The Western Australian Alliance to End Homelessness (WA Alliance) hosted Brisbane-based Micah Projects, who ran a workshop on assertive outreach practice.
Jim Decouto and Natalie Garth from Micah delivered a workshop stepping through the ways to build the capacity of organisations and services to support workers to engage effectively when doing outreach.
For the outreach workers and managers present it was an opportunity to understand how the sector can collaborate using the Housing First approach and Advance to Zero methodology.
Director of Engagement and Strategic Projects John Berger says the key to the success of this work is to learn, understand and overcome the barriers to effective practice.
"This is achieved when the stakeholders come together and collaboratively problem solve to improve the practice. This approach is supported the Advance to Zero methodology which seeks to continually improve the system to the point of achieving zero homelessness – when the number of people coming into homelessness is less than the number of people being housed."
This workshop was a great opportunity to tap into the extensive experience of Micah services and apply these learnings to our situation in Perth. We are grateful for Jim and Natalie’s time and expertise to assist us in our work.