Collaborative for Health and Home Information

The Collaborative for Health and Home (CHH), formerly the Calgary Recovery Services Task Force (CRSTF) is a committee of homeless-serving agencies, government representatives, and interested stakeholders who have come together to consider ways of collaboratively responding to the complex health, housing, and supports needed for homeless individuals in Calgary. With representation from 30 organizations, a series of stakeholder meetings and a research study was completed looking at the health needs of Calgary’s chronically homeless individuals, as well as to take a strategic look at the current provision of services. While there are numerous services for homeless individuals, the findings revealed that this target population suffers from complex physical health, mental health and social issues, but that the current systems and services are sometimes unable to provide the right coordinated support to ensure homeless individuals with complex needs receive appropriate care. As a result, a Final Report was released to government and community that outlined 7 Key Recommendations around delivering better health services and programs for chronically homeless individuals in Calgary. In 2017, with the support of the Calgary Homeless Foundation as the fiscal agent, CHH received funding from the Valuing Mental Health Branch of Alberta Health in order to advance our mutual interests. CHH operates through a Collective Impact model where diverse stakeholders come together to solve problems. This model is founded on the belief that complex problems can only be solved through intentional, coordinated, collaboration from a variety of perspectives. The work of CHH can only be successful with the support and passion of our community partners.