Volume 8, Number 12 • June 16, 2014 • www.agrm.org AGRM convention wraps up in St. Louis Approximately 900 people gathered for inspiration, networking, and education at AGRM’s 101st annual convention in St. Louis—the second-highest attendance ever, just below last year’s record-shattering 100-year event. These are just a few of the many remarks that have already been passed on to us: •What an awesome place to network and learn what is working and what is not. Our mission would not be what it is today if I had not been a part of this association. • This was my first time at AGRM and it was truly a gift. I went back home with renewed vision and a deeper love for Christ’s heart within homeless ministry. •I am struggling with several issues this year and came away from the convention with the tools and conviction to resolve the issues and the inspiration to accomplish it. •I’ve been to a number of other national conventions for other employers but AGRM national conventions are the best I’ve seen. Well organized, well run and so encouraging. If you don’t’ come away seeing the value, you aren’t looking. •I’m always impressed with the attention and effort that AGRM staff puts into the convention. The convention doesn’t disappoint. Worth the trip and investment. •As the executive director of a smaller mission, it was refreshing to connect with others for encouragement, support, and to share resources. I especially appreciated the AGRM’s willingness to engage in difficult issues we are all facing and wrestling with—even when we disagree. It is good to know we are not alone in these efforts. •Our annual conference is by far the best networking and training event I ever go to. If you have limited training dollars, this is where they should be spent. You meet people here that can change your world. A complete survey was sent to all attendees via email last week. If you attended the event, please take a few minutes to respond to the survey. We need your feedback to keep raising the bar. Association releases position paper on Housing First At the St. Louis convention, AGRM released a position paper titled “An Association Perspective on HUD-Driven Housing”; download a copy by clicking here. The paper—the result of the work by a task force of rescue mission representatives and approved by AGRM’s board of directors—seeks to help decision-makers and influencers outside the rescue mission community better understand rescue missions. The paper also serves local missions by clarifying what the association believes is the overwhelming member-held consensus on HUD-driven approaches to housing and closely related issues. The position paper also sparked a lively “Town Hall” Meeting at the convention, which featured a panel of both government and rescue mission leaders discussing Housing First, HUD-related housing, local Continuums of Care, and the roles of both missions and government in ending homelessness. Ashmen invited to speak at NAEH Conference Nan Roman, head of the National Alliance to End Homelessness (NAEH) took part in AGRM’s convention, and has invited AGRM President John Ashmen to speak at NAEH’s National Conference in July in Washington, D.C. John will be one of a few invited speakers to give a TED talk-style presentation during a plenary sessions. John’s talk will focus on what gospel rescue missions do and what our vision is for the homeless. John has also been asked to be involved in a seminar track. Take a peek at the convention’s closing video AGRM works with our video partner, i5810 Media, to produce some great videos that are shown during general sessions at convention. Click here to take a look at the video from this year’s closing session. AGRM releases first Best Practices documents The first three sets of best practices have been published and were also distributed at AGRM’s convention in St. Louis. However, at any time you can log in to www.agrm.org/bestpractices to view the practices, download sample resources, and download print-ready copies of the practices for Role in Society, Governance, and Planning. Seven more sets are in development and will be released as they’re ready. District Connect Groups go live As you might already know, AGRM has transitioned its Connect Groups from a Gmail-based system to a web-based discussion-forum format. This allows us to archive discussions and make them searchable, as well as preserve uploaded documents. One new feature is that each district has its own AGRM Connect Group that is now live. These groups can be used to provide district updates and connect on issues related to your region. This addition allows you to use Connect Groups to network with both others in your professional network and in your geographical region. Every member is automatically subscribed to his or her district group. You may subscribe or unsubscribe from groups by logging in to www.agrm.org and clicking on My AGRM Connect Groups. If you choose to unsubscribe from a group, you will still be able to view the group discussions online anytime; you just won’t receive the email traffic. Also, please note that if you reply to an email, your email will be sent to all members of the group even though you don’t receive a copy of it. If you want to reply only to the sender, click on his or her email link rather than clicking your email reply button. Anti-homeless ‘spikes’ in London lead to outcry The installation of pavement spikes to stop homeless people sleeping outside a London building sparked outrage on Tuesday, with 40,000 people signing a petition in protest and the city’s mayor calling them “stupid.” According to a Yahoo! News report, the petition says the spikes are “inhumane” and calls for more effort to look after the most vulnerable people in society. The short metal spikes, not unlike those used to deter pigeons from the tops of walls, have been installed outside a residential development a short walk from the Shard tower and Shakespeare’s Globe theatre. In a related Boston Globe report, a supermarket chain in the United Kingdom has announced it will remove so-called “anti-homeless spikes” from outside one of its London locations after an image of activists pouring concrete on the metal protrusions went viral on social media. A company spokesperson said that Tesco would remove the spikes, but insisted that they were not aimed at the homeless, and instead intended to curb other “antisocial behaviors,” such as loitering and public drinking. Holder endorses shorter sentences for drug offenders now in prison As many as 20,000 federal prisoners could see their sentences shortened under a new proposal by the Justice Department. According to a CNN report, the department made its pitch before the U.S. Sentencing Commission to make some current prisoners retroactively eligible for reduced sentences. The commission voted in April to reduce drug sentences for future nonviolent offenders. Not all prisoners who applied for the reduced sentences would receive them. The change is part of Holder’s “Smart on Crime” efforts. The attorney general is seeking to reduce prison population and loosen mandatory sentencing rules for nonviolent drug crimes. The Justice Department proposal, set to be voted on next month, would reduce sentences by about 23 months on average for those already in prison and who qualify. It would apply to prisoners without “significant” criminal histories, and whose crimes didn’t involve weapons or violence. Increase in minors left at border called ‘crisis’ A surge in unaccompanied minors from Central America crossing the border illegally into Texas has so overwhelmed the Border Patrol in the Rio Grande Valley that officials have transported more than 750 children since last week to Border Patrol facilities in Arizona—with plans to bring hundreds more, if necessary. According to a USA Today report, President Barack Obama called the situation “a humanitarian crisis,” and he has sent federal officials scrambling to ramp up temporary housing in three other states for about 3,000 more migrant children. According to Customs and Border Protection, in the past eight months, agents have apprehended about 47,000 unaccompanied minors who crossed the border into the U.S. illegally from Mexico. The CBP estimates that apprehensions of minors this year may reach 90,000. Almost three-fourths of the children apprehended are from Honduras, Guatemala, or El Salvador. And 33,470 of them entered through the Rio Grande Valley Sector, which this year surpassed the Tucson Sector as the busiest for illegal crossings. Editor’s note: For more than a century, rescue missions have ministered to homeless immigrants—both legal and illegal—as well as refugees who come to the U.S. for various protections. Reports like this demonstrate that this segment of the homeless population isn’t going away. The May/June issue of Rescue magazine addressed the issue of homeless immigrants and refugees. You can view it electronically by clicking here. People under 65 hit hardest by flu this year H1N1 flu was the most common influenza strain in the United States this year, according to the latest report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And as in previous years, H1N1 disproportionately affected younger people—nearly 60 percent of the 9,635 confirmed flu-related hospitalizations occurred in people between the ages of 18 and 64 years, according to a Philadelphia Inquirer report. Those between the ages of 50 and 64 years had the highest rates of flu-related hospitalizations this year compared to the past four flu seasons.