The guiding principles of the Big Bend CoC Board include a commitment to:

1. Quality – Ending homelessness in the eight-county region of the CoC utilizing accurate and meaningful data to set priorities, high-quality Best Practices, and evidence-based interventions.

2. Efficiency – To provide area agencies, clients, and the community simple, wellorganized, and transparent tools and processes for needs assessment, planning, prioritizing, performance measures, and rules of governance.

3. Fiscal Stewardship – To do the most good with the least amount of resources with the majority of dollars being spent on direct client care and the expansion of housing resources.

4. Data-Driven Strategic Planning – Creating the vision for how we will end homelessness in our region, utilizing data from HMIS, Coordinated Entry, Needs Assessment and Planning committee, our Continuum’s H.A.P., Point in Time Count, Housing Inventory Chart, Annual Homeless Assessment Report, Annual Performance Report, and Data Quality Monitoring Reports, as well as feedback from agencies, clients, and the community.

5. Accuracy – The commitment to reporting and maintaining Real Time Data. All entities are committed to oversight and clean up of data in HMIS at least quarterly to ensure that community decisions are being made based on accurate reflection of needs and resources.

6. Spirit of Collaboration – CoC staff, the CoC Board, and area agencies will work collaboratively to promote the success of the CoC. This includes:

a. Developing and promoting clear roles and responsibilities of CoC staff, the CoC Board and Committees, and area agencies 

b. Educating the community in a fair and consistent manner about new funding opportunities, grant timelines, current needs of the CoC, developments in Coordinated Entry and HMIS, as well as performance targets appropriate for population and program type.

c. Writing grant applications collaboratively with applicants and renewing agencies.

d. Establishing community priorities and community performance targets.

e. Developing fair and consistent procedures and tools for prioritizing new projects. All tools exhibiting reliability and validity. 

f. Development of fair and consistent procedures and tools for monitoring the performance of area renewal projects and the CoC as a whole. All tools exhibiting validity and reliability. All monitoring of performance and expenditures being completed quarterly, and results being transparent.

g. Monthly meetings between CoC staff and provider agencies taking place to address issues of performance and expenditure. Collaborative solutions are sought to resolve issues and meet targets.