Transcript
Hi there.
This is Ali Ryder from ACRE Consulting and this is a training video about how to do a point in time count for the 2020 point in time count in your community using HIFIS 4 on your mobile device, so phone or tablet or other portable electronic device.
To begin with, you are going to need to, have an Internet enabled device.
You'll need to be online and you're gonna need to load up your web browser.
Depending on the device that you're using that could be a whole bunch of different things but you're going to access the Internet.
Next, you're going to be provided with a URL that's going to be provided by your point in time count organizer.
You're going to need to navigate to that page.
So you could be entering that in the bra bar at the top of your browser or you could be searching for it, however Ryder device works.
Now just a note, I am recording this video on a desktop computer using Firefox so it's gonna look a little bit different, from what yours will look like.
However, the screen should remain the same just going to be slightly different what my mouse looks like and how you click on certain buttons.
Alright.
Once you've gotten to the page, you should see a login screen that looks something like this.
First, you're going to need to enter your username.
Now your username is going to be provided to you by your pit count organizer.
So, you may already have a HIFIS 4 login which you might be instructed to use or you may be provided with a temporary login just for the point in time count event.
So check with the instructions that you've been given, but first we're going to need to enter our username.
Next, we're going to need to enter a password which again you may already know because you have an existing account or you may have been provided with a temporary password by the same person that provided you your username.
In any case, follow the instructions that you've been provided about how to log into the software.
Next, you'll need to select a service provider from the drop down menu.
Now in a lot of cases HIFIS is going to automatically select if you only have one option.
You may however if you have more than one option you may need to click on this drop down menu and choose an option from the drop down list.
It is a mandatory field so you will have to select something before you can log in.
Now if you're having any trouble with logging into the software, please check with your event organizer and they should have some resources that can support you, but theoretically what should happen once you've entered this information is we can click on the login screen and log in to HIFIS 4 itself and get taken to a screen that looks something like this or perhaps a different but similar screen.
Now, it's possible if this is the first time that you're logging in, you may be prompted to agree to the end user license agreement which is just the terms and conditions of using the software.
You may also be prompted to create a new password if you were given a temporary password before.
So you may have 1 or 2 steps that you need to go through before you actually are able to complete the login.
Now once you're logged in we are probably going to see a screen that looks something like this.
It may instead say bulletins on the front page.
However, what we're going to do today is we are going to do a point in time count survey using the paging method.
Now there's a couple different ways that we can get here.
So up at the top right, you'll see a button that has a search function and some menus.
If we click on that, a little panel will appear on the right and we are going to click on the pick count menu.
This is where we're going to be doing most of our work, so you'll see a couple different options: live surveys dash paging, live surveys dash scrolling, and the survey list.
The screen that's currently visible on my video is the surveys list.
So if we were to click on the surveys list button, we will get taken to this page here.
Now if you wanted to add a new survey, you could either click on the buttons at the bottom of this page, add pit survey scrolling, add pit survey paging or you can use this menu to click on live surveys paging, live surveys scrolling.
Now there's 2 different different ways that we can enter a survey in HIFIS 4.
There's a paging method which displays 1 question at a time, and is really intended if you have a smaller screen.
So it works better on a mobile phone or similar device if you don't have a lot of space on the page and that is what this video is going to be walking through the paging method.
There's a second method which is the scrolling method which will display all of the questions all in one page and it works a little bit better if you're using bigger screen devices like a desktop or laptop computer.
So we are going to add a live survey paging by either going up to this menu and clicking on live surveys paging or going to the surveys list and clicking add pit survey paging.
Once you click on that button you should get taken to a new screen that says at the top add pit live survey.
Now if you have GPS enabled on your device then you are likely to get a pop up that says that the location has been found and it'll provide your GPS coordinates.
Has been found and it'll provide your GPS coordinates.
Depending on your event organizer's instructions, you may be asked to copy those values and paste them in the location field.
However, if you HIFIS them that's okay, bear with me for a second.
