Mental Health Association in Greenwood County

5 YEAR 2004-2009

BUSINESS PLAN MENTAL HEALTH ASSOCIATION IN GREENWOOD COUNTY

Table of Contents Page

I. MISSION STATEMENT.…………………………………………..…3

II. PROGRAM…………………………………………………………….4 A. Current Program Descriptions ………………………………4

B. Future Programs Goals………………………………………6 1. Needs Assessment……………………………………6 2. Future Program Descriptions………………………...7

III. OPERATIONS……………………………………………………….10 A. Organization, Governance and Staff……………………...10 B. Operational Needs……………………………………….....10 1. Staffing Plan………………………………….………10 2. Software and Hardware Plans……………………...11 3. Space Plan……………………………………….…...11 C. Self-Assessment & Program Evaluation……………..……11

IV. FINANCIALS……………………………………………………….12 A. Current Program Income and Expenses…………………..12 B. Financial Long Term Goals…………………………………12

1. POSSIBLE PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS……… ………..13 A. Financial……………………………………………………….13 B. Operational……………………………………… ………….14

Attachment: By-laws

I. MISSION STATEMENT To promote mental health, prevent mental illness, and improve care and treatment of persons suffering from mental and emotional problems. Our association, through volunteers, works by social action, advocacy and public education.

II. PROGRAM A. Current Program Descriptions Referral, Information and Speakers -Our Association maintains printed information as well as information in various medias for lending and contacts for obtaining any requested information or speaker. We are available to aid the community with any type of information needed about mental health issues and in finding mental health resources in the community.

A.C.E.S - (Assistance to Consumers for Empowerment and Support)

A direct assistance program for consumers who have critical needs. Each request is dealt with on a case-by-case basis. Manager has discretion up to awards of $200.00 in direct financial assistance. Cash is never paid to consumers but directly to vendors. Priority is given to housing, needs around shelter (example: utilities) and issues around treatment. Many requests take the form of advocacy and case management for a particular problem, which a consumer is experiencing. Requests come to us from individual consumers themselves, case managers in the state and hospital systems, from doctors, counselors, concerned friends and family. To qualify for assistance a request must be made from a mental health professional or evidence exist that they are receiving or need assessment for mental health care. Consumers must report income and expenses. If we can outsource the need to another agency we do. If we can work collaboratively with another agency we do. If needs are greater than our resources and mandates allow we seek community organizations, faith organizations and individuals that might be able to engage these needs. Program is being funded by the United Way Community Chest-$16,000.00, EFSP funds $1425.00 (has strict governmental restrictions upon assistance), fund-raising for designated donations and unrestricted donations.

Representative Payee -A collaborative effort with COMPASS (local consumer credit counseling) to bring into our area a representative payee program. COMPASS runs a successful program in Greenville. No such program existed locally prior. Through our ACES program we see a lot of mismanaged financial resources. A representative payee manages the financial responsibilities for a person receiving government benefits who is designated by their doctor as unable to soundly manage their financial affairs. Many times family or friends cannot or should not take on this responsibility. Collaborating with COMPASS allows our consumers access to good financial strategies and advice, as well as the opportunities to offer educational programming to participating consumers. Program start-up (computer, space, etc.) is supported by a $7000.00 -2003 United Way Priority Funding grant being paid in installments. Program fees will cover on-going costs.

Annual Dinner -The Association invites its members and general public to a yearly annual meeting and dinner to hear about the work of the Association and to bring a topical speaker into our community. Program is supported through fees.

WALK/RALLY -The Association sponsors a walk/rally (usually in May-Mental Health Month) to involve the community in mental health issues and fund-raising.

Consumer Conference -A yearly conference to provide up-to-the-date information on mental health issues and networking opportunities for persons dealing with a mental illness or disorder. The program is supported through sponsors and unrestricted donations.

Professional Conference -Occasional Conference to provide up-to-the-date information on mental health and an opportunity to network with other mental health professionals in our area. The program is supported through sponsors and fees for the conference.

Operation Santa -A program to provide seasonal cheer (gift bags, gifts, seasonal items, dinner, etc.) to persons and families who are experiencing financially difficult times as they struggle with the treatment of mental illness. Consumer gift bags are currently given out through our local mental health clinic. A consumer gift bag costs approximately $15.00 and consists of deodorant, soap, wash cloth, shaving cream, safety razors, mouthwash, tissues, lotion, socks, body spray or cologne, fruit, and candy canes. Families are referred to us or are families of which we become aware through other programming. We work with families and referring agencies to make appropriate choices for families and family members based on age and need. The program is supported by designated and unrestricted donations.

