The Regional Command Center receives data gathered by volunteers using the Counting Us app and displays the results as they change throughout the count.  The designated Count Administrators are able to use the built-in maps, dashboards, lists, and reports to monitor the incoming data, collaborate with volunteers to address data quality issues, and produce the HUD Point in Time Report.

The Command Center contains key features to prepare for, manage, and finalize the count

Preparing for the count...

• Custom "shape files" define the boundaries of the region on the interactive map, and the ability to layer geographic regions within an area;
• Count teams can be established and volunteers can be associated to these teams;
• Organizations and projects that do not participate in the region's Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) can be added to the command center so that surveys can be conducted for them using the Counting Us app;
• The unique "set up key" can be defined.  This is the key that count volunteers enter into the Counting Us app to associate surveys collected from their account with the region.

Managing the count...

• A real-time display of all incoming surveys and tallies in both list and map view.  Regional count administrators can use these tools to validate the incoming submissions, guide count volunteers, and edit the data as needed;
• The option to modify the map view to show or hide various attributes;
• Map views can be layered by county, city/town, or zip code;
• A dashboard which summarizes key information such as the total number counted as well as demographics including age, gender, and veteran status; 
• Drilldown features from the dashboard, allowing data cleanup in real time;
• GPS locations collected from the various mobile devices to be associated with the HUD Continuum of Care, and other region types such as counties and cities, allowing multiple regions to host a single count effort, yet have the data assigned to the correct region;
• Tools to update and archive survey records as need be to ensure the data is ready for reporting;
• The ability to filter the list view, and export data, based on a range of filt

Finalizing the count...

• Ability to generate Point in Time Summary Reports for both the unsheltered and sheltered homeless populations. The reports meet HUD requirements, can be generated with just a couple of clicks, and contain drill-down logic to make it easy to see which records contribute to each report figure;  
• The sheltered report can be filtered by project to report on the Housing Inventory Chart;
• Data can be exported so that it can be further analyzed using tools such as Tableau and Excel;
• Filters can be applied to allow for reports to be run for just a particular subpopulation (i.e. veterans, gender) and the maps can be used to report over a sub-region wihtin the Continuum of Care.

Count administrators from CT, VA, and TX shared how they use the tools within the Command Center to support the planning, management, and finalization of their PIT counts during a virtual "Learning Lab".  The recording for this webinar is linked to here. 

This short video shows how Count Administrators can use filters, maps and geocoordinates to identify and report over subregions of the data in the Command Center.