Hi there.
This is Ali Rider from EDG Consulting, and this is a training video about how to do a point in time count.
You
using HIFIS 4 software
on your desktop computer or laptop computer.
So the first step that going to need to do is load up a web browser.
It is recommended that you use Mozilla Firefox, but any
web browser should work. The
next thing that you're going to need to do is paste into the
URL bar at the top,
the URL that you've been provided
by your pick count organizer.
I'm just using the dumb mo site today. So don't put in the actual
URL that you see on your screen. Check with your pick count organizer,
and they've probably told you where you should go to complete your pick count survey.
Next, you'll need to
see a screen like this and enter your username.
Now, this username has been provided to you by your pick count organizer
or perhaps
you already work in the sector and you already have a this 4 login.
Well, in either case, you're going to enter your username
and then you are going to enter a password.
Again, your password
may have been provided to you by your pick count organizer.
You may have a temporary password that's been provided.
Or you may already know what your password is because you've logged in type as before.
The last field here asks about what service provider you'd like to log in at.
Now you may have to select an option from the drop down menu, or it may have already selected 1 if you only have 1 option available.
Once you've entered in your username, your password and your service provider, we can click the log in button.
If you have any trouble accessing
this page or logging in if these fields are not showing up correctly.
Perhaps you've entered in your username or password incorrectly
or your account may not have been set up correctly.
Check with your pick count organizer for assistance.
We're gonna then click the login button and you should get taken to a new screen.
It's possible if this is your first time logging in, you may be prompted to either change your password
and or agree to the end user license agreement,
which is basically
stating that you agree to the terms and conditions of using the software.
So those are not optional,
but you will only have to do them the first time that you login.
So once you have logged in, then we are going to complete a new point and time count survey.
The way we're gonna get there is by using the point in time count or pit count menu up at the top left of the page.
Now, there's 2 different methods that we can use to record a survey.
There's the paging method and the scrolling method.
The paging method shows 1 question at a time and it works well if you have a smaller screen that doesn't display a lot of information
such as if you're completing
this pick count on your phone
or tablet
or other mobile device.
The second method is scrolling, which displays all of the questions at 1 time.
And that's what this particular training video is going to demonstrate.
This works best if you have a computer,
desktop, or laptop that you're completing the surveys on, such as if you're at a service provider location.
You can complete
a scrolling survey either by clicking on the pick count menu and then using the live surveys dash scrolling option
or clicking on surveys list, you'll get taken to a page that looks like this, and then clicking the add pit survey scrolling
button.
Either 1 will take you to the same
end result.
You will be greeted with a new page
that says at the top add pit live survey.
Now underneath
that better, you'll see a button here that says information.
It's possible that in your community, your pick count organizers have not
made this button visible. So if you don't see it, that's not a big deal.
If you do see it, that's probably a place where your pick count organizers are providing you with some information
that you may need to know
or want to have handy when you are completing a pick count survey. For example, the introductory
script that you might be asked to read to
count participants
or something like that.
So you can click on the button to open the information
And on the top right, there is an x button so that you can close it and go back to your survey itself.
Before you actually begin the survey, you have to put in some basic information
under survey details. The first field asks about the survey number. This has been automatically
generated based on the number of surveys that have been started in the software.
Next, you will need to select the pit shift.
So a a shift might be that you were assigned to go to
a particular shelter from 06:00 until 08:00,
and that would be a shift that has been assigned to you.
Most people are only assigned 1 shift, but you may be assigned more than 1.
So you'll need to select the appropriate
1 from your drop down menu.
Next,
the software automatically knows the date and time that this survey is being pleaded at.
So you don't need to do anything there. You will however need to enter the location.
Check with your pick count organizer or the instructor options that you've been given to find out what you are supposed to put in this field.
You might need to be put in your GPS location
or the of the agency that you're currently at or perhaps a
address or intersection.
Next, there is a comments box which is optional.
But you may be
provided some instructions on when you should fill that out.
So follow the instructions that you've been given with regards to the comments box.
Before we move on and begin the survey, I just want to point out that there is another button up at the top right.
It's red with an x that says abandon survey. And if we click on that,
then
it will allow us to
save an abandoned survey. For example, if our participant does not want to continue
or if you created the survey by mistake,
you would abandon the survey, select your reason, and click on the confirm
confirmation button.
So I wanted to just point out that that abandoned survey button does exist up at the top right before we scroll past it.
Now, each of the sections on the page can be expanded or minimized, so I'm gonna minimize the survey details section.
