DLN Consulting Helps to End Homelessness in North Dakota

Homelessness may not look the same in North Dakota as it does in our nation's more urban centers.  The streets are not teeming with people sleeping in cardboard boxes or pushing carts full of all their worldly belongings along the downtown sidewalks.  Rather, homeless individuals in North Dakota are "hidden homeless", a category so often defined for homeless individuals and families in rural America.

The North Dakota Continuum of Care, coordinated by the North Dakota Coalition for the Homeless People, engages organizations from across the state in an effort to develop a coordinated strategy for addressing homelessness in North Dakota.  In order to accomplish this goal, the cities of Minot, Williston, and Dickinson reached out to DLN Consulting, Inc. for its expertise in strategic planning.  DLN lead these communities through a strategic planning process to develop a long-term, 10-year plan to end chronic and long-term community homelessness.

Community stakeholders and service providers joined together in each of the respective communities to complete the planning process.  The foundation of each strategic plan was based on the need to increase community awareness and education, and to increase the availability of housing.  Through the planning process, these "stakeholders" identified strategies and activities to be accomplished over the course of a ten-year period.  Minot identified three strategies and devised a plan that included twenty-two activities to achieve those three main strategies.  Williston identified seven strategies to be accomplished and developed 23 different activities.  Dickinson identified five main strategies and established twenty-five activities to attain those strategies.

The stakeholders in Minot, Williston, and Dickinson recognize that their individual plans are ambitious, and will take a concerted effort to accomplish.  However, this dedicated group of people is committed to working in collaboration and partnerships to ensure each of the plan's success.  In each community, the responsibility of each activity was assigned to a specific agency or entity.  All of the planning groups submitted their plan to the respective city governing body, and in each instance, the plan was approved.