National Depression Screening Day -Program to offer depression screening and referral. Currently on National Depression Screening Day at public location. Program is supported through volunteers.

B. Future Programs Goals

1. Needs Assessment In assisting the community with mental health needs, and through collaborating, cooperating and networking with other agencies, a listing of needs and priorities has emerged for the Association. Needs have a priority code of 1,2 or 3. 1 being the greatest, most urgent priority and etc.

Disease Management 1-Assessment, treatment and therapy options for not severe and not chronic mental health consumers who are non-insured or are under-insured* so they can avoid

escalation into crisis mode (particularly with regards to fulfilling employment and childcare responsibilities) and won’t have to get to a point of crisis and total instability before they can receive treatment. Mental health consumers in crisis (the endangerment of themselves or others) or who present with chronic and severe disorders can find treatment in the emergency room or with the local State Mental Health Clinic. *(Many policies cap mental health services at a life-time of $10,000.00 which can quickly be depleted.) 2-Therapy options for people receiving mental health medications from physicians other than psychiatrists but receiving no therapy or life skills management. 2-More treatment options for substance abusers and individuals involved in domestic violence in our area. 3-Treatment options for persons with dual diagnosis –both a diagnosed mental illness and substance abuse.

Life Management 1-Ways to supplement resources for consumers (employed, unemployed, underemployed and disabled) living at poverty. 1-Better financial resource management for consumers. 1-Safe, decent affordable housing and available temporary shelter for those in crisis. 1-Care for individuals receiving medication and or therapy, but no official case management, i.e. life skills management. 2-Need for mental health consumers who have marginal employment skills and reoccurring mental health issues but are not completely disabled to be able to find employment. 3-Need for mental health consumers to who are totally disabled to find meaningful life opportunities.

Political Advocacy 1-Need for the mental health providers in our area to be in closer and better communication with each other. 1-Better integration into the community knowledge and awareness of mental health issues. 2-Need for local policy setters to be well informed about mental health issues and their connections to quality of life in our community. 3-The critical shortage of psychiatrists and mental health professionals in our area. 3-Need for local advocates to connect with each other and to be able to reach across our governmental spectrum to affect policy makers to make informed decisions about mental health issues.

2. Future Program Descriptions page 6 Priority 1 Shelter Plus Care Grant / Supportive Housing Program / Shelter -A renewable 5-year HUD grant for rental assistance for housing for persons meeting the grant definition of homeless and needing mental health services. Would have to be packaged as part of the GAMES/Upstate Homeless Coalition funding system of care. Status and Strategy: Be involved in the GAMES/Upstate Homeless Coalition as the community’s system of care is strengthened and further defined. Received permission to submit Shelter Plus Care Grant application for 5/6 units. Though this year’s notification is due out very soon, and things may not be able to be negotiated for the 2004 grant application. Pipeline money (for this reimbursement grant) and utility money are two issues that have to be solved if we are to make the 2004 grant application. If not, 2004, then 2005 for sure. In the meantime, negotiate some case management for our community’s existing transitional housing with GAMES for consumers who are experiencing mental health issues beyond the management scope of transitional housing. Also involve ourselves in the community/GAMES efforts to support readily available temporary shelter and the accessing of services to those who find themselves in crisis without shelter. (1-3 year goal)

Priority 1 Housing -safe, permanent, managed Association housing for mental health consumers built through available Federal programming. Status and Strategy: Setting up training for Board and manager with Michelle Murff (director, housing and homeless program at the SC Dept of Mental Health.) Goal is to be poised to apply for a federal 8-11 grant in the spring/summer of 2005 to bring 16 units or more into our community in the next 3 to 5 years. ALSO: participate in advisory team for new Eagle’s Nest 12 unit project helping us to grow into our own project. (3-5 year goal)

Priority 1 Care Teams -develop teams from local churches that would befriend a person/family struggling with mental health care to help provide/supplement life skills management. Status and Strategy: Checking on liability and training issues. Making contacts with faith communities. Goal for at least 5 groups trained and in place by October 2004. (1year goal)

Priority 1 Greenwood Coalition for System of Care -develop networking system for mental health providers in our area and ways for us to work collaboratively and creatively to pull more treatment options into our community. Status and Strategy: Becoming a presence in the mental health community, showing our value, trustworthiness and stability. Building network connections and learning the existing connections to develop viable strategies to bring area mental health providers into greater collaboration to provide greater treatment options. (looking at goals of having mental health services available at United Ministries (2 year goal) and Carolina Health Centers (5 year goal) and having substance abuse and domestic violence counseling available without charge to the community (2 year goal).)

