|
On April 16, 1997 I had the opportunity to participate in my second conference of the Task Force on Homelessness and the Delaware Housing Coalition. For those of you who did attend, you had the opportunity for enlightenment from the well organized day, packed with outstanding group leaders, and tremendous interactions among the participants and the leaders, speakers and guests. For those of you who did not attend, maybe because of a lesser positive experience from a prior conference or whatever reason, you need to be sure to plan to participate in next year’s conference, which --if it is a take off of this year’s conference, as I am confident that it will-- under the leadership of Ken Smith, you will be inspired and assisted in your work to help those less fortunate than ourselves with their housing needs. There was a substantial representation of tenants in attendance which provided a genuine forum for learning and understanding for all involved. The motivation and enthusiasm of the group leaders, panelists, presenters and guests kept the sessions alive, invigorating and interesting throughout the day. The workshops were scheduled which adequately provided ample time for coverage of the issues. Probably, to me, the highlight of the day’s experience were the sessions lead by the representatives from United for a Fair Economy. Their presentation, labeled "The Growing Divide," is a great awareness technique. In order to make progress or improvement, one has to first assess where they are and determine what factors influence this positioning. From that point plans of actions can be established for desired changes. The session and workshop on "How to Organize Your Fellow Tenants" offered hope and inspiration for tenant participants who may have come to the conference feeling that the management of their housing needs were not adequately being handled. One of the best friends for those of us in the business of working to see that all deserving individuals and families have decent affordable housing is NCALL Research, Inc. Mr. Joe Myer lead a workshop on "Non-Profit Developers." Joe and his staff provide all the technical assistance that is needed to help non-profit groups to organize and become housing developers themselves and work to eliminate homelessness and substandard housing. I was an honor for Better Homes of Seaford, Inc., Seaford, DE, a non-profit affordable housing provider and developer, to be able join with the many sponsors and provide support to this much needed and significant of this Homelessness Conference. William G. Roupp is Executive Director of Better Homes of Seaford, Inc.
|
|
|