Hybrid Service (In person and on Zoom)

Presenter: Gabrielle Clowdus

Moderator: Leticia Smith

The standard approach to homelessness is called Housing First: “providing four wallsand a roof” and offering professional services. This approach falls short because the problem of homelessness is not a lack of housing and professional help alone, but just as critically, a lack of integration into a supportive and nurturing community.

Gabrielle Clowdus will present a research-based, “Full Community” approach which is an alternative that focuses not only on providing shelter but on meeting relational and social needs in a holistic way. She will walk us through the five key elements of this model with examples from the supportive communities she has helped to develop.

Gabrielle Clowdus is the CEO and co-founder of Settled, which activates and equips faithcommunities to pursue home with the homeless through sustainable housing, purposeful work, and supportive community. She is also a research fellow and PhD candidate at the University of Minnesota studying housing and homelessness. Gabrielle holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s in Architecture and is at the end of a 5-year Ph.D. program in Housing Studies where she brought a “Full Community” approach to homelessness to the academic community for the first time, comparing it with the prevailing “Housing First” model.