Priority 2 Employment Assistance Program -develop models that would help employment situations for mental health consumers needing employment. Status and Strategy: Learning the economic strengths and weakness of the Greenwood community and our mental health consumers. Looking at starting a fund- raising business to train and employ consumers. (3 year goal)

Priority 3 Home Grown Professionals Scholarships -develop scholarship program to bring psychiatrists and mental health professionals in our area. Status and Strategy: Learning the recruitment techniques currently in place and their limitations. (5 year goal)

Priority 3 Local Political ADVOCACY -Develop a strategy that gathers together community will and vision around mental health issues in our community. Status and Strategy: Become a valuable and visible force in the community giving the community and policy makers the ability to trust in our organization and our advocacy. (5 year goal)

Priority 3 Seminar Series/Support Groups -develop some small ongoing seminar and support groups around priority mental health needs in the community.

Status and Strategy: Looking for core individual or individuals to bring a center to the tasks of a support/seminar group. Currently looking at suicide survivors group and parenting children with attention/mood disorders group. (1-5 year goal)

Priority 3 Mental Health Screening Expanded -develop programs for businesses, churches, school staffs for screenings and referral. Status and Strategy: Until the community is able to offer more treatment options, screenings with little or no referral options seems fruitless; therefore this expansion needs to come after inroads have been made into developing greater treatment options for our community. (2-5 year goal)

III. OPERATIONS

A. Organization, Governance and Staff

1. By-laws The Association is governed by a set of by-laws (see attachment).

2. Board We are an affiliate of the South Carolina Mental Health Association and the National Mental Health Association. As such we adhere to their affiliate requirements, but the Board has local autonomy to provide or pursue the education, advocacy and social action it deems necessary for our local community to enjoy good mental health and conduct Association business. MHA Greenwood is an incorporated organization, a non-profit 501C3.

3. Manager

The manager conducts the day-to-day operations serving at the pleasure, direction and hire of the board.

B. Operational Needs

1. Staffing Plan Manager Currently the manager is employed for 20 hours per week. Approximately 18 hours are spent with the ACES program, which is our only day-to-day operations program. Manager currently donates approximately 10-15 hours per week to all other operations/programming. The goal has to be that as more particular programming/services are added they would come with funding for their program’s specific personnel. Eventually the goal is that the umbrella of programming could be managed by a manager/director with a small administrative charge coming from each funded program/service.

Volunteers Volunteers fill the need for special occasion fundraising and programming. We are currently recruiting and training volunteers for the office for reception, information and referral. We are looking into a couple of local programs that might be able to provide us interns at no cost

2. Software and Hardware Plans Our 2003 receipt of a Rasmussen Grant allowed us to secure a second computer, which we have placed in network with our original computer. This gives us the potential of a 2-5 person office, which should take us into the next 3-5 years. At that time our systems will need upgrading to deal with the ongoing advances in computer technology. We will have to seek grants or donations at that time to upgrade and expand. Programs that will need any expansion on our existing systems will need to include that funding.

3. Space Plan Our Association currently rents 2 adjoining offices in the Professional Building (340 Main Street, Suite J). Elliott Davis, which owns and manages the building charges us $260.00 a month for the space. They also allow us the use of an extra office for storage while it is vacant. Turner House and Elliott Davis allow us the use of their conference spaces for meetings. This allows us a 2-3 person office and meeting space, which serves our current level of programming well. Space questions will have to answered for each particular program as it is successfully added. We are paying particular attention to the idea of coupling office space with a housing or a business assistance venture.

C. Self Assessment & Program Evaluation

State Affiliate Evaluation -the state (SC Mental Health Association) runs an extensive bi-yearly evaluation of affiliates including financial. Our goal is to participate fully in this process and use its results for self-evaluation.

Individual Program Evaluation -each program requires evaluation and all organizational funders demand it for their particular programming, therefore, with each program we gather statistics and information to further the effectiveness of that particular program as well as to influence our over-arching priorities and goals.

IV. FINANCIALS

A. Current and Future Program Income: Today’s non-profit organizations run on granting streams (private and governmental) and on public fund-raising. Granting streams are awarded on types of programming or services. Fund-raising depends on an organization’s ability to be vital and visible in the community.

Our current budgets are extremely tight. All funds are allocated.

