We hope that you can join the Reaching Home Campaign for our 3rd Annual Celebration Dinner, which will be held this year on Thursday, May 29, 2008 from 5:30 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. at the Rocky Hill Marriott.

Last year, over 200 supportive housing advocates, tenants, providers and representatives from state government attended the event. The photo at the right shows a table of attendees from last year.

The dinner is an opportunity for those working to promote supportive housing to celebrate the transformative effect it has on the lives of individuals and families, to reflect on our past successes and challenges, and to take a look towards the future as we work to end homelessness in Connecticut.

Hor d’oeuvres and a cash bar will start at 5:30 p.m. The program begins at 6:00 p.m. with a buffet dinner to follow. The dinner will include the presentation of this year’s Reaching Home Campaign Supportive Housing awards, which will be awarded in three categories: the Janice Elliott Supportive Housing Tenant Award, the Case Manager Community Partner Award, and the Supportive Housing Advocacy Award.

The Reaching Home Campaign would like to thank the early Champion Sponsors who have supported the dinner at the $5,000 level: Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development; Connecticut Housing Finance Authority, and Connecticut Office for Workforce Competitiveness & Connecticut Department of Labor.

If you would like to attend, please click here for an R.S.V.P. form that you can print out and mail to Reaching Home to register.

Click here for more photos from last year’s dinner, which was held at the New Haven Lawn Club.

The newest supportive housing trainings offered by DMHAS will provide opportunities for supportive housing providers to learn more about substance abuse, fair housing laws, employment and education, and trauma sensitive services. Click here to read more about the upcoming trainings.

The National Alliance to End Homelessness and Knowledgeplex are hosting an expert chat on Housing First strategies for homeless families on Thursday May 15, 2008 at 2:00 p.m.  Housing First programs help individuals and families experiencing homeless move as quickly as possible into permanent housing and then provide supportive services to help them maintain housing stability and connect with other resources in the community.  

For more information on the series and instructions for joining click here.  For links to Housing First resources, visit the new Lyceum website.

The Connecticut Housing Finance Authority (CHFA), the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services (DMHAS), the Department of Social Services (DSS), the Department of Children and Families (DCF), and the Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD) of the State of Connecticut are seeking applications for capital financing, project-based rental assistance, and support service funding for supportive housing development projects.

CHFA will accept responses from qualified applicants through 12:00 noon on July 25, 2008. Any responses received after that date and time shall be returned, unopened to the submitting organization. This is the third round of anticipated funding for development under the Next Steps Initiative.

The entire RFP is available on the CHFA website.