge you're focused on right now is not the end of the story. Can anyone 00:14:37.503 --> 00:14:42.827 - maybe testify by raising your hand that there is a challenge that you faced either in your professional 00:14:42.827 --> 00:14:44.414 - or personal life at some point 00:14:44.514 --> 00:14:50.530 - that you thought, I don't know how I'm ever gonna get through this. I don't know if I'm ever gonna see 00:14:50.530 --> 00:14:56.545 - the light at the end of the tunnel. Wave them big, wave them high. And can you say that that challenge 00:14:56.545 --> 00:15:02.619 - that you thought was so insurmountable is no longer there, right? You've overcome it. Can you wave your 00:15:02.619 --> 00:15:08.810 - hand really high and big in the sky to show, hey, challenges are just opportunities to think about things 00:15:08.810 --> 00:15:12.606 - differently. A problem is just something you haven't solved yet. 00:15:12.962 --> 00:15:19.622 - Again, it's not the end of the story. And so I want us to remember that if we just stop by naming what's 00:15:19.622 --> 00:15:26.155 - the challenge, what's going wrong across our system, just naming the barriers, that we're going to get 00:15:26.155 --> 00:15:32.498 - stuck there if we stay there. And so I'm hoping in this presentation that we help you find momentum 00:15:32.498 --> 00:15:38.270 - in whatever you're facing. So again, I want to acknowledge that there are real challenges. 00:15:38.626 --> 00:15:45.678 - As already been stated, limited affordable housing, rising costs, funding constraints, policy and zoning 00:15:45.678 --> 00:15:52.931 - barriers, fragmented systems, services, community perceptions. Mary had mentioned the infamous and negative 00:15:52.931 --> 00:15:59.916 - power of stigma. These are the things we're facing, but again, not the end of the story. Because again, 00:15:59.916 --> 00:16:07.102 - what if these challenges were just signals for opportunities? Opportunities to rethink what's not working? 00:16:07.298 --> 00:16:13.633 - Opportunities to lead with optimism in the face of defeat. Opportunities, again, to create outcomes 00:16:13.633 --> 00:16:20.474 - and programs that change people's lives. Opportunities to expand who has access to safe and stable housing, 00:16:20.474 --> 00:16:27.126 - which is the foundation, I believe, of any home, of any family. Can I get some snaps? If you're thinking 00:16:27.126 --> 00:16:33.587 - some of these things are possible, if you're with me, just snap throughout the presentation so I know 00:16:33.587 --> 00:16:35.614 - you're not sleeping. But again, 00:16:35.842 --> 00:16:44.058 - These challenges are opportunities that require a different lens. So for those who wear glasses in the 00:16:44.058 --> 00:16:52.035 - house, how often do your glasses get dirty? Someone said often. No, I appreciate that honesty. That 00:16:52.035 --> 00:17:00.649 - helps with my metaphor I'm about to say. Thank you. My husband wears glasses, and I feel like he's cleaning 00:17:00.649 --> 00:17:04.478 - them maybe with a little bit of OCD very often. 00:17:05.314 --> 00:17:11.303 - I'm not a glasses wearer, so I don't understand totally. But I think sometimes our perspectives get 00:17:11.303 --> 00:17:17.353 - as blurred as that first image I showed you, whether we wear glasses or not. Sometimes we can become 00:17:17.353 --> 00:17:23.402 - jaded about life, about our professional and personal lives to the point that things, you can't even 00:17:23.402 --> 00:17:29.511 - make sense of what's happening in your life or where are there opportunities to move forward or where 00:17:29.511 --> 00:17:32.446 - are there opportunities for deeper collaboration 00:17:32.674 --> 00:17:39.855 - Anyone? You with me? You can raise your hand that that's not just me up here. You've been there. You've 00:17:39.855 --> 00:17:46.829 - had moments where things just feel ambiguous. Honestly, I feel like in 2026, my life has felt like a 00:17:46.829 --> 00:17:53.940 - big blurred picture of sample gates. But what I found is that the questions we ask ourselves shape the 00:17:53.940 --> 00:18:00.638 - solutions that we see. If we focus strictly on problems, all we're going to see are limitations. 