Salt Lake Valley Coalition
Shelter the Homeless, Collective Impact to End Homelessness Steering Committee, and the Salt Lake City Continuum of Care voted in support of merging these two entities into a new homeless system structure called the Salt Lake Valley Coalition to End Homelessness (“the Coalition”). The Coalition builds upon the strengths of the former Collective Impact to End Homelessness Steering Committee and the Salt Lake County Continuum of Care to support a community-wide commitment to ending homelessness.
The Coalition’s primary goal is to prevent and end homelessness in Salt Lake Valley through a system-wide commitment of resources, services, data collection, analysis and coordination among all stakeholders. The Coalition gathers community consensus to create and fulfill established outcomes. Using these goals, the coalition partners with key stakeholders to fill the needs of the Salt Lake County community.
In the new Coalition structure, there are 8 Core Function Groups led by two Steering Committee members who also act as Core Function leads. These groups meet in the off months between Coalition meetings to focus on their specific Core Function as it relates to homelessness. Both Coalition and Core Function Group meetings are open to the public, although we encourage anyone who is interested to join the Coalition.
Members of the Steering Committee were nominated and selected by a Selection Committee comprised of members from the Collective Impact Steering Committee and the Salt Lake Continuum of Care Board. The 8 Core Function Groups include: Health/Wellness, Housing, Crisis Response, Education, Employment, Community Engagement, Safety/Legal Rights, and Client Focused. There are also three additional groups: Data Action/Research, HUD Activities, and Best Practices.
Shelter the Homeless, Salt Lake County, and Department of Workforce Services Housing and Community Development provides backbone support to the Coalition and Core Function Groups. These agencies help guide the vision and strategy, support aligned activities, build public will, oversee external communications, establish shared measurement practices, advancing policy, and resource mobilization.
To join the Coalition, please complete the form here.
Steering Committee Responsibilities:
- Hold the formal responsibility to align Coalition vision and 14 shared outcomes with state, county, and other local efforts to render episodes of homelessness rare, non-recurring, and brief;
- Approve the governance charter, policies, and required documents (including HUD collaborative application);
- Oversee membership and representation of those working to end homelessness as well as those with lived experiences; voting for new membership and co-chairs annually;
- Prepare an annual report on the state of homelessness in the county;
- Makes consensus recommendations to the State Homeless Coordinating Committee, Shelter the Homeless Board, other funders, and policy makers;
- Represents the Coalition through participation on the State Homeless Coordinating Committee and other related committees. The Co-chairs of the Steering Committee will act as liaisons to the State Homeless Coordinating Committee.
System Structure Overview and Organizational Chart
Steering Committee Members
- Rob Wesemann, Co-Chair, [Client Focus]
Executive Director, NAMI Utah - Pamela Atkinson [Client Focus]
Community Advocate - Kathy Bray [Community Engagement]
President & CEO, Volunteers of America, Utah - David Litvack [Community Engagement]
Deputy Chief of Staff, Salt Lake City Corporation - Michelle Flynn [Crisis Response]
Associate Executive Director of Programs, The Road Home - Jennifer Campbell [Crisis Response]
Executive Director, South Valley Services - Mike Harman [Education]
McKinney-Vento Liaison, Salt Lake City School District - Jennifer Godfrey [Education]
CEO, Utah Community Action - Matt Melville [Employment]
Homeless Services Director, Catholic Community Services - Loggins Merrill [Employment]
Assistant Director, Program & Training Division, Utah Department of Workforce Services - Shawn McMillen [Health/Wellness]
Executive Director, First Step House - Janida Emerson [Health/Wellness]
Interim CEO, Fourth Street Clinic - Zach Bale [Housing]
Director of Operations, Housing Connect - Michael Akerlow [Housing]
CEO, Community Development Corporation of Utah - Jean Hill, Co-Chair, [Safety/Legal Rights]
Government Liaison, Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City - Matt Dumont, [Safety/Legal Rights]
Chief Deputy, Salt Lake County Jail - Tricia Davis [Advisor]
Manager, Homelessness Programs Office - Pauline Zvonkovic [Advisor]
Sr. Management Analyst, Utah HUD Office