Commissioner Robert Patrick Partners with Frontline Response to Launch the Village Impact Fund Initiative to Collectively Combat Homelessness

DeKalb County Commissioner Robert Patrick has partnered with Frontline Response to launch a new public-private partnership initiative to combat ongoing homelessness in DeKalb County called The Village Impact Fund. 

This initiative will utilize Stanford University’s collective impact model that suggests large-scale social change requires broad cross-sector coordination for issues that prove challenging for any single entity to solve on its own. 

On April 12th, Commissioner Patrick held the “It Takes A Village” town hall on homelessness where various cross-sector panelists shared their experiences, challenges, and best practices on serving DeKalb’s unhoused community. One major key take-away from the town hall was that homelessness—and other large-scale social problems plaguing our communities today--cannot be solved in individual silos and that no one organization can solve it alone. Therefore, a more collaborative and collective approach would be necessary to effectively minimize and eliminate homelessness in the county. 

As a result, Commissioner Robert Patrick has partnered with Frontline Response to launch a new public-private partnership initiative to combat ongoing homelessness in DeKalb County called The Village Impact Fund. This initiative will utilize Stanford University’s collective impact model that suggests large-scale social change requires broad cross-sector coordination for issues that prove challenging for any single entity to solve on its own. 

The collective impact framework is based upon the understanding that no single policy, government entity, or organization can tackle or solve deeply entrenched social problems alone. Moreover, the collective impact calls for a longstanding commitment between a cross-sector network of community members, government entities, businesses, organizations, and institutions who advance equity by learning together, aligning, and integrating their actions to achieve population and systems level change. This commitment requires long-term investment and demands a thoughtful combination of approaches and sources. 

Over the past three years, Commissioner Patrick has been gaining a better understanding of the needs of the unhoused and realized that homelessness touches various populations all with different needs. 

“There isn’t a one-size fits all solution to dealing with the unhoused,” Commissioner Patrick said. “It’s complex, and, therefore, it is important that we bring together all community stakeholders from the faith-based community, government, corporations, and everyone in between to map a comprehensive and sustainable plan to get our homeless off the streets.” 

As a leader in addressing homelessness, Frontline Response’s CEO Terry Tucker, in conjunction with its Freedom Institute, will take the lead on The Village Impact Fund initiative. 

The organization will begin the first phase by holding various cross-sector stakeholder meetings to gather data across the county in an effort to bring new resources, best practices, and solutions. 

“This is the catalyst for creating a long-term, sustainable change,” Tucker said.  “We are honored to partner with Commissioner Patrick and lead this important project that will allow us to acquire additional resources and give everyone a voice on a matter that impacts the whole county.”