ABOUT US
Strengthening communities through systems
Canavan Associates (CA), is a boutique consulting team based in Cambridge, MA. Founded in 2003 by David Canavan, CA takes a ground-level, transparent, and systems-based approach to address complex community problems related to poverty, low-income households, and homelessness.
On the federal level, CA consults on the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS), which enables local homeless service providers, Continua of Care (CoCs), across the United States to collect data in order to better assist individuals at risk of homelessness. David Canavan is a member of the HUD SNAPS Disaster Technical Assistance (TA) team, and works with local officials, CoCs, the American Red Cross, and FEMA to support rehousing, disaster sheltering, and resource alignment for CoCs during disaster response and recovery. More recently, the CA team has helped national and local governments, such as the City of Santa Monica, reconceptualize their human service systems so that vulnerable individuals can most effectively access them.
Our services include:
Engaging community leaders
Training development and delivery
Consensus building
Collaborative decision making
Connecting local leaders with data expertise
Software governance
Structuring community processes
Confidential data use and disclosure
Project and program design
Policy development and implementation
Performance measurement
Managing transparent, public procurement
of software RFPs