The COVID-19 pandemic challenged our typical approaches to building community connections in many ways, especially when it comes to collecting feedback from individuals with lived experience of homelessness. This in turn presented evolving opportunities for systems-leaders, researchers, and program operators concerned with equity and power-sharing to redesign remote engagement in ways that further opened access and allowed for more geographically diverse feedback collection. This presentation will offer examples of inclusive virtual facilitation strategies and practical solutions to common challenges, including selecting the appropriate technology for the project and audience; recruiting diverse participants virtually; providing virtual and physical stipends to remote participants; and building out effective remote feedback loops.

This presentation will provide actionable strategies for collecting feedback from individuals with lived experience of homelessness in remote contexts across several different types of evaluations and feedback collection efforts (e.g., evaluating the effectiveness of emergency shelter, planning for system-level changes to the Coordinated Entry System). Attendees will learn how to collect feedback remotely from individuals with lived experience at each stage of evaluation, including project design, methodology selection, feedback collection, analysis, and implementation. Presenters will provide handouts with examples of common feedback collection methods, including survey and focus group guides. Audience members will be engaged through Q&A and peer sharing in a small-group problem-solving activity.

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Homebase (a non-profit based in San Francisco) staff have flexibly adapted and iterated on our approach to remotely engage with individuals with lived experience of homelessness in communities across the United States to collect feedback, inform and shape decision making, and lead systems redesign work. Staff successfully worked around initial challenges and have been able to leverage virtual engagement to maximize reach. This presentation will share how our approach can be replicated to build community connections and ensure folks with lived experience of homelessness have a voice at virtual tables.