Over the last year and a half, Start Early has had the privilege of working alongside our partners at the Chicago Coalition to End Homelessness and the University of Illinois Chicago Center for Research on Women and Gender to create an action plan for preventing and ending homelessness among expectant families and those with infants and toddlers in Illinois as part of the Housing Instability and Homelessness Among the Pregnant and Parenting Project (HIHIPP). Together, we convened a cross-sector group of experts, including people with lived experience of homelessness, to better understand the primary drivers of homelessness among this population and develop a strategy for addressing it. We are thrilled to finally share our findings and vision for the future in the project report.
The report includes a Theory of Change for preventing and ending prenatal-to-3 homelessness, which was co-constructed by the project advisory committee and articulates a vision to ensure safe, secure and sustainable housing for all expectant families and those with children under the age of three in Illinois. The Theory of Change also describes mechanisms critical to achieving that vision, including supportive policies, adequate funding, more robust data and research, an accessible array of integrated, family-centered and trauma-informed services delivered by a well-trained workforce and a shift in mindset among all stakeholders that recognizes the importance of addressing homelessness among this population.
The report also includes a 10-year Action Plan, grounded in the Theory of Change and reflective of learnings from recent data and research, interviews and engagement with people with lived experience, and other project activities. The final Action Plan is meant to be flexible and opportunistic to meet the demands of the current dynamic political landscape while focusing on building foundational structures needed for successful systems change. The plan outlines a set of strategic objectives related to housing, supports and services, and workforce and professional practice, along with identifying key strategies for advancing the strategic objectives, including policy and advocacy, data and research, family engagement and leadership, strategic communications, professional development and training, and developing and implementing innovations.
As we publish this report, we turn to implementation of the HIHIPP Action Plan. We’re thrilled to continue our partnership with Chicago Coalition to End Homelessness in the coming months as we work together to raise awareness about prenatal-to-3 homelessness in Illinois, create a statewide prenatal-to-3 homelessness data dashboard and develop a set of innovative pilot projects in collaboration with people with lived experience of homelessness that put the HIHIPP strategic objectives into action. Now, more than ever, bold and creative approaches to addressing homelessness among expectant families and those with infants and toddlers are needed, and the HIHIPP Action Plan provides a strong foundation for meeting the moment we’re in and will help us chart a path forward through the challenges that lie ahead.
