HIFIS 4 Implementation Masterclass | Term 3: Fine-Tuning › Programs in HIFIS 4

Three approaches for programs

Updated Aug 11, 2024

There are three main categories or types of Programs that you could use HIFIS to keep track of. Not every community chooses to use all of them, so use what makes sense locally. You could use Programs to reflect:

  1. Funding sources
  2. System-level sectors of service
  3. Agency specific

You can also use a combination of the above methods. You could use Programs to track funding streams, system-level sectors of service, and agency specific programs if it makes sense to record all three in your community.

Funding Programs

Most homeless programs obtain funding through one of four different sources:

  1. Federal funding, such as Reaching Home,
  2. Provincial funding, such as the Community Homelessness Partnering Initiative (CHPI) in Ontario,
  3. Municipal funding, and
  4. Private donations or fundraising

The overwhelming majority of funders expect funded agencies to report back on how the money was spent and what the impact was. For example, communities may be required to report how many clients they served, or what services they provided. If you use Programs to identify which services were funded by which funder, at the end of the funding cycle you can run a report to count outcomes for each funder separately.

One way to think about Programs in HIFIS is as funding programs. This is the classic way to approach Programs in HIFIS, and it works well with little to no explanation required. You would create a new program for each funding source and call it something like “Reaching Home Funded.” Most likely, you can take it a step further to select default Programs for each Service Provider, so this can operate as a “set it and forget it” approach.

Case Study

One community in Ontario set up Programs in this way. They were primarily HPP-funded (provincial funding source), but a few HPP-funded agencies had other programs that they offered in-house that were non-HPP-funded. They created two Programs: “HPP” and “Non-HPP,” and made the Program field mandatory for all services. For some Service Providers that were exclusively HPP-funded, they made the HPP Program default, so staff didn’t need to select it when they created a service, but they didn’t set a default for Service Providers that had both funding sources using HIFIS 4. This made HPP reporting at the end of the year much easier, since administrators could just run a report and select the HPP Program to fulfill their reporting requirements.

System Programs

Communities that have a holistic systems approach to their homelessness services may appreciate using Programs in a different way. If you take a birds-eye view of your system, you may see it as a series of interlocking parts. For example, you may say that your system can be divided into four parts:

  1. Homelessness Prevention
  2. Outreach
  3. Emergency Shelters
  4. Housing Programs

You may, at the end of the year, want to answer questions from a systemic level, such as: How many clients accessed Homelessness Prevention services and then did not enter Emergency Shelters? How many clients moved from an Emergency Shelter to a Housing Program? How many clients did we provide Outreach to, and of those, how many are we now supporting in our Housing Programs?

You could set up Programs in HIFIS to reflect all the different components of your homeless-serving system and monitor Program participation to identify bottlenecks in service delivery and work out the kinks. There would be a smaller number of Programs, most likely delivered by multiple Service Providers.

Case Study

One Ontario community used this approach after going through an extensive system planning exercise. They had recently overhauled all of their funding and contracts and were really interested in thinking as a system. They set up five key Programs in HIFIS 4, and all services that were offered fit into one of them:

  1. Emergency Shelter
  2. Overflow Shelter
  3. Brief Intervention (i.e. prevention and diversion)
  4. Rapid Re-Housing
  5. Housing First

Agency Programs

When asked what programs they offer, many agencies are quick to reply with a list, for example: “Youth Services” or “Anger Management” or “Dress for Success” or the “Baby Box” program.

In many cases, these are not what HIFIS considers Programs.  For example, a program that helps homeless people find appropriate clothing for job interviews (“Dress for Success”) is, in HIFIS language, an Express Goods transaction in which the client was provided with Clothing. However, if desired, an agency could create a Program called “Dress for Success” and, when a staff provides a Clothing Express Good, they could indicate that it was part of the “Dress for Success” Program. Then, at the end of the year, that agency would be able to report on how many clients were provided with clothing as part of the “Dress for Success” Program.

In this mode, each Service Provider could be responsible for defining their own programs and then setting up Programs in HIFIS to capture data that they need. These Programs, being agency-specific, are most likely not shared between multiple Service Providers. This approach would be useful for agencies that need to report on distinct segments of the services they provide.

Case Study

A rural Ontario community offers a funding program to help clients renovate their homes. (For example: a client lives in a home that’s been in their family for generations, but it’s in such poor repair and the utilities bills are so high that they can’t live there anymore, even though they own their own home.) This is offered through a variety of different funding sources, and it’s only one of the different programs this Service Provider offers, and periodically they need to be able to report on how much money was issued through this program, so they set it up as its own Program in HIFIS 4.

Using Multiple Program Categories

HIFIS allows staff to select one or more Programs when they provide a Service. That means when you provide a Service, you can select as many Programs as are relevant. In other words, you can use Programs in multiple ways. You are not limited to only using one of the above methods.

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