ICA News -January 2025 - Iowa

PIT/HIC Office Hours
and New Portal

The 2025 Point-in-Time (PIT) and Housing Inventory Count (HIC) is fast approaching, with the count scheduled for January 29th, 2025. To assist with your preparations, we have two essential training videos, PIT 101 and PIT 201, on the ICA training website. These resources, along with all necessary training materials and survey links for the unsheltered count, can be found here: Iowa Point in Time Institute for Community Alliances

Training and materials related to the sheltered count will be provided shortly on the ICA training site listed above.

This year, the process for submitting data on the unsheltered count will remain unchanged from last year. However, the process for submitting sheltered data will be different. All sheltered data must now be submitted through ICA s new PIT Portal (PITportal.org), which requires a login. Each agency will have one person assigned as the designated submitter . For continuity, ICA has designated this year's submitter as the person who submitted most sheltered data last year. If your agency has experienced staff turnover, or for any reason you think submitter needs to be updated, please contact us at support@icalliances.org. Emails with log in credentials and who the assigned submitter is will be going out next week.

Additionally, two Point-in-Time Office Hour sessions are available for registration:

Office Hours #1: January 22, 2025, at 11:00 AM CST
This session will cover both the unsheltered submission process and the sheltered submission process. While this session is highly recommended, it will not replace the training videos available on the ICA website.
Register for Office Hours #1
Office Hours #2: February 5, 2025, at 11:00 AM CST
This session will address any questions or concerns providers may have during the submission window, following the PIT date.
Register for Office Hours #2

Please continue to keep an eye out for important emails and information regarding the 2025 PIT/HIC. Thank you for your attention, and we look forward to supporting you throughout this process. Please reach out with any questions to support@icalliances.org .

New User Training Process

Training Expectations & Objectives

HMIS data input is not your average data entry. It has a few very different aspects that make it much more challenging than one would expect. This new user training has between 6 to 8 hours of videos, multiple documents to review, and quizzes.

The student is expected to learn how to properly input and update client data in our HMIS so that they will later be able to report to funders, HUD, in the multitude and ever-changing ways that they require it. Final testing involves the students inputting practice clients into a mock Servicepoint system.

To complete this training, The student will need:

A computer
Internet Access
6 to 8 hours to get through the material
A week or two to successfully complete their test cases
Training Accounts are recycled after 30 days unless the student has asked for more time
Remember, though the class is self-paced, humans on our training team need time to check students work and respond. This can take 3 business days.
User Agreement Paperwork must also be completed to finish
Questions should go to service@icalliances.org
To get started complete the appropriate form below:
For HMIS training please complete this training request form
For DVIMS training please complete this training request form

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

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

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

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

This flight is here to draw your attention to the note below about Client ID Numbers

Client ID numbers that should not be used

Please do not use any client records below 350,000 in the Balance of state & 500,000 in Polk County.

These are old records that are there for reference only. Using them will cause errors on your reports. If you have any questions in regards to this reach out to us at support@icalliance.org.

January Q & A

No Q&A for January
Next Q&A 2/4/2025 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

Jan 15, 2025

Polk Data Update December 2024

Jan 15, 2025

BOS Data Update December 2024

Jan 15, 2025

Data Update- Archives

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

Save the Date: Supporting Communities with HIV Outbreaks Among People Experiencing Homelessness – January 31, 2025 – 12:00 PM EST

HUD's Office of HIV/AIDS Housing (OHH), in partnership with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), is sponsoring a webinar on January 31, 2025, at 12:00 PM EST. This outbreak preparedness and response technical assistance webinar will provide support to communities to help address HIV outbreaks among people experiencing homelessness and housing instability and assist in coordinating response efforts. The webinar will feature contacts from HUD, CDC, as well as a guest community speaker.

Objectives

Understand framing and background about what technical assistance is available to communities
Discuss examples from communities that have experienced HIV clusters and responded in a coordinated effort
Learn the next steps for communities interested in working with technical assistance providers in assessing the level of need in your community

Audience

This webinar is intended for partners supporting efforts to identify and address HIV outbreaks and risk among people experiencing homelessness and housing instability, including Housing Opportunities for Persons With AIDS (HOPWA) Program grantees and sponsors, public health workers, housing providers, and other service providers.

Join the Webinar