Topics:
1. Register Now: SSVF National Webinar September 12, 2019, at 2 PM Eastern
2. Announcement: September is Suicide Prevention Month
3. New: Grant Extension Opportunity for FY2019 Due September 6, 2019
4. Save the Date: Federal Partners Housing Conferences
5. Important: SSVF Rapid Resolution Resources
Register Now: SSVF National Webinar September 12, 2019, at 2 PM Eastern
Webinar Topics:
• SSVF End of Year Closeout
• Overview of Federal Financial Report in the HHS Payment Management System
• HMIS End of Year Requirements
• FY2020 HMIS New Data Standards and Updates
In this Webinar, the SSVF Program Office will assist grantees in understanding and completing the FY2019 End of Year grant reporting and closeout requirements. The Webinar will provide grantees with an overview of how to complete the Federal Financial Report (FFR) in the HHS Payment Management System. Grantees will also learn how to prepare for final uploads to the VA Repository, and about important updates to the FY2020 HMIS VA data standards. Fiscal and Data staff are strongly encouraged to attend this Webinar.
Please Register for the Webinar using the link below:
https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/1871754020346715395
Announcement: September is Suicide Prevention Month
Please join the SSVF Program Office in educating your staff and sharing tools and resources to support the #BeThere campaign to help prevent Veteran Suicide.
As a reminder, All SSVF grantee staff must be trained annually in SAVE, a suicide prevention training from VA. Staff should first attempt to request in-person training from their locally certified SAVE trainer, either a VAMC Suicide Prevention Coordinator or Homeless Program Staff Point of Contact (POC). For assistance in locating your local Suicide Prevention Coordinator, click here
https://www.veteranscrisisline.net/get-help/local-resources. If in-person training is unavailable, all staff should view the SAVE training webinar on Suicide Prevention found at this link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJWUmib-QU8&t=80s, also located on the VA Office of Mental Health and Suicide Prevention website, or view the SSVF webinar on Suicide Prevention located here:
https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/recording/1414163663883484675.
Starting in our new grant year for 2020, we will be encouraging grantees to share VA suicide prevention resources with your community partners by discussing with them the availability of in-person and web-based SAVE training along with other VA resources on Suicide Prevention. Grantees are encouraged to share resources when meeting with community members at CoC, CES, and other community partner meetings and trainings and to document these efforts.
Here are a few additional ways you and your staff can support the #BeThere campaign:
• Add #BeThere to your email signature. Add the #BeThere logo and the
BeThereforVeterans.com URL to your email signature to highlight these resources and spread awareness.
• Ask your staff to familiarize themselves with the warning signs of suicide at
VeteransCrisisLine.net.
• Share VA's Social Media Safety Toolkit and encourage others to learn how to recognize and respond to social media posts that may indicate emotional distress, feelings of crisis, or thoughts of suicide.
• Remind employees in your program about how to discuss Veteran suicide, and point them to VA's Safe Messaging Fact Sheet as a guide.
• Share with employees and community members the link to VA's Mental Health resource page at
www.mentalhealth.va.gov.
New: Grant Extension Opportunity for FY2019 Due September 6, 2019
The SSVF Program Office is offering a one-month, no-cost extension for FY2019 awards. Extension Request Requirements have been published and are available in the GIFTS portal. This is a mandatory requirement that will require each grantee to indicate "Yes" or 'No" for an extension. This extension will prolong the grant budget period to October 31, 2019. If an extension is requested and approved, grantees may not allocate any expenses to FY2020 until all the FY2019 funds are exhausted. Extensions may end before October 31, and grantees should plan for continued operations under FY2020 funds. Note: Grantees that received additional funds under the Stafford Act (Disaster Relief), did not receive a requirement. The Program Office will review the budget period with each of these grantees, depending upon when funds were received, and the amount disbursed. All grantees are required to respond to the extension request by September 6, 2019.
Save the Date: Federal Partners Housing Conference
The SSVF Program Office, with the support of the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the US Interagency Council on Homelessness and other federal and national partners, is pleased to announce a Save the Date for the upcoming 2019 Federal Permanent Housing Conferences. The events are targeted to SSVF Grantees, HUD-VASH representatives, and CoC Partners.
While the site locations are still being confirmed, and grantees should not book travel at this time as locations are subject to change, we anticipate the following schedule:
• East Coast (Charlotte, NC): October 22-23, 2019
• Mid-Region (Dallas, TX): November 5-6, 2019
• West Coast (San Diego, CA): November 19-20, 2019
We will continue to provide information as registration and travel logistics come into focus. In the meantime, questions related to these events can be sent to the SSVF program's technical assistance address at
ssvf@tacinc.org.
Important: Rapid Resolution Resources
The Rapid Resolution Resources have moved to a new location on the SSVF website. All Rapid Resolution resources can be found on the "Official Guidance to the SSVF Program" tab under the Supportive Services Section.
https://www.va.gov/homeless/ssvf/?page=/official_guide/supportive_services
Thank you,
SSVF Program Office