00:18:01.090 --> 00:18:07.233 - But opportunities focus on possibilities. If you get nothing else, I hope you get that. Opportunities 00:18:07.233 --> 00:18:13.255 - focus on possibilities. Perspective, shifting it creates momentum. It's still the same reality. You 00:18:13.255 --> 00:18:19.458 - still may have the same challenge, but with a different lens, you can have a different outcome. That's 00:18:19.458 --> 00:18:25.601 - what shifts people from making system changes is the lens that they see. And so I guess I'm trying to 00:18:25.601 --> 00:18:30.238 - say is that maybe it's about time we get that lens white, we get that cloth, 00:18:33.058 --> 00:18:40.875 - that we may see more clearly. See more clearly the people around us as people before they're ever filling 00:18:40.875 --> 00:18:48.839 - any position in our communities. See the problems more clearly as opportunities, again, yet to be unsolved. 00:18:48.839 --> 00:18:56.361 - So to give a couple examples related to housing, we hear there's not enough affordable housing. True. 00:18:56.361 --> 00:19:00.638 - Now to get curious about it, asking open-ended questions, 00:19:00.866 --> 00:19:06.565 - Okay, well how might we unlock new housing models or underutilized services and spaces? Who can we bring 00:19:06.565 --> 00:19:12.046 - in to talk about opportunities for development, talk about opportunities for redevelopment? You see, 00:19:12.046 --> 00:19:17.636 - there's a thing about stating a problem and there's a thing about being curious, and curiosity I think 00:19:17.636 --> 00:19:23.118 - is where we unlock solutions. Another example, systems are fragmented. I hear often in our work that 00:19:23.118 --> 00:19:28.382 - no one's working together, and I feel like the people who say that are the people who may be not 00:19:28.738 --> 00:19:34.739 - aren't in those meetings, aren't in those Zoom rooms, a part of those discussions. But then maybe you 00:19:34.739 --> 00:19:40.857 - can ask, well, who is getting together? Where can stronger coordination take place to improve outcomes? 00:19:40.857 --> 00:19:47.329 - Community resistance exists, right? The not in my backyard perspectives. Well, how can we build understanding 00:19:47.329 --> 00:19:53.271 - and shared ownership that each of us have a part to play in the greater solutions to advance housing 00:19:53.271 --> 00:19:53.918 - stability? 00:19:54.242 --> 00:19:59.742 - So you see what I'm saying is that there's a power in identifying a challenge or a problem. There's 00:19:59.742 --> 00:20:05.408 - more power in getting curious about solutions and getting curious about bringing other people into the 00:20:05.408 --> 00:20:11.458 - spaces. So looking in any room you walk into and saying, whose perspective is missing from this conversation? 00:20:11.458 --> 00:20:17.014 - Often it's people with lived experience. And heading home would love your feedback and opportunities 00:20:17.014 --> 00:20:21.854 - to collaborate further. You'll hear a panel of people with lived experience over lunch. 00:20:21.954 --> 00:20:28.940 - is ways we can do that in more meaningful ways across our region and across our system. So when I was 00:20:28.940 --> 00:20:35.925 - putting this presentation together, I started to think, I have my own biases and perspectives on what 00:20:35.925 --> 00:20:42.774 - I should talk about related to perspectives. I was like, well, let me look into what psychology and 00:20:42.774 --> 00:20:43.870 - sociology says. 00:20:44.258 --> 00:20:51.176 - What am I trying to say, guys? My words are getting so tongue-tied. Psychology shows us that the brain 00:20:51.176 --> 00:20:57.961 - is constantly filtering information and trying to make meaning of that information. We know, though, 00:20:57.961 --> 00:21:04.812 - that through cognitive bias, that we often favor information that confirms we already believe. Anyone 00:21:04.812 --> 00:21:07.230 - can testify to that? OK, thank you. 00:21:07.522 --> 00:21:12.731 - But sometimes we can be stubborn. We can be closed-minded if we're honest. And I think it's important 00:21:12.731 --> 00:21:18.245 - for us to acknowledge that elephant in the room if we really do want to move things forward in our systems. 