Announcement – April 6, 2011
Today, Co-Chairs Ron Peabody and Stephanie Matheny made a number of announcements about the community process to address homelessness. The process, called Compassion Knoxville, will begin in earnest later in April, and is slated to be completed by the end of July.
1. Task Force: The next step will be the first meeting of the Task Force on Monday, April 11 at 6 pm at United Way, 1301 Hannah Avenue, Knoxville, TN 37921. This meeting is open to the public. The Task Force will hold monthly meetings throughout the process, and its primary role is to ensure that the process is inclusive, transparent, and informed.
2. Staffing: Compassion Knoxville will be staffed by Dr. Amy Gibson. Dr. Gibson will serve as Coordinator, and will be responsible for day-to-day management of the process, including, scheduling/staffing meetings, and creating/maintaining a website. Dr. Gibson has more than 15 years experience in higher education and meeting and conference facilitation. Dr. Gibson’s services have been made available to the Task Force by the Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy.
3. Process Overview: The community process will include:
- gathering ideas from the community (community meetings)
- Databasing the ideas
- Sorting ideas into topics
- Analyzing topics and developing recommendations
- Presenting results to the community
4. Community Meetings: The first step will involve a minimum of 30 facilitated community meetings from mid-April through mid-May. If you are part of a civic, neighborhood, or religious organization that is interested in co-hosting a meeting, please contact Amy Gibson at amykgibson@compassionknoxville.com. The questions to be discussed at these meetings are:
- Homelessness is an issue that impacts our community, what do you recommend we do about it?
- What are the major concerns you have about dealing with homelessness?
Attendees will discuss these questions in a round-robin fashion, and all comments will be recorded and posted online.
5. Volunteer Facilitators:
This process will require 40-50 volunteer meeting facilitators for the community meetings to take place mid-April to mid-May. Training will be provided in mid-April before the community meetings begin. If you are interested in serving as a facilitator, please contact Amy Gibson at amykgibson@compassionknoxville.com.
Compassion Knoxville Task Force
Announcement – February 25, 2011
On February 9, 2011 Citizens for the Ten Year Plan announced that it is partnering with TYP Choice on a citizens’ process to discuss how our community can best address homelessness. This effort will seek agreement on a feasible and effective homeless plan, and will result in a set of recommendations to be considered by City and County leaders. Our goal is to have these recommendations ready by late summer 2011.
Until this community process is completed, the new development of permanent supportive housing through the Ten-Year Plan is on hold and the TYP will not pursue any new initiatives. Other elements of the TYP – homelessness prevention, coordination of services, existing permanent supportive housing – will continue.
On February 25, 2011, Ron Peabody of TYP Choice and Stephanie Matheny of Citizens for the Ten Year Plan announced the formation of the Initiating Committee, which meets Saturday, March 5, 2011 from 9 am – 1 pm at St. John’s Episcopal Cathedral, 413 W. Cumberland Ave., Knoxville TN, 37902. This meeting is open to the public, and will address only the process to be used to gather community input, develop proposals, and reach agreement on a set of recommendations for how Knoxville and Knox County can better address homelessness. This meeting will not address the merits of the Ten-Year Plan.
Thank you for visiting Knoxville/Knox County Citizens for the Ten Year Plan.
Who Are Citizens for the Ten Year Plan?
We are local residents who support the Ten-Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness. Our purpose is to galvanize and organize supporters of the Ten-Year Plan so that our voices are heard in the public process. Citizens for the Ten Year Plan will rely on facts, not fear, to build greater support for this much-needed effort to improve services and provide permanent supportive housing for chronically homeless individuals.
We believe in transparency, both in the public process of implementing the Ten-Year Plan and in our efforts to support it. The public will know who we are and where we stand on issues related to homelessness in Knoxville and Knox County. We are independent from the Ten-Year Plan office and do not receive financial support from any governmental entity. We are an all-volunteer, grass-roots organization. Click here to see who is on our steering committee and our current list of supporters of the Ten-Year Plan.
We urge you to review the materials about the Ten-Year Plan (see links to additional resources here), attend public meetings, and to join our efforts. If you want to sign up as a Ten-Year Plan supporter and receive our email alerts, click here.
Once you join, we will add your name and zip code to the list on this website. We will send occasional emails informing you of meetings regarding the Ten- Year Plan, and, when appropriate, asking you to take action to support a particular proposal.
Who are we?
We are local residents who support the Ten-Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness. Our purpose is to galvanize...
Learn More What is the TYP?
The TYP is targeted to serve chronically homeless individuals, who are defined by HUD to be disabled...
Learn More How can I help?
There are many ways that citizens can help. The first is to 1. read about the Ten-Year Plan and learn the facts...
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