So you are now greeted with a brand new pit survey that you are beginning to complete.
You'll see here that we have a survey number and this has been automatically generated based on the number of surveys that have already been begun.
So this is survey number 1,003.
We also will need to fill out some details before we can begin the survey.
So the next field is the pit shift.
Now you as a volunteer or surveyor have been assigned 1 or more HIFIS.
You may be instructed that you need to head out to a particular location between 7 and 10 pm, that could be your shift.
Now most people are only assigned 1 shift, but it's possible that you may have 2 or more shifts assigned, so you need to select which shift this survey is being completed as part of, by just choosing the option from the drop down menu and this will help your event organizer correlate your survey to a location and a time and the zone that you were assigned to.
After that, the next field asks about the time the survey was taken and it automatically, knows what time and dates, you began the survey on.
The next field is location which is the first one that I talked about.
As I mentioned, we got a GPS pop up on our devices that have our GPS enabled.
Follow your event organizers instructions about what they want you to put in this particular location field, maybe different for different communities.
You may be instructed to give the name of an intersection, or something similar.
Finally, there is a comments box which is optional, but your event organizer HPP, provide you with some instructions as to what they would like you to put in the comments box as applicable.
Now before I click the begin button I just want to draw your attention to a couple more things.
Up at the top of the page, we have 2 more buttons there's an information button on the left and an abandoned survey button on the right.
So if you were to click on the information button on the top left, you should see some information that has been entered in by your event organizer.
It could be something like an opening script, the words that you're supposed to say to a new participant when you approach them, or could have some other important details like contact information for the event organizers.
It has been customized in your community so I can't tell you exactly what you're going to see here.
But this text up here at the top has been entered in by the event organizer and in this example it's the introductory script for the survey, but also underneath that it'll tell you your current location.
So if you missed the GPS location pop up, you can also copy this information and put it in the location field, if instructed to do so.
Now, once this is open, you can click on the x button on the top right to close that window, and I also mentioned that there was an abandoned survey button on the top right.
So if you begin a survey with a participant and are unable to complete it, you would click on the abandoned survey button.
First, we need to select the reason why the survey was abandoned.
It could be because the survey was created by mistake, you clicked on the add button and there's no one around, the participant does not want to continue or the surveyor does not want to Consulting, you can also specify another reason.
There's some information provided here, abandoning the survey will save and end the current survey.
So if you want to abandon the survey or need to for some reason, you'd select the reason and click on this confirmation button.
Notice that it's got a little floppy disc icon so that will save the survey as abandoned.
I, however, I'm just going to cancel out of that and continue with the survey.
So once you've entered in at least these mandatory fields, all of these red starred fields are mandatory, you can go ahead and click the begin button.
Now as I mentioned, this is a paging survey, so it's going to show you one question at a time.
Across the top, it'll show you where you're at in terms of the survey progress, so you'll know I only have 3 questions left or something like that.
Now the questions are numbered and sometimes they have a little, letter in front of them or at the beginning.
So our first question on the survey is a screening question to determine whether this participant is eligible to complete the survey or not.
So you will ask, where are you staying tonight or where did you stay last night as instructed by your event organizer.
You'll be instructed to select an option and in the drop down menu, you'll see a number of different options here.
So some of these options, such as homeless shelter will screen the participant in and you will be able to click the next button and proceed with the next question.
You've determined that they are in fact homeless.
Some of the other questions such as own apartment or house will screen the participant out and end the survey.
So if you were to select an option you would get a notice and then click on the next button, that would just finish the survey early so we would save the this survey as being, not a homeless person.
There are some other options in here however and some of them depending on how your event has been set up and what your community wants to capture HPP provide you with additional follow-up questions.
So for example, you may select that they stayed at someone else's place and there may be a follow-up question that now appears after you selected that option.
If you ask someone where they're staying tonight, they indicate they're staying with a friend.
You would then be instructed to follow-up by saying do you have access to a permanent residence where you can safely stay as long as you want?
