ICA News -December 2024 - Iowa

In-Person Training

Monthly In-person New User Classes

The ICA Training Team is excited to announce the continuation of optional in-person HMIS New-User training. This is to fulfill the need for users who will benefit from learning the system with a more hands-on approach, while still using the online training videos as additional tools. Below are the current dates we have set up along with the locations in which the trainings are taking place. If you are the person at your agency that requests new user trainings, and think that you have staff that would benefit from an in-person training experience, please fill out the form below.

Please note that online training is still available as an option if this does not fit your staff’s needs. If it is decided that in-person training is the best option, each student only need to attend one session. Each attendee will need their own laptop. The classes fill up at 10 attendees each.

If we do not have at least 3 students signed up for an in-person class 48 hours before the class, the class will be canceled.

Current In Person Trainings:

Polk County Classes- The 2nd Thursday of every month in Des Moines

January 8th

February13th
March 13th
April 10th
May 8th
June 12th

Balance of State Classes- The 3rd Thursday of every month in Iowa City

December 19th

January 16th

February 20th
March 20th
April 17th
May 15th
June 19th

In-person Training Request Form - Formstack

Training Calendar

The training calendar is back! You can find it here but also in the Iowa section of the ICA website - ICA Alliance.org/Iowa

December Q & A

ICA Staff Introductions- (KarLee Kearns, Shawn McAninch, Kyndra Lobdell, & Susie McCarragher)  

Security and Privacy – Lockouts (Kyndra)
Reminder – Please Reply to Project list so we know what is and is not operational (Kyndra)
PIT Update (Kyndra)
Training Fun- Move-in Dates, overlapping Enrollments (Susie) - 5:34
This will be the bulk of the Q & A Office Hours. Move-in Dates will cover which projects and exit destinations require a move-in date and when to add them. We will also dive into overlapping enrollments and when these overlaps are an issue/error.
Helpdesk/ Helpscout Reminder support@icalliances.org Thursday – New User Q & A
Anything you would like added in the next Q & A send to support@icalliances.org
Next Q&A 12/3/2024 at 10:00am-

Q&A Library

All of ICA’s past Q&A webinars are available in our Q&A Library on ICATraining.org.

Here is the link: Q&A Library

**Monthly Data Update**

ICA’s monthly data update describing the key indicators and changes in the population experiencing housing instability in the Balance of State and Polk County.

This Month’s Data Update

Featured

Feb 15, 2025

Polk Data Update January 2025

Feb 15, 2025

BOS Data Update January 2025

Feb 15, 2025

Data Update- Archives

Feb 15, 2025

Jan 15, 2025

Dec 15, 2024

Nov 15, 2024

Nov 19, 2024

Oct 22, 2024

Sep 15, 2024

Aug 15, 2024

Jul 15, 2024

Jun 12, 2024

May 15, 2024

Apr 15, 2024

Mar 29, 2024

Help for New Students

Weekly Office Hour

In an effort to provide a better learning experience, we are incorporating a weekly "office hour" for anyone currently working on the new user ServicePoint (Community Services) test. This open Teams link will have a human on the other end every Thursday at 10:00AM . So, if you are a student struggling with their test or the system join us on Thursday mornings and be able to ask someone directly for help.
**Test Help Office Hour - Thursday at 10:00am -** **Click here to join**

Coordinated Entry Q&A Webinars

HUD News

Reminder: Initial Review of Warning Flags Interim Benchmark for the FY 2024 LSA is Today

There have been flag updates in the Homelessness Data Exchange (HDX), and vendor-related programing updates are anticipated to occur today, Thursday, December 12, 2024. All Continuums of Care (CoCs) should replace their uploads starting Friday, December 13, 2024, and aim to have replaced their dataset at least once by the holiday break period, which starts on December 23, 2024.

The primary purpose of this benchmark is to make sure communities are on track to address all of their data quality issues before the end of the LSA data cleaning and review period, which ends on January 9, 2025. By today, CoCs should have at least one successful upload and have submitted notes related to warnings. Since this process is iterative, it is expected that CoCs will go back and forth with the Review Team to resolve any issues in the datasets before the end of the Data Cleaning and Review period.

When CoCs are ready for their Review Team to review their warning flag notes, they must “Submit for Review”, circled in red in the screen shot below. CoCs should continue to upload Official HUD Review Files throughout this phase until uploads have as few errors and warnings as possible. Over the course of the entire LSA submission period, CoCs should expect to upload and review multiple LSA files in the HDX, Version 2.0 (HDX 2.0), replacing old uploads with new uploads to increase the quality of the data.

You can find detailed information on the full LSA submission process in Chapters 3 and 4 of An Introductory Guide to Submitting LSA Data for the AHAR

December 23, 2024 – January 1, 2025 Winter Holiday Break Period. During this time, Review Teams will not be available for support. CoCs will be able to continue uploading and cleaning their data.

January 9, 2025 -Final Submission Deadline. By this time, data errors should have been eliminated from uploads (to the extent possible) and all warnings should be addressed with comprehensive notes.

Updated Resources

Updated versions of the An Introductory Guide to Submitting LSA Data for the AHAR, Preparing for the LSA: Guidance on Common Data Quality Issues, and LSA Common Flags Library are now available.

Eva is another helpful resource for engaging in the LSA data cleaning & review. As a reminder, all community resources and guidance related to the LSA are announced through the HUD Exchange mailing list and are available on the LSA Tools and Guidance page.