00:21:18.245 --> 00:21:23.352 - You know, two people can look at the same situation and walk away with very different perspectives. 00:21:23.352 --> 00:21:28.611 - Anyone been in meetings like that? Very different. You thought next steps were one thing. Someone else 00:21:28.611 --> 00:21:34.024 - thought next steps were another. And then before you know it, either you're bickering or you're confused, 00:21:34.024 --> 00:21:35.454 - and there's just ambiguity. 00:21:36.450 --> 00:21:43.778 - To give an example of this, and those who've seen this image before, don't be so quick to shout it out. 00:21:43.778 --> 00:21:51.035 - I want to give people who've never seen this image before a second to look at it. But the fact is, two 00:21:51.035 --> 00:21:58.363 - people can see two different things. Look at one image, see two different things. So look at this image 00:21:58.363 --> 00:22:01.886 - for a second. And you can shout out what you see. 00:22:07.074 --> 00:22:16.618 - Two people kissing a vase. Someone said two vases. Anybody see anything else? A chalice. Raise your 00:22:16.618 --> 00:22:26.257 - hand if you saw a vase. Raise your hand if you saw two people. Yeah, if you saw it, it confirmed it. 00:22:26.257 --> 00:22:35.038 - But you see, we all had different perspectives of what we saw when we first saw this image. 00:22:35.394 --> 00:22:43.347 - That didn't change the image. It was our perspective of how our minds interpreted reality. Keep that 00:22:43.347 --> 00:22:51.457 - in mind. For sociology, it emphasizes that how we see the world is greatly influenced by three things, 00:22:51.457 --> 00:22:59.331 - our culture, our institutions, and our lived experience. And where we stand shapes what we see. The 00:22:59.331 --> 00:23:04.606 - panel I heard earlier shared how people of different socioeconomic 00:23:04.770 --> 00:23:10.980 - statuses, if you even want to call it that, have different experiences, right, based on their needs, 00:23:10.980 --> 00:23:17.129 - based on how their resources potentially may be more constrained than other demographics of people. 00:23:17.129 --> 00:23:23.523 - Our cultures, our backgrounds, whether or not we're part of a faith community. I thought that was music 00:23:23.523 --> 00:23:29.918 - for a second. I was like, things are about to get funky, but no, just some AC. It gets to keep us cool. 00:23:30.146 --> 00:23:35.786 - whether or not we are part of a faith community, whether or not we grew up in a small family, 00:23:35.786 --> 00:23:41.966 - a big family, all of these things, whether we grew up in a city or in the rural communities, all these 00:23:41.966 --> 00:23:47.966 - things shape the way that we see the world and the way we show up in the world. But the solution in 00:23:47.966 --> 00:23:54.566 - changing how we solve problems is merging these two ideas between psychology and sociology. Again, psychology 00:23:54.566 --> 00:23:57.566 - shows us that our perspectives shape how we think 00:23:58.178 --> 00:24:03.953 - Sociology shows us that our perspective is shaped by the world around us. But if we can learn to shift 00:24:03.953 --> 00:24:09.559 - our perspectives individually and collectively, we can change just not how we see problems, but how 00:24:09.559 --> 00:24:15.558 - we solve them. And I think that some of the things I'm saying to you may not be rocket science or anything 00:24:15.558 --> 00:24:21.557 - totally new, but I do hope it gives you pause at least to think about your perspective and your viewpoints 00:24:21.557 --> 00:24:22.174 - on things. 