And then again we have a yes or no.
They could say that they don't know or decline to answer.
HIFIS is still screening the participant and we're trying to determine if they are eligible to complete this point in time count survey.
Now as I mentioned depending on the different settings or how your event organizer has set up the point in time count, people who are experiencing hidden homelessness may be automatically excluded from the survey, so follow the instructions that you have been provided.
So I'm going to say that this person does not have access to permanent residents where they can safely stay as long as they want, which will screen them in, and then I will click the next button to move on to the survey itself.
As I've completed the question you can see that it has turned green.
Green indicating the question has been completed, blue indicating the question that you're currently on.
So we're now on question 1.
Question 1, do you have any family members or anyone else who is staying with you tonight?
Check all that apply and indicate survey number for partners.
Now the first time that you complete this survey it may look a little strange to you.
There are 2 different places that we can present some information and save something.
So if we were to examine the first drop down menu, the options are yes answered, none, or decline to answer, which is a bit odd.
In particular, we want to know about the ages and genders of the other family members.
Notice that below it asks to specify family members.
So if our participant for example says they have a 4 year old son who is with them, then you would click on the add button here under specify family members.
A 4 year old son would be a child or dependent, and then we would indicate their gender and their age and we can click on the save button here.
Now now that we've added at least one person, as an additional family member then we can see that the first question has automatically figured out that we have answered this question.
If you have more than one family member we can click on the add button a couple different times.
However, if the participant has no family members with them, I'm just gonna delete that and we can go back to the beginning.
If the participant has no family members with them and we click none, then the specify family members field will disappear.
I know it's a bit of a weird situation but you will get used to it.
Alrighty.
Now that we've answered the question, we're gonna click on next and move on to the next question.
So we'll begin to see that the format for these questions is often similar.
So again, it's asking how old are you or what year ACRE you born.
And we have 2 different places that we can provide a response.
The first one, again we have these strange option of answered.
We can also say don't know or decline to answer.
So if we put in our participant's age, if they tell us they are 25 years old, then the first question will change to answered.
So all you need to do is put in the age itself in the age field, 25 years.
If they refuse to answer, then you can instead select the decline to answer, option or if they don't know, you can select the don't know option in the first field.
So the next question is asking about the first time the participant experienced homelessness.
Note that there is some additional text here that defines homelessness.
So you may be instructed to read that out to the participant or if they ask for clarification, you can provide a definition.
So anytime you see this little symbol here with an I, that's just providing information.
Now this field is asking again about age so we can use the same logic as the previous question.
If they don't know, we can select the don't know option or we could provide an age like 16 years and then this will get converted to answered.
In total, for the past year, how much time sorry.
How much time have you experienced homelessness over the past year.
Now here under the duration field you'll notice that the unit specified at the end is the number of days, which is maybe not always easy to do given the amount of math involved.
So if they tell you that they've been homeless for 7 and a half months that may be difficult for you to calculate in your head.
Luckily, there is a built in calculator and you can click on this button on the right hand side.
Here, this is a time unit converter so you can put in for example 7 months and 2 weeks.
It'll calculate the total number of days and you can click on the save button to add that to the field.
You can also select a starting date if they say, I have been homeless since August 30th.
We can click on the save button once we have a value that's been calculated and it'll add in the correct number of days.
Again, if the participant does not know or declines to answer, we can select one of those instead.
Our next question, have you stayed in a homeless shelter in the past year?
So this question actually has a follow-up question.
Some of the other questions in the survey have hidden follow-up questions that may appear if the participant selects a particular answer.
If I select yes then we can just move on.
But if I select no, there is a follow-up question.
If not, what are the main reasons?
Now, we'll see the similar format that we keep seeing before.
The first field is answered, don't know or decline to answer.
If they say that they they don't know why they didn't, then we select that one or if they decline to answer.
But if they provide a reason, then we would add that in here.
So we are instructed to select all that apply.
If you click in this box here, we have been provided with some options and we can infer that it is a multiple select.
