Lawrence Lincoln

Areas of expertise: Homelessness and housing, grant writing, advisory councils, writing, storytelling, and community organizing

Bio: Formerly unhoused, Lawrence Lincoln partnered with Lifelong Trust Health Center and Alameda County Healthcare for the Homeless to navigate through the perils of life on the streets, emerging as a human being residing under a roof. His life was transformed from one devastated by the violence that attends poverty and addiction to one grounded in self-care, education, and community service. An alumni of Camden Coalition’s Consumer Scholar program and advisor/contributing editor for the Center for Health Care Strategies Partnership for Action and Complex Care Research Agenda, Mr. Lincoln has redirected his post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) towards post-traumatic growth, attaining a degree in Creative Writing at San Francisco State University (SFSU). He has gone on to become an MFA candidate in SFSU’s Creative Writing program. Mr. Lincoln has been published by SF Weekly with the article “Sheltering in Place Without a Place”, in the Health Affairs Policy Journal with “Finding a Pace to be Somebody”, along with numerous short stories and poems appearing in SFSU’s literary journal, Transfer Magazine. He is currently working on a full-length book, in lyrical essay form, about his life, entitled, “A Way Home from Nowhere” and currently serves on the Board of Directors at Lifelong Medical Care.

Experience:

• Authored an article on experiencing the Covid 19 lock down as an unhoused person for SF Weekly, “Sheltering in Place Without a Place”, 2020
• Spoke at the UC Berkeley Symposium for Social Justice promoting the Downtown Street Team Program, 2020.
• Spoke at the International Street Medicine l Symposium on behalf of Alameda County Healthcare for the Homeless, 2020.
• Served on advisory council for Center for Health Care Strategies (CHCS) on Complex Care Research Agenda, 2021.
• Spoke at Story Share for Camden Coalition’s Putting Care at the Center, 2022.
• Patient Council member at Lifelong Trust Clinic, 2022-2023
• Served as advisor for Center for Health Care Strategies’s Partnership for Action, 2023-2024
• Spoke at CHCS’s Partnership for Action first Convening, 2023.
• Conducted fireside chat on community engagement at CHCS’s Partnership for Action second Convening, 2024
• Spoke at CHCS’s Academy for the California Department of Health and Human Services, 2023 and 2024
• Consumer Scholar at Camden Coalition, 2023-2024
• Speaker and moderator for a forum on community engagement at San Diego 211 CIE Summit, 2024.
• Workshop presenter on “An Ecosystem of Trust” at Camden Coalition’s Putting Care at the Center Conference, 2024.