New resources to assist communities in training workers to take a client-centered and trauma-informed approach to data collection are now available. The FY 2024 HMIS Data and Technical Standards provided first-time guidance on how data collection should be approached: “Communities [should also] employ a person-centered approach to the review and use of the HMIS Data Manual with a clear foundational understanding of racial trauma and trauma-informed practices, cultural humility, and a person first, data-informed perspective.”
Immerse Yourself in this Virtual Reality Experience
The Client-Centered Data Collection Approach: Virtual Reality Series resources help support this directive.
Five Virtual Reality (VR) videos provide an immersion experience to increase empathy. The immersion, accessible through any smartphone, provides a first-person view into trauma-informed approaches to data collection.
Before engaging with the VR videos, we recommend that you start with the Facilitator’s Guide which provides helpful information to support the use of the VR videos as part of a group training curriculum. Additionally, there is a brief Human-Centered Approach to Intake video which provides helpful context and reviews why identifying questions, such as those about race and gender, might be stressful to answer and suggests strategies that minimize or eliminate potential frustration or disenfranchisement at the point of intake.
View the Resource Collection