Collaborate, Collaborate and Collaborate
Our AC Collaborative has been extremely productive and energized, revitalizing our efforts to build a healthy Atlantic City community. Amid the pandemic, AtlantiCare, Jewish Family Service, Atlantic City Rescue Mission, the Atlantic County Office of Emergency Management and the County’s Department of Family and Community Development, Volunteers of America and the City of Atlantic City have collaborated to connect Atlantic City residents experiencing homelessness with available social services and qualified healthcare providers. This type of collaborative effort was missing from our community prior to the pandemic. The pandemic pushed us to provide services in new and different ways. As a result, we are now better able to address and meet the needs of our community.
Looking back on the evolution of our work, from a focus on food insecurity to one on homelessness over the past six years and a more recent goal of making better use of local data, it’s clear that collecting and sharing data allowed us to anticipate community trends and identify which services and programs could be in high demand during the pandemic. By addressing gaps in services through shared resources, no one agency had to shoulder the burden or costs alone. And much to our surprise, this effort even encouraged and increased the adoption of Homeless Management Information Software (HMIS), as more of our partners understood that it could also be used as a strategic planning tool.
If we are all utilizing the same tool to determine vulnerability the same way, and placing those in greatest need at the top of our community’s master list, we can be sure that we are implementing a system of care that supports those most fragile.
Samantha Kiley, Executive Director, AtlantiCare Foundation
Project Director, Care AC and AC Collaborative
An example of this effort is the Point-in-Time Count, which provides an estimate of the number of unsheltered persons on the street on any given night. With that community-level data, our partners can engage decision makers in securing resources to meet these vulnerable individuals’ needs for shelter through a Code Blue alert, and when they needed safe places to isolate during the first wave of the pandemic.
During the 2021 All In National Meeting (AINM) convened by All In: Data for Community Health, I met talented peers from communities across the nation who offered to support our efforts in Atlantic City. One of those partners is Dr. Amy Hawn Nelson, Director of Training and Technical Assistance at Actionable Intelligence for Social Policy. Since the three-day AINM in November 2021, Amy has introduced me to a Data Specialist in Mecklenburg, Virginia who is also analyzing HMIS data to address homelessness in their town.
One point from AINM that has stayed with me is that relationships are important when developing community programs utilizing data as the driving force. Here in Atlantic City, we share a commitment to working collaboratively to lengthen the table and authentically engage community members because they are our greatest resource. We celebrate the fact that our community’s heartbeat and compassion are stronger than ever and we will continue working to make sure no one is left behind.
Learn more: View the most recent NJ Counts report, which highlights data from 2021, here.
Related: Read Atlantic City’s story, “Safe Places to Isolate,” in Lessons from the First Wave by All In: Data for Community Health network