00:24:26.018 --> 00:24:33.064 - So to practically move from challenges to opportunities, I want you to revisit those pink sticky notes 00:24:33.064 --> 00:24:39.974 - of different challenges people put up in the room. I want you to grab a blue or other colored sticky 00:24:39.974 --> 00:24:46.951 - note, so not a pink sticky note. And I want you to review those challenges. And beside the challenge, 00:24:46.951 --> 00:24:53.929 - I want you to write down a solution, an idea, a theory of change. Maybe this is something that you've 00:24:53.929 --> 00:24:54.750 - experienced 00:24:54.946 --> 00:25:01.888 - or have a skill set you've grown and developed, or maybe it's something that you've learned from another 00:25:01.888 --> 00:25:08.763 - community. I want us to take a moment to think through solutions for our fellow community members. I'll 00:25:08.763 --> 00:25:15.572 - give you five minutes to do that. We'll revisit. All righty, we're gonna move on to the next activity. 00:25:15.572 --> 00:25:22.580 - If I can get your attention, thanks for participating and being a part of the solution and helping people 00:25:22.580 --> 00:25:23.902 - identify solutions. 00:25:24.706 --> 00:25:35.747 - If I can get your attention. If you can hear me, can you snap? Thank you. All righty, now at your tables, 00:25:35.747 --> 00:25:46.476 - we are going to reframe the original challenge that you brought into this room, brought into your mind 00:25:46.476 --> 00:25:52.830 - this morning. And instead of focusing on what's not working, 00:25:52.930 --> 00:25:58.937 - We're instead going to look at where we can build and where we can find opportunity. So we're going 00:25:58.937 --> 00:26:05.064 - to quite literally take the challenge of whatever challenge you presented on that back wall, bring it 00:26:05.064 --> 00:26:11.251 - back to memory, and we're going to reframe it as an opportunity and asking yourselves these questions. 00:26:11.251 --> 00:26:17.918 - What can we build on? Specifically, if it's an existing program, a partnership, whether this is a new program, 00:26:18.178 --> 00:26:25.008 - a pilot or an ongoing one? What are relationships you can capitalize on? Where are their successes? 00:26:25.008 --> 00:26:32.044 - You know, Mary mentioned that there's an importance in celebrating even the smallest of wins. What can 00:26:32.044 --> 00:26:39.079 - we connect? People, systems, resources, what can we try differently? Again, related to new approaches, 00:26:39.079 --> 00:26:42.494 - small experiences, experiences, experiments, LOL. 00:26:42.626 --> 00:26:49.375 - And then I would like you to name one to two action steps that you can take within the next 30 days 00:26:49.375 --> 00:26:56.192 - and within the next quarter in trying to implement this new opportunity you identify. Does that make 00:26:56.192 --> 00:27:03.617 - sense? We're taking the original challenge and we're flipping the script and changing it into an opportunity. 00:27:03.617 --> 00:27:06.654 - I'll give you about five minutes to do that. 00:27:09.538 --> 00:27:17.853 - Alrighty folks, we're closing in on the five minute mark. I'm gonna ask if there's anyone, any brave 00:27:17.853 --> 00:27:26.909 - volunteer that was able to capitalize on this methodology of flipping the script on challenges and perceiving 00:27:26.909 --> 00:27:35.553 - them as opportunities, have one that they'd like to share with the group. Looking for a brave volunteer. 00:27:35.553 --> 00:27:37.694 - Even if it's in progress, 00:27:38.050 --> 00:27:48.012 - Right, we're not looking for perfection. Thanks, Jess. So I'm Jessica Heye. I work for the Bloomington 00:27:48.012 --> 00:27:57.878 - Housing Authority. And I manage the Landlord Risk Mitigation Fund. And a partnership that I have been 00:27:57.878 --> 00:28:03.198 - very excited to explore and expand on is Mary Hamrick. 