Lived Experience & Advisory Planning (LEAP) Board

The Lived Experience Advisory and Planning (LEAP) Board is a 14-member board comprised of diverse people with lived experience of homelessness with an emphasis on racial and ethnic diversity in its composition. The LEAP will advise and plan with the Homeless Coalition Board and homeless service agencies about how to improve homeless programs, services, shelters, and housing.

Mission

Advise Sonoma County on homeless-related infrastructure, programs, policies, and how to spend money targeted for homeless services.

Vision

Our vision for the LEAP Board in Sonoma County is to ensure:

• Improved services and resources to better meet the needs of people experiencing homelessness within Sonoma County.
• The people of our county, via our Continuum of Care, have a system of care that ensures that all people experiencing homelessness have a safe, supportive and permanent place to call home; and until they do, have safe, legal, stable, and supportive shelter available, with feasible transportation access to their shelter, and case management and housing search assistance.
• An increased number of community members with lived experience, particularly Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC), serving on advisory boards and working in all levels of government, for-profit, and non-profit service providers.
• Our advisory board addresses issues regarding homelessness in all regions of Sonoma County.
• Revised hiring practices which include community members with lived experience at the policy and planning level of public and private organizations, helping to restructure the homeless system and institutionalizing new and better practices.
• Policies that address the disparity we have experienced in Sonoma County, between community members’ financial resources and housing costs.
• Our commitment to equity and inclusion on the LEAP Board strives to engage all community members of lived experience, regardless of background, throughout Sonoma County, especially those whose voices have been traditionally marginalized.

The LEAP Board is committed to proactively advocating before problems occur, to reduce overall societal costs, including:

• Preventing eventual and/or imminent homelessness.
• Diverting those at imminent risk of homelessness from entering shelters.
• Engaging and empowering people who are experiencing homelessness to reclaim their dignity and to regain housing stability.
• Avoiding high criminal justice and hospital costs, and negative health outcomes, with appropriate housing, education, training, career and financial planning education, income, and access to health services.
• Aligning public and private efforts to address the problems we share.

Board Members