We can choose more than one answer because it says select all that apply.
So for example, if their participant says that they couldn't get to a shelter, we might select lack of transportation.
If they also say that they were afraid for their safety, we could select that option also.
If you accidentally click on something that you were not intending to include, you can remove an individual option by clicking the x button to the left of it.
Now if your partner or participant tells you something that is not on this list, there is the ability for you to add an extra option.
Perhaps they tell you that they can't stay at the shelter because they have allergies, and it was bothering their their ability to breathe.
So they could say allergies.
You can add that as a value, an extra option that will show up in the drop down menu.
And unfortunately, we do have to select another option that this is going to be close to.
So they they explained to you that they have allergies and that's why they couldn't stay at a shelter, you have to select another option that this is most similar to.
So I'm gonna say it had it was the closest to do with bed bugs and other pests.
Doesn't really have to do with being turned away, lack of transportation or safety.
This will be used to try to analyze the responses at the end.
So try to select an option from the, drop down menu that already exists but if our participant provides another response, then that is how we will add a new option.
Alright.
It's moving along.
So many of these questions continue to follow a similar format.
There may be 1 or a 2 part answer.
There may be some follow-up questions.
And you should be able to infer based on the knowledge that you have so far how to complete most of these questions.
Some of them, for example HIFIS one, how long have you been in this community?
You may be prompted to specify I've always been here or I've been here for some length of time And then there's a follow-up.
What is the length of time?
I'm gonna say 365 days.
Where did you live before you came here?
Country.
If you select Canada or the United States, it may ask you a follow-up question.
What province, what city, what state you come from?
What is the main reason you came to this community?
Now many of these questions, have some options and nearly all of them you have the ability to indicate that the participant declined to answer.
So if the participant does not want to answer one of the questions, simply indicate that they did not want to answer they declined to answer that particular question and you can continue onwards.
Question 11 asks about whether the participant identifies as having any of the following health challenges.
Now in this one, they could indicate that they're comfortable answering about their illnesses or medical conditions but they don't want to respond about a physical ability.
They could decline to answer part of the question.
If they however want to decline to answer all of this question, we can indicate that they declined the whole question.
Now as you can see, we're approaching the completion of our survey.
We are getting to a question that again says, please check all the options that apply and we can add new options to our drop down menu.
However, I'm going to point out here that this is a fairly long drop down menu.
So we're asking the reasons why a participant lost their housing most recently and there's quite a long list.
So if the participant indicates something like health related, you you can actually type into this box.
If you could type in a word like health, it's going to show you the options that match your search text.
So that's one way that you can navigate these longer drop down menus more quickly.
Question number 15 is the last question on the official survey but there are possibly, follow-up questions that have been added specifically by your community after the, core survey has been completed.
So that's why you can see that these are questions number 1 to 15 and then we have c1 and l1.
This c1 stands for CAEH, h, and that's the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness.
They have a few recommended additional questions and the l one is a local question.
It's been added locally by your own community.
So you may see no c questions, you may see a lot of them, you may see no l questions or you may see a couple.
You will be instructed to complete all of the questions that are visible here on the survey, but the actual questions that you see from this point on, may not match what is showing up on my screen.
So we're now on c one, so this is a COH question and it's asking about the highest level of education you completed.
We're going to select the best option.
And the last question on this particular survey, a local question, do you have a pet?
So we will select yes.
As I mentioned, questions, the C questions and the L questions, you will see different questions than in my video here.
Once you've completed all of the questions, we're going to click the next button and we should get greeted with a screen that says this is the end of the survey, thank you for participating.
If you missed any questions, then, you'll be informed of that and given the ability to return to the survey.
You can also add a new survey by clicking on the add pit survey paging button at the bottom of the page.
You can also go back to the surveys list, and see all of this previous surveys that you've completed here.
And that is basically all you need to do to be able to complete a point in time count survey in HIFIS 4 in 2020.
Thank you for watching this video.
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