Grants 2003-2004 United Way Community Chest -$16,000.00 designated for ACES Program. 2003 UW Priority Fund -$7000.00 Representative Payee Program (start-up) 2003-2004 EFSP funds – $2850.00 supplement for ACES Program

Membership Dues -currently run about 75-100 members and collect about $1500.00 in dues (unrestricted)

Fundraisers

Designated Donations through UW – about $1900.00 in 2003 (unrestricted) Donation Drive w/Annual Dinner – raised in 2003 about $1500.00 (unrestricted) Walk/Rally for Awareness & Advocacy –raised in 2003 about $1500.00 (unrestricted) Greenwood’s Cookin’–raised in 2003 about $3000.00 for (ACES) Operation Santa & Ornament Sale –raised in 2003 about $1000.00 (Operation Santa)

In-kind and reduced fee -represents many of our donations, services and volunteers

B. Financial Long Term Goals 1. That future programs/services be fully funded with administrative and personnel fees built in through their specific grants/granting streams/collaborations. 2. That we add one or two more name-recognition fund raising events. 3. That our current fundraisers double in income. 4. That capital and endowment funds be developed.

VI. POSSIBLE PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS

A. Financial:

Financial Management: Day to day management of financial matters has been the realm of the treasurer (pays the bills and takes requests for checks) until our 2004 April Board Meeting. The day to day financial matters will fall now to the manager, but the treasurer or chair will still only sign checks. The manager with the tight budgeting needed a more up to the minute picture of finances. As our grants and our fundraising have become more dedicated, the manager needs more oversight with treasurer to make sure the money serves its dedicated purpose. Manager will now be required to post up-to-date financials at monthly board meetings.

Fundraising: Fund-raising for specific programming at a level required to grow is a process new to our association. We made a large, well-publicized and successful fundraiser our priority goal for last year. (Even secondary to our business plan, page 12 because without getting our name in the community and without understanding that we could raise more substantial amounts of money, we were not designated to exist much longer.) Thankfully our Greenwood’s Cookin’ event was a huge success, netting us over $3000.00 and expanding the Board’s and the Association’s confidence in our fund- raising ability. Linking our fund-raisers to specific programming helps the public feel more confident in the investment of their giving and participation as well as serves as valuable publicity for programming.

Operating Capital and Endowment: In today’s non-profit funding atmosphere capital that acts as cushion and pipeline for programming can be difficult to attain. People want to see their money in action. Besides applying for grants that might be attached to other programming the Association is going to have to build programming that is visible and valuable in the community that makes endowment and capital fund-raising possible. We feel our current business plan accomplishes this goal. In addition the Association needs to find a board member dedicated to endowment and operating capital fundraising.

Grant Processes: Grant seeking and grant writing takes monumental amounts of time and energy. But The SCMHA is offering us some assistance in that department. We also need to seek another board member who has experience in this area.

B. Operational:

Board and Board Development: The Board realizes that it needs to grow itself slightly in size, then in specific areas of knowledge and skill in order to move the Association to a place it can continue to be of service and value in today’s changed and changing non- profit and mental health services landscape. It has to grow professionally and financially to be able to tackle the needs and programs it has identified as priorities. It must master the art of public relations, collaboration and finance if the Association is to be able to step up and meet the challenges for good mental health within our community. The Board is undertaking to meet its challenges. In seeking an expansion of the Board, members are seeking to include community financial and business leaders within its ranks as well as community consumers, educators and mental health service professionals that are currently and traditionally well represented on the MHA Greenwood Board. The current Board set precedent for a yearly strategic planning workshop, dedicated itself to large fundraiser, developing a business plan and began the work of understanding the workings of the federal housing programs that might benefit our consumers. As the expanded board is seated we are scheduling workshops in public relations, housing, granting, service providing, fund-raising and financing as part of our board business meetings. The Board is going to have to develop a plan for manager oversight and evaluation by the executive committee. This needs to involve the developments of specific instruments for reporting and communication and will require regular meetings of the executive committee in addition to monthly full board page 13 meetings and needs to be accomplished by the end of the 2005 Board year. This should also address the problem of over-dependence on a key person, which often is the case of an organization of our current size with only one employee. Status: The Board currently consists of four officers: chair, vice-chair, treasurer and secretary (which make up the executive committee) and seven directors. The Board voted at the 2004 March meeting to expand the number of directors to eleven. We are in the process of recruiting replacement and new board positions to be installed at our Annual Dinner/Meeting in the next 2 months. (The Board voted an extension on the 2004 Annual Dinner/Meeting due to Kathy’s accident, the speaker’s availability and the need to recruit a number of new board members.)