Data Entry: Street Outreach and Date of Engagement

Introduction

This article covers the unique nature of Street Outreach data entry, including entering the Date of Engagement in HMIS (Homeless Management Information System).   

Street Outreach Eligibility

To be eligible for a Street Outreach project, a client must be experiencing unsheltered homelessness. Some Street Outreach projects are paired with a Supportive Services Only – or SSO - project. The SSO project is used when the services are provided to a client experiencing sheltered homelessness.

If you have both Street Outreach and Supportive Services Only projects available, how do you choose which to enroll a client in? The client’s eligibility for enrollment is based on where they are staying the first day you meet them. If they are staying in a Place Not Meant for Habitation, they are eligible to be enrolled in Street Outreach. If they are experiencing sheltered homelessness, they can be enrolled in a Supportive Services Only project, if you have that project type available.

Clients enrolled in Street Outreach or a Supportive Services Only project may move in and out of shelter during their enrollment. As clients move in and out of shelter, their eligibility for Street Outreach or Supportive Services Only does not change. The client’s location on the day of Project Start determines their eligibility, and their enrollment continues until they are no longer receiving services, regardless of where they stay while enrolled.

Street Outreach Data Entry

Any information collected at initial contact with a client can be used to create a Project Start in street outreach.

If a worker is unable to determine the client’s first and last name at initial contact, the client can be given a Project Start in street outreach under a code name.

Street outreach workers often need time to build rapport with clients before clients feel comfortable sharing personal information. The workflow in HMIS allows clients to have a Project Start in street outreach without being asked for all their information until a client is ready to share their information. As a street outreach worker builds rapport with a client, the client may elect to engage with the program. Once the client engages with the program, the Date of Engagement must be entered into HMIS. It is only at that point that a client becomes engaged with the program that all required information must be collected from the client and entered into HMIS.

What is a Date of Engagement?

A Date of Engagement is the date on which an interactive client relationship results in a deliberate client assessment or beginning of a case plan. If the client exits a project without engaging, the client should not have a Date of Engagement recorded.

Street outreach workers are not required to ask a client for all their data until the Date of Engagement. In other words, the required information to be gathered for a PATH or Street Outreach project are not “due” until the client has a Date of Engagement in HMIS. As always, clients may decline to answer any of the questions that are asked. However, all of the questions must be asked on or before the Date of Engagement.

Date of Engagement FIELD CONTAINING PREVIOUS DATA 

If a client received previous street outreach services, they may have a previous Date of Engagement in HMIS that carried forward to their new enrollment. If the date is filled in from a previous project, you can use the circular arrow icon to remove it since that information does not apply to the current enrollment. 

Recording data in HMIS before Date of Engagement

Because clients in street outreach projects don’t typically disclose all of their information at the initial contact, it is important to enter information in HMIS every time additional information is gathered.

In this example, the pretend client did not share their name when they first met you. The enrollment is under a code name you use to identify them. [code name: “GreenHat MainstreetCamp”] You’ve talked to them a few times, and today they shared their name.

The client’s name is the same as it was the first day you met them. The information that is true today (their name) was also true at Project Start. You just didn’t know that information when you first met them.

To enter this data in HMIS, Back Date to the date of their Project Start and update their name. A client’s Name, Social Security Number, and Veteran Status are updated on the Client Profile tab.

If the client shares additional information that was true at Project Start, such as Health Insurance, Disabling Conditions, Income, and Prior Living Situation, you’ll update that on the Project Start Assessment which is found on the Entry/Exit tab.

How to record Date of Engagement in HMIS

The Date of Engagement can occur any time during an enrollment in street outreach. It may occur at Project Start, at Project Exit, or any date in between. If a client engages with the program on the first day they are enrolled in the project, the Date of Engagement should be entered at Project Start.  

If the client engages with the program on the day they leave the project, the Date of Engagement should be entered at Project Exit. 

If the client engages with the program at any time between Project Start and Project Exit, the Date of Engagement must be entered on a Project Update.

Additional Notes

A few additional notes regarding Date of Engagement:

Do not enter a Date of Engagement until the client has verbally consented to engaging in services with the program.

Only one date of engagement is allowed between project start and project exit. Never enter a future date as a Date of Engagement. 

Some clients will not have a Date of Engagement if they do not consent to engaging in services in the project. If the project did not establish an interactive client relationship before exit, Date of Engagement should be left blank.

Video

Street Outreach: How to collect and enter Date of Engagement