Configuring Referrals and Community Queues

Community Queue Checklist

Community Queue configuration is a multi-step process. This guide has been developed to help communities complete all the necessary steps to function properly. Use this checklist as a reference to ensure that your workflows function as expected and referrals to and from the Community Queue are successful.

Before beginning Community Queue configuration, it is important to think strategically about how your community will implement Community Queues and what goals you want to accomplish. We encourage communities to map out their community queues, associated assessments, referring programs, and programs receiving referrals from the queue before beginning configuration.

Use the chart below to create a map of your Community Queues:

Community Queue Assessment(s) Programs Referring to the Queue Programs Receiving Referrals from the Queue

Ex: Permanent Housing
  • VI SPDAT Singles V 3
  • VI SPDAT Family V3
  • Coordinated Entry
  • Liberty Center Singles Housing

  • Family Central RRH

  • Veterans United PSH

  • Housing Alliance PSH

       
       
       

Assessment Configuration

Before configuring your Community Queue, you should determine which assessments can be used to add a household to each queue. Each Community Queue should have at least one assessment associated and multiple assessments can also be used. The same assessment can also be used for multiple queues. There are several steps that need to be completed within the assessment to ensure proper connection to the queue.

  1. Status: Status must be set to active.

  2. Assessment Processor: Assessment processor must be assigned to generate scoring if scoring is being used.

  3. Eligibility Engine: Eligibility Engine must be toggled on to generate referral to community queue.

  4. Coordinated Entry: Coordinated Entry toggle should be toggled on if your queue is associated with Coordinated Entry.

Community Queue Configuration

Referral Settings

  1. Community Referral Queue: Toggled on

  2. Multiple Community Queues: If applicable, toggle on

Community Queue Settings

Add New Community Queue:

  1. Status: Before clients are added to the queue, status should be set to active.

  2. Allow Referral to Community Queue: Toggled on to begin sending referrals to the queue.

  3. Assessments: Add all assessments used to generate referrals to the community queue to the assessments section.

  4. Prioritization List: Toggle on if the Community Queue should be included as a prioritization list for CE APR Reporting.

  5. Program Availability Management: Program Availability Management should be toggled to make referrals to residential programs. The Program Availability Management setting enables the Availability Tab and displays a drop-down list of programs in the reassign section when a user is making a referral from the Community Queue.

Program Configuration

Program Configuration for Programs Referring to the Queue

Once your Community Queues have been configured, you should complete program configuration to connect your program to the designated community queue(s).

  1. Enable Assessments: Enable the assessments for all agencies who will be participating in Coordinated Entry data collection.

  2. Add Program Level-Assessment: Add the assessments to all programs completing coordinated entry data collection or referring clients to the Community Queue.

Program Configuration for Programs Receiving Referrals from the Queue

Before you begin sending referrals from the Community Queue, you should complete the following configuration for programs receiving referrals:

  1. Public Listing: To receive referrals from outside agencies, Public Listing should be set to public.

  2. Responsible Staff Members: Add any staff who should receive referral notifications to the Responsible Staff Members listing.

  3. Eligibility: Eligibility should be toggled on.

  4. Community Queues: If the program will be receiving referrals from the Community Queue, the Community Queue should be added to the program configuration.

  5. Availability: In order for housing programs to receive referrals from the Community Queue, programs will need to have availability configured and set to full availability or limited availability. Full availability indicates that the program has multiple openings and do not require a reservation. Limited Availability indicates the program has some availability and the number of openings should be configured under the Availability Tab. If No Availability is selected, it indicates the program has no current openings and referrals cannot be generated from the Community Queue.

      • Availability Access Role: In order to edit program availability in the Availability Tab, the user must have Referrals, Referrals- Pending, Completed & Denied Referrals, and Availability access roles enabled.

Access Roles

The last step in Community Queue configuration is to ensure that all staff engaged in coordinated entry data collection have the proper access roles to complete the required actions. Staff roles include the following:

  • Accessors: Assessors are staff who are trained to issue coordinated Entry Assessments

  • Matchmakers: Matchmakers are users who can re-assign a client from the Community Queue to another agency’s program. Matchmakers determine which client is the next in line for a particular resource based on eligibility criteria and community prioritization procedures.

  • Providers: Providers are staff at agencies that will be receiving referrals from the Community Queues

The chart below highlights the critical access roles that should be enabled for accessors, matchmakers, and providers. Please see the Access Role Glossary.

Access Role Description Assessors Matchmakers Providers
Referrals Access to Referrals and the Direct Referrals Tab Yes Yes Yes
Create Referrals Access to create referrals Yes Yes  
Referrals - Pending Access to Pending Tab     Yes
Referrals - Completed Access to Completed Tab     Yes
Referrals - Denied Access to Denied Tab     Yes
Referrals - Analysis Access to the Analysis Tab under the Referrals screen     Yes
Referrals - Availability Access to the Availability Tab     Yes
Refer Directly to Community Queue Access to refer clients to the Community Queue Yes    
Referrals - Community Queues Access to the Community Queue Tab   Yes  
Referral Matchmaker Ability to make referrals from the Community Queue   Yes  
Assessments Access to the Assessments Tab Yes    
Create Assessment Access to create assessments Yes    
Edit Assessment Access to edit assessments Yes    


Published: 3/24/2023