Online Training Modules
These freestanding modules engage you with key concepts, frameworks, mindsets, and skills central to the work of ending homelessness. We trust you’ll find them practical and relevant whether you are brand new or experienced in the field.
Check out an Intro to our Training Modules
Check out the array of modules below, organized across several topic areas.
- Choose one module to begin, based on what you feel is most relevant to your work today.
- Complete the module at your own pace.
- Connect with a colleague and/or with your supervisor to solidify your learning and transfer what you learned into your day-to-day work. Check out more about connecting with your colleagues and transfering your learning from each module into your unique work setting and context.
Area One: Getting Familiar – A New World of Ending Homelessness!
Getting Familiar is the place to start if you are working with people experiencing homelessness for the first time. It is also a great refresher for staff who work with clients experiencing homelessness outside the homeless service system from time to time and need to understand or refresh their understanding of the language, programs, and processes established to help guide people out of homelessness.
Housing First
Housing First is both a philosophy (set of values) and a practice (set of principles). When utilized together, it is consistently demonstrated to be the most successful framework for supporting people to exit homelessness – and to stay housed.
Understanding Our Client Experience: Trauma Informed and Culturally Appropriate Services
This module focuses on different kinds of traumatic stress, the definition of a trauma-informed approach, and developmental or complex trauma’s impact on children. We will analyze the impact of complex trauma including the impact on attachment, neurological development, and emotional regulation.
Introduction to Coordinated Entry
This short, introductory module on Coordinated Entry is for all of our VCEH statewide partners — referral partners, assessment partners, and lead agencies — or anyone who wants to learn more about Coordinated Entry.
Homeless Assistance in Vermont – The Continuum of Care
This module will provide an overview of various homeless assistance and housing programs and partners in Vermont. It will explain the Homeless Continuum of Care model and how we are working together to make homelessness rare, brief, and one-time in Vermont. This module may be helpful to anyone working directly with people experiencing a housing crisis or working more generally to address and end homelessness in the State of Vermont.
Area Two: Getting People Housed – Do the Work!
Getting People Housed will help housing navigators, service coordinators, and other professionals working with people experiencing homelessness access rental assistance and resources in the community. These modules focus assessments and referrals to coordinated entry, identifying and applying for rental assistance, and engaging clients in creative problem-solving to help them find an alternative and safe living arrangement even before rental assistance becomes available.
Housing Problem Solving
The module will demonstrate how to engage clients in creative problem-solving to help them find safe living arrangements even when rental assistance is unavailable. The module explains housing problem-solving strategies and supports learners to engage in strength-based, non-judgemental conversations with clients.
Connecting Clients to Supports and Coordinating with Service Providers
This module will help you gain an understanding of an array of mainstream benefits and support services that will supplement the household’s housing plan. You will learn and practice strategies for coordinating with other service providers who may also be working with the household to ensure an effective and streamlined experience for households. This module will be valuable for professionals working with people experiencing homelessness.
Coordinated Entry Assessment: Before, During + After
This module prepares staff to conduct a client-centered assessment process, every time.
Successfully Connecting Clients to Permanent Rental Assistance
In this module, learners will explore the various types of subsidies available and match clients with appropriate resources. Learners will make sure that the necessary forms are filled out and accompany the application, so the client has the greatest likelihood of getting the housing and services that they need. The intended participants for this module are Housing Navigators and Service Providers who work with those who are homeless and housing insecure to help all understand the process to apply for a housing subsidy for permanent rental assistance.
A Note on Time: These modules are designed to give you what you need to feel more confident and equipped to do the challenging work of ending homelessness. We kept each module relatively short because your days are full!
The modules require minimally, 1-3 hours to complete, depending on the complexity of content. The time you take with a module will depend on how deeply you choose to explore the downloadable resources, and how extensively you want to practice the skills in the module.
We highly recommend carving out time to complete a module in one sitting. If that’s not possible, get back to it the next day — and the next if necessary. In other words, don’t let too much time go by without keeping your focus on the learning opportunity once you begin it.