We're gonna move on to the next piece.
Screening questions.
So each of these bars
can be expanded by clicking anywhere on this bar
or the little arrow button on the right hand side.
Usually, they will expand to reveal the questions inside them or some additional fields.
Here, we're greeted with question number 1. Where are you staying tonight?
Or where did you stay last night.
So you'll be prompted with the text, which you should read aloud to the person you're surveying.
And then select the best option in the drop down menu.
So for example, if the person indicated that they stayed at a homeless shelter last night, you would select that option.
That would screen
the respondent
in
and you will be able to continue with the survey under core questions.
Some of the other options,
such as own apartments,
may screen the participant out, and you will be provided with a notice.
The selected response will screen out the participant and end the survey.
If that's the case, you'll just go down to the bottom of the page and click on the save button.
And that will save that the
survey was complete, but the participant was screened out.
There are some other options in this drop down menu and depending on how
your
organ
your pick count has been organized and set up,
they may ask additional
questions
depending on whether or not people experiencing hidden homelessness will be in polluted.
So it's possible that you will select an option that will reveal
follow-up questions.
If that's the case, you'll need to
respond to any and all
follow-up questions before you're able to proceed with the survey.
Once there are no more screening questions.
This core question section should become a little bit darker and you'll be able to
begin answering them.
Now, I'm gonna that minimize the screening questions because we're now done with that section.
Now, beginning with the core questions,
we are now beginning the survey at self.
So we will always be provided with a question number 1
and then the question text. Do you have
family members or anyone else who is staying with you tonight.
Did you have any family members or anyone else who stayed with you last night.
Indicate survey number for partners, check all that apply.
Now, the actual format on some of these questions can be a little bit weird to get used to.
So I suggest that you familiarize yourself with questions
before you try to enter this in for the first time.
The first field
says select an option
and we have 3 options here. We can say yes, the client answered,
none for no family members or decline to answer.
But there's a follow-up here that says specify family members.
So if we were to click on this
add button,
we're prompted with a
a pop up that that asks
who are we adding as a family member?
Let's say that the participant
indicates that they have an 8 year old daughter.
We would select children dependent.
They are female and they are 8 years old. We would click on the save button.
Now that we have added that,
it has now interpreted
that we have answered the question
and has automatically
changed the first field from being blank to yes or insert.
Now, I know that this is a bit of an odd situation,
but it should become more familiar once you've completed this once or twice.
If you added a family member by accident, you can click on the delete button,
and that'll become
unanswered.
If you indicate that there are no family members,
then the follow-up
will
disappear,
and the scene will happen if the client declines to answer the question.
So most of these questions
will have a 2 part answer.
Question 2, for example,
how old are you? We could enter that the client is 30 years old.
Once we leave the field, it now has indicated that the client has answered the question
If the client declines to answer, we could instead select decline to answer or don't know.
Here is some
descriptive text indicating that for this survey, homelessness means any time that you have been
without a permanent and secure place to live including sleeping and shelters on the streets are temporarily living with others
without having your own permanent housing, e g, couchsurfing.
This is some text that you can read aloud
that applies to the next question.
How old were you the first time you experienced homelessness?
Or if a respondent asks what you mean when you say homelessness, you can refer to that definition.
Follow the instructions you've been provided by your pick count organizer.
I'm just showing you that the text is included here when you are completing a survey.
So now that we have completed these a few different times,
and we kind of have an idea of how the questions work
We can say
that if the client
doesn't know the first time they experienced homelessness,
we know what we would do.
We would choose
don't know
from this first question.
However,
if they did change their mind, they thought about it. And they said, oh, actually, I was 15.
We can change that answered and we could enter in
the number 15
years old.
Next question,
in total, for how much time have you experienced homelessness over the past year, does not need to be exact?
Best estimate.
Now, notes that we need to indicate a duration here in days.
That may be hard to calculate if someone says that they've been homeless for 9 months.
So we can use this dot dot dot button on the right hand side. And
if the person indicates, for example, that they've been homeless for 9 months, we can enter a 9 under months.
And it'll tell us here that the total days has been 270.
We can click on the save button and that will add in the number here.
This question, number 5 have you stayed in a homeless shelter over the past year?
Has a follow-up that's hidden depending on what client your respondents
will answer.
If they say no,
then you'll see a follow-up question
that appears.
Now follow-up questions like that may appear or disappear for several different questions on the survey.
This is just an example.
So If if the respondent answers no, it's asking what are the main reasons?
In the box below, it says select all that apply.