00:28:03.330 --> 00:28:09.876 - with heading home and her position connecting landlords to service providers and just trying to expand 00:28:09.876 --> 00:28:16.231 - affordable housing opportunities in the region. And that partnership just would go along great with 00:28:16.231 --> 00:28:22.650 - my program, right? That she can help me get in contact with landlords and can help spread word about 00:28:22.650 --> 00:28:29.259 - my program to landlords who might not already be aware of us and just to help expand our reach and just 00:28:29.259 --> 00:28:31.166 - to build those relationships. 00:28:33.922 --> 00:28:44.897 - Thanks, Jess. Yeah, give it up for Jessica Craig. Doing great work at the BHA. Any other brave soul 00:28:44.897 --> 00:28:55.982 - want to share briefly? I'll try to remember the part I didn't get written down. I'd love to see some 00:28:55.982 --> 00:29:02.238 - sort of partnership with landlords and housing providers 00:29:02.690 --> 00:29:12.832 - and heading home, and center stone home providers, rapid rehousing, all of those, and city council and 00:29:12.832 --> 00:29:22.875 - other lawmakers about the requirements for someone to start renting. Because the requirements include 00:29:22.875 --> 00:29:28.094 - often three times the monthly rent, a credit period, 00:29:28.706 --> 00:29:39.196 - Credit check is okay, but if the person can pay, they can pay. And also to abolish the across the board 00:29:39.196 --> 00:29:49.383 - using felonies, past felonies as a reason to exclude that person or that family because they need to 00:29:49.383 --> 00:29:57.150 - be considered on a one by one basis and see what's happening now. Thank you. 00:29:58.018 --> 00:30:03.856 - So for the opportunities that you have now identified in your mind, no longer just challenges, 00:30:03.856 --> 00:30:10.002 - but opportunities, we're asking you to commit to doing something to move that thing forward. In the 00:30:10.002 --> 00:30:15.595 - next 30 days and in the next quarter, on my far right, your far left, in the middle column 00:30:15.595 --> 00:30:21.740 - of this inspiration wall, there's a green question that says, what is something you're committed to 00:30:21.740 --> 00:30:25.182 - doing? I want you to write down whatever it is that you 00:30:25.282 --> 00:30:31.218 - identified in this session and write it on that green light bulb during lunch. In closing, why do I 00:30:31.218 --> 00:30:37.214 - have two mics? This is kind of funny. In closing, I'll use this one, is that I want to let you know, 00:30:37.214 --> 00:30:43.269 - if you get nothing else, is that lasting change comes from those who focus on possibilities, not just 00:30:43.269 --> 00:30:49.384 - problems, right? So when you come into these community spaces, as you go back to your workplaces, your 00:30:49.384 --> 00:30:54.014 - faith communities, your business community, whatever sector you're a part of, 00:30:54.274 --> 00:31:00.675 - whether you're just a passionate resident in this region, is to not lead with problems. Lead 00:31:00.675 --> 00:31:07.695 - with possibilities. What if we did this? Right? Not just thinking, oh, this isn't working. That's the 00:31:07.695 --> 00:31:14.302 - gap. This is what's wrong. We're probably already aware of the things that you're about to say. 00:31:14.914 --> 00:31:20.277 - So lead with possibilities. And I want you to know that you're part of creating a stronger, 00:31:20.277 --> 00:31:26.515 - not just system, but community, that you truly are a part of the solution. And as Mary said in her opening 00:31:26.515 --> 00:31:32.519 - remarks, you hold a key. And so I hope that you find a place to plug that key into to unlock solutions 00:31:32.519 --> 00:31:38.349 - across South Central Indiana. In closing, if you want to learn more about heading home, there's our 00:31:38.349 --> 00:31:44.062 - website. There's my email if you have questions. With that, we'll be starting lunch just briefly. 00:31:44.674 --> 00:31:48.974 - Please don't forget, go to the Inspiration Wall. Write down what's coming to your mind, but thanks for 00:31:48.974 --> 00:31:49.726 - being here today.