On Monday November 11, 2024, at approximately 3:30 in the morning, seven people from Lancaster, Pennsylvania began the journey to San Jose California for the National Lived Experience Leadership Conference in San Jose, California. The conference was hosted by Destination Home, based out of San Jose, California, and the National Coalition for the Homeless, based out of Washington DC. Approximately 350 persons, most of whom have had a lived experience of homelessness came together to talk about the importance of using our experiences, gifts, skills, and resources to be leaders and advocates for those who are unhoused.
Those attending were members of the Homeless Advocacy Board (HAB), a group of individuals who are either currently unhoused or who have been unhoused within the past year. Those attending were Mandy Mastros, Joshua Colon, Marjorie Shaffer, Angelina Hernandez, David Nagel, Dave Anctil and Rodney Moore. This group came together in January of 2024 under the leadership of Pastor Mandy Mastros. The HAB started as part of her doctoral research which was exploring the benefits and challenges of including individuals with lived experiences of homelessness on the boards that make decisions that impact them. The group was so excited that it decided to expand its work beyond the research study by developing resource cards for unhoused individuals and service providers, meeting with groups that wanted input on how best to design and implement programs and services, sharing their stories, advocating for the new Clay Street Shelter, and speaking publicly about what it means to be homeless. The group is currently working with the Youth Action Board on a Homelessness Day of Remembrance Event in late December.
The conference included three keynote speakers, Alex Senegal, Ambassador of the Enneagram Prison Project, David Gethers, founder of DAG Speaks LLC, and Dr. Lamont Green Director of DEI, Technical Assistance Collaborative. There were also seven breakout sessions on a variety of topics including what specific communities have done to address homelessness, developing specific leadership skills, understanding policies and laws, self-care, the relationship between incarceration and homelessness, and effective advocacy.
There was an art show with works done by individuals who have lived experiences of homelessness, which spawned an idea about the HAB hosting a similar show here in Lancaster. Two HAB members attended a session that included a documentary about one community’s efforts to end homelessness, and we talked about the possibility of hosting a viewing party and discussion here that might bring some outside the box ideas of what we might try.
Angelina Hernandez and David Nagel, joined representatives from Maine and California to present a session on the work of Lived Experience Advocacy Boards. This session was moderated by Mandy Mastros. The session focused on three key topics, compensation for the contributions of those with lived experience on boards and in organizations, collaboration between lived experience groups and non-profit organizations and other community constituencies, and understanding the rights of unhoused people as well as the stigmas that threaten those rights. A recording of our fishbowl session can be viewed at https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1VJzJgCCD-I&list=PLflVaWezcvDzqtbT3455MmIGmRBNKTTtR&index=8&pp=iAQB.
After the conference was over, there was some time left over to do a bit of sight seeing, including a trip to the Big Basin State Park to see the Redwoods, a night time trip to San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge and a morning trip to Santa Cruz to dip our toes, or to dive headfirst into the Pacific Ocean and to see a gathering of close to 100 sea lions, before returning home late Thursday night.
The group is very excited about how they might use what they saw and learned at this conference to further their work here in Lancaster County. They are grateful for all of those who supported them and made this trip possible.
