Emergency Solutions Grants (ESG) recipients and subrecipients have quickly scaled up rapid re-housing (RRH) and targeted prevention efforts, including repositioning existing staff, adding new staff, and/or rapidly refilling vacated positions due to COVID-19. New staff may not have received in-depth training on the best practices that promote successful outcomes for people experiencing homelessness.

Each of the new Onboarding Toolkits provides a series of informational training videos and resources to orient and train new or transitioning staff who serve as Grant Administrators, Program Directors, RRH Supervisors, and RRH Case Managers. Many videos have brief knowledge check questions at the end to reinforce learning.

Who should use the Onboarding Toolkits?

• Staff Working Directly with Individuals Experiencing Homelessness: The Toolkits cover topics including strength-based strategies for client engagement, trauma-informed care, housing navigation, self-care, time management, and other important topics.
• Individuals with Fiscal Responsibility: Grant Administrators, Program Directors, and RRH Case Managers all have roles in meeting the fiscal requirements. The Onboarding Toolkits provide information to help staff in each of these roles successfully steward public funds while meeting the needs of clients.

Grounded in Equity and Inclusion

The Onboarding Toolkits involve a combination of legacy training videos and videos created newly for this project. All videos developed for this project were co-created with people with lived experience/expertise of homelessness as co-authors. Scripts were reviewed through a racial equity lens prior to being recorded.

Job Description Templates

Each Onboarding Toolkit is also accompanied by a template job description. These templates are designed to simplify and speed up the process of creating clear and compelling job descriptions for ESG- and ESG – CARES Act (ESG-CV)-funded positions. The job descriptions are flexible and may be adapted to each organization’s standard practices, human resource policies and procedures, and local needs and considerations.

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