Bernalillo County, Albuquerque host Unite Us summit Feb. 6 to streamline referrals for people experiencing homelessness

Esteban Vasquez, host of Bernalillo County’s BernCo Beat, said Bernalillo County and the City of Albuquerque will host a summit on Feb. 6 to introduce the Unite Us referral platform to community service providers.

The summit runs from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Los Duranes Community Center and is free for nonprofit providers, said Sarah Spain, Transition Planning Services Manager for Bernalillo County.

"The Unite Us platform is going to be an essential tool for our community," Vasquez said. Spain described Unite Us as a "closed loop referral system" that helps agencies connect clients to services without relying on paper referrals or repeated phone calls. "Agencies are able to complete screeners that look at social determinants of health. They're able to see the client's social service history and have the client only tell their story once before receiving the care. And like I mentioned, it's closed loop. So when the client does connect with the agency they referred them to, that outcome goes back to their originating agency, thus closing the loop," Spain said.

The county and city are partnering with community providers to build a local network on the platform, Spain said. The summit will include a panel of providers from Albuquerque and Santa Fe County who have used Unite Us for multiple years and will describe their experiences. Organizers plan lunch, question-and-answer sessions and the opportunity for agencies ready to onboard to schedule direct assistance with a Unite Us representative.

Spain said the platform is intended to streamline the continuum of care by reducing duplicate intake work and by allowing agencies to see prior service history and referral outcomes. She encouraged nonprofit providers to register, noting there is no fee for nonprofit participation.

Organizers listed in the interview were Bernalillo County, the City of Albuquerque and community leaders. For more information, Spain pointed listeners to Bernalillo County's website, bernco.gov, and to search for "BernCo Unite Us Summit."