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Registry Week Boot Camp kicked off today with seven communities meeting in Albuquerque to share ideas and learn how to mount a successful Registry Week. A spirit of innovation and new ideas dominated the day as representatives from Albuquerque, Santa Barbara, Seattle, West Palm Beach, Oahu, Las Vegas and Tucson met for the first time and connected around ending homelessness.

After participants arrived last night, day one began with a pep talk from Campaign Director Becky Kanis. Communities were asked to honestly assess the strengths and weaknesses of their local Campaign efforts and think about turning challenges into opportunities.

"This is about expanding our definition of what's possible," Kanis told more than 25 Boot Camp attendees. 

Next, Dr. Jim O'Connell of Boston Health Care for the Homeless walked the crowd through his pioneering research on homelessness, which led to the creation of the Campaign's Vulnerability Index.

"I used to think of the homeless as hearty survivors," said O'Connell. "Now we know that homeless people are dying on the streets at incredibly high rates. We're talking about a population with the highest mortality rate of any subgroup in America. If it were anyone else, we'd call it a public health emergency."

After a packed morning, Mark Horvath of InvisiblePeople.tv and Campaign staffers Kat Johnson and Jake Maguire led a training session on communications and social media integration. Horvath told the crowd that social media has changed the way people get their information, and that the best communications strategy today is a direct and proactive one.

"You've got to get the good stuff about your program out there as much as you possibly can," he said. "Refresh your content all the time. Tell your story every chance you get."

At the end of the day, members of Albuquerque's local team visited Boot Camp to share their own planning process and take questions from the audience. Attendees asked difficult questions about lining up community support, counteracting misinformation, and housing the hardest cases. Before long, representatives from various communities began sharing their tested, local solutions with one another, enjoying a group synergy that Albuquerque's Dennis Plummer said defined the Campaign.

"This synergy doesn't stop with homelessness," Plummer said. "If we can do this, people are going to realize that we can solve all kinds of social problems by working together and changing the way we do things."

We sure hope so!

Don't miss day two of Boot Camp at Facebook, Twitter, and 100khomes.org!