Now, you'll notice that we have a few different options can click in the box here.
It says select an option.
And there's a button here that says add an option.
So if the responded indicates that they were turned away because the shelters are full, we would select that option.
This is a multiple select fields
so we can enter more than 1 reason. It says up here select all that apply.
Perhaps they indicated that it was crowded,
we can select more than 1 option.
And if they also provide another option, like for example,
they didn't like it.
But that is not an existing option in the drop down menu, we can click on this button here that says add an option.
This is the way that we are going to add a a choice
like other
when a person is not
giving you a spots that is not 1 of the existing options. So we can then click add an option.
Now, we need to enter the value. They say didn't like it.
We also, however, it needs
to select a roll up to dropdown ID, which I recognize is not the most user friendly of terminologies.
Essentially, what this is asked asking is the value that you're adding in right now, what is it most similar to?
Perhaps I mentioned something like they didn't like it because it was dirty,
so you might select this option of bed bugs and other pests because it's the closest to what they suggest.
Now, we should be getting the hang of these questions here.
So I'm going to move along through some of these questions.
Question 6, did you come to Canada as an immigrant refugee, or did you make a refugee claim?
We can just simply answer in the drop down menu. Yes, immigrant, yes, refugee, yes, refugee claim.
No, as in none of the above, don't know or decline to answer. There?
There's a follow-up question. Are you a Canadian citizen? And again, we have several options.
Yes, permanent resident, refugee claimant,
international student?
There is an other option.
So occasionally, you may see an other speed, please specify.
And we can enter in what
the
other text should be.
Similarly, we're going to move along
and continue answering
these questions.
How long have you been in this community?
We should be able to infer what we're supposed to do in a situation like this.
We can indicate that they've always lived here.
Or we can say that they've been here some length of time.
Again, this is asking for the duration of end days.
So they might say that they've been there for 1 year.
We can put in 3 65 days or use the calculator.
Then it'll add ask where did you live before you came here?
I lived in the United States.
As you can see, there are occasion only some follow-up questions
depending on what the
the respondent is saying. So here we may be prompted to specify what state.
And and possibly what city they come from.
Next, what is the main reason you came to this community?
And we'll continue going through and answering all of these questions. I'm gonna speed this along.
Some of the questions like number 11,
ask if you identify as having 1 of the following health challenges.
So
You may indicate that the client says, yes, they have an illness or medical condition.
No, they do not have physical disability. And you'll notice at the top or the first question asks
whether they answered the whole thing. Or declared that they don't know or declined to answer.
If they want to skip the entire question, we can indicate that they declined to answer
the entire question.
Or they can indicate that they want to answer some of the questions.
But they don't want to answer about 1 part of the question.
We're going to continue along answering all the questions on the survey.
And here, we have another question that is again asking for select all that apply
reasons.
Now, this is a long drop down menu.
You can type into this box
to look something up. If the
person responds something about
They went to jail,
but it's way down on the list. You could try typing in the word jail.
And it'll show you options that match your selected text.
Again, you can click on the add an option button if they give you an option that does not match
1 of the existing options.
And we're finally on the last question here. What are your sources of income?
Now
we have completed all of the core questions.
They are in the blue section.
There are 15 of them, so I'm gonna minimize that section for now.
Depending on how your community has set up your point in time count.
There may be a few additional questions
that are grouped under COH questions
and or local questions.
So under COH questions, you may have some additional questions that you may need to answer,
and these can be configured for your community.
So you may see different questions just this 1 or none of the above.
And under local questions, you may have some local questions that have been also put on the survey
by your local point in time count organizers.
So you should answer all of the questions
or at least ask all of the questions to the
respondence
before you click save at the bottom.
However, they could be in these different categories.
So you could see questions, COH questions, and local questions.
Make sure you get to all of them before you click the save button. And remember, if your participant
wants to abandon the survey or if you need to stop for whatever reason, you'll click the abandon survey button up at the top right of the screen.
And you could indicate the reason the surveyor does not want to continue, the participant does not want to continue you, or you can type in another reason.
Then we click the save confirmation button.
But to complete the survey, we're gonna click on the save button at the bottom left.
Once you have completed
the
survey, you will be prompted
to
see here, end of survey. If you didn't answer all the questions,
then you will be prompted to return to the survey
or if you need to start a new survey, you can simply click on
1 of the buttons below.
Or if you wanted to go to the surveys list, you can click on that button at the bottom.
And that is how you complete a scrolling point in time count survey for the 20 20 Canadian point in time count in hi face 4.
Thanks for watching.