Community Alliances Resource Handbook

Community-Based Care Community Alliance Resource Handbook Version 1.0 12/2000 STAGE 2

In this stage, the Alliance will build a baseline of information and decide upon primary outcomes related to their mission / vision.

~ MAJOR FUNCTIONS OF A COMMUNITY ALLIANCE ~

. Provide for community education and advocacy on issues related to delivery