Leading the Way: The 2018 Housing Matters Conference

October 25 & 26 Bloomington, IL.

The Rockford Housing Authority’s Leadership is attending the 2018 Housing Matters Conference along with hundreds of individuals and organizations that care about expanding and protecting affordable housing and ending homelessness in the state of Illinois. This Conference is bringing together people from different geographical areas in the state who share a common discipline. Together, we are building expertise, experience, and the capacity to make each one of our communities better.

Leading the Way is featuring several important expert speakers, interactive breakout sessions, and workshops in four tracks: Public Policy Advocacy, Ending Homelessness, Housing Counseling, and Affordable Housing Development. There is indeed power in being connected to other people who are active in Affordable Housing, and experiencing the same issues throughout the State of Illinois.

Sharon K. Legenza is the Executive Director of Housing Action Illinois speaking on addressing cost of segregation through racial equity. Lynnette McRae, Chicago Field Director at Saving Places speaking on addressing the cost of segregation through racial equity and Let’s Talk Marketing presented by Housing Action’s Timm Krueger, leads participants in practicing how to talk about themselves, their work and ‘do you have your elevator pitch down’?

The conference is also providing the opportunity to talk to folks one-on-one about what they are working on as well as providing insightful advice on how to enhance our own work at RHA. The RHA Leadership has the opportunity to ask presenters questions about their work and the rationale behind it. Without this type of exposure to a variety of points of view, an organization can miss new ideas and trends that can impact future results for community and the residents we serve. We are all looking forward to the serendipitous “hallway conversations” we may have with other attendees and this can be some the most valuable parts and takeaways of attending this event.