Advocating for Children Living in Homeless Shelters
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Homeless Health Initiative Annual ReportLocal — housing and homelessness seminar
Melissa Johnson, MSW, and Karen Hudson, MSW, LSW, members of the Homeless Health Initiative (HHI), were part of a November panel presentation sponsored by the CHOP Patient and Family Services Department. Other presenters included colleagues from the Office of Homeless Services, Community Legal Services, the Philadelphia Housing Authority, and a family that formerly lived in shelter.
Shelter, Housing and Preventing Homelessness in Philadelphia was presented to CHOP social workers, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania staff, and other housing and homeless advocates. The purpose was to share new knowledge and information and to empower staff as advocates.
National — National Healthcare for the Homeless Conference
The 2018 National Health Care for the Homeless (HCH) Conference & Policy Symposium was held May 15 – 18, 2018, in Minneapolis, Minn. Karen Hudson was one of the presenters. The HCH Conference is an annual gathering of providers, consumers, administrators, advocates and policymakers working at the intersection of healthcare and homelessness.
In Minneapolis, “Working Together for Community” was the theme. Hudson has been invited to share her research on nonresidential fathers at this conference.
International — follow-up from 2016 Montreal Children’s Hospital Grand Rounds
In August 2017, Jae-Marie Ferdinand, MD, a neonatologist at Montreal Children’s Hospital, attended the National Medical Association (NMA) Conference in Philadelphia. While she was in town, she had the opportunity to follow up on Hudson’s 2016 Grand Rounds presentation in Montreal. Ferdinand toured CHOP, The Garden at Karabots, as well as Jane Addams Place, where she observed a SPARK session. She took information on the HHI model back to Montreal to aid the hospital as it plans a response to working with those experiencing homelessness in Canada. Dr. Ferdinand, thanks also for introducing HHI to the NMA! We look forward to future collaborations.