Graduate School: Harvard Kennedy School

Fellowship: Massachusetts Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities

Project Description: Bernadette Hicks spent the summer working at the Massachusetts Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities. She focused on the Diversion Program, which aims to get families at immediate risk of homelessness into permanent housing instead of entering emergency shelters. She helped plan, coordinate, and facilitate a series of listening sessions and focus groups across the state to learn directly from stakeholders about their experiences with the Diversion Program. The listening sessions were complimented by a literature review of diversion programs in other states and cities, background research on the current state of the Diversion Program, and analyses of data and the creation of data visuals to depict trends in the program. Bernadette then summarized the findings from the listening sessions and the data analyses into a report with recommendations on how the Diversion Program could be improving going forward.