About USICH/Frequently Asked Questions

This discussion forum, powered by a tool called UserVoice, allows people to come together, share ideas in response to a question, discuss those ideas, and vote the best ones to the top for consideration by the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness. In this case, we are using the tool to get your ideas on the Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness. Stakeholders from across the country will weigh in -- make sure your voice is heard!

What is the mission of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness?

The mission of the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness is "to coordinate the federal response to homelessness and to create a national partnership at every level of government and with the private sector to reduce and end homelessness in the nation while maximizing the effectiveness of the Federal Government in contributing to the end of homelessness."

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What is the Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness?

The President and Congress charged the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) via the HEARTH Act to develop and submit the Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness to Congress by May 20. The Plan will serve as a roadmap for joint action by Council agencies to guide the development of programs and budget proposals towards a set of measurable targets. The Plan will reflect interagency agreement on a set of priorities and strategies the agencies will pursue over a five year period.

USICH is centering its plan on the belief – the moral foundation – "no one should experience homelessness – no one should be without a safe, stable place to call home." The Council has charged the Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness' planning process to align federal resources effectively and appropriately toward four key objectives: 1) finish the job of ending chronic homelessness; 2) prevent and end homelessness among Veterans; 3) prevent and end family homelessness; and 4) set a path to ending all types of homelessness.

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Were there public meetings to discuss the Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness?

The process to create this plan is designed to be transparent and provide multiple opportunities for input, feedback and collaboration. More than 400 people participated in regional stakeholders meetings held in February with several more meetings to take place during the first week of March. They were intended to engage leaders of regional and state interagency councils, as well as stakeholders from throughout the multi-state regions. These meetings have been a great opportunity for USICH to hear directly from external and Federal Government stakeholders regarding challenges, priorities and different perspectives on how to prevent and end homelessness in the United States. The input from these sessions is incredibly valuable and will be incorporated into the development of the Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness.

For more information, please see http://www.usich.gov/images_uservoice/FSP_Overview_Summary.pdf

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What will the outcome be from the stakeholder and electronic input for the Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness?

USICH will jointly create -
a set of targeted, solutions-driven goals and collaborative strategies

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How are you expecting people to engage with the Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness?

Each of the six key questions for the Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness has its own forum that participants can submit their best ideas to and engage in. Through this UserVoice site, USICH is able to:

• Engage stakeholders in an open and transparent process to ensure every stakeholder has a voice in the creation of the Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness
• Collect innovative input and perspectives on key goals and strategies that have worked in communities across the United States

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What kind of feedback are you looking for?

The UserVoice application will allow all stakeholders to:

• Submit ideas related to the six key questions of the Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness
• Rate and comment on the ideas of fellow stakeholders

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How does voting work?

When you visit the site, you will automatically be sent to the first of the six areas on this site, a discussion of how local communities can contribute to the vision of preventing and ending homelessness? As a new user, you will have 30 votes in each of the six areas to express your support for others' ideas, or for your own. You can give any idea 1, 2, or 3 votes, depending on how strongly you support it. As you allocate votes, you will see the number of votes you have left, which is displayed on the right-hand sidebar, decrease. Votes are not permanent; you can reallocate votes away from one idea and towards another at any time, as many times as you like. To do this, simply click the vote display next to an idea you've voted for, and choose 0, 1, 2, or 3 from the vote selection menu that pops up.

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Why do I only have 30 votes in each forum?

This site's voting system is based on the idea that, when people have a finite number of votes to "spend", they tend to think more carefully about what they really support and how much they support it. You should use your votes to support the ideas you think are most important, so that the overall best ideas and top priorities emerge!

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How can I add my own idea to what's already here?

To add an idea, make sure you are in the right forum and simply begin typing the "title" of your idea - a brief (5-10 word) summary of the idea - into the big search box in the middle of the page. As you begin to type, the system will automatically search for similar ideas that have already been created. If something comes up that is similar to what you're suggesting, you may want to simply vote for that idea instead of creating your own. If you determine that your idea is not a duplicate, click the "Create New Idea" button, and elaborate briefly on your idea in the "Description" box that appears. Assign 1, 2 or 3 votes to your idea, as you deem appropriate, and click "Suggest it!" Your idea will be posted immediately, along with your username.

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How can I learn more about an idea?

In order to save space and make the site usable, the front page of each discussion area only lists the titles of ideas, part of their descriptions, the number of comments they have received, and their overall score. To see more in-depth information, including the actual comment thread as well as a list of who has voted for the idea, simply click on any idea's title.

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What's that orange symbol I see around the site?

You mean this: That's a link to an RSS feed of all the "action" in a particular area of the site, including ideas and comments, etc. To learn more about what RSS is and how you can use it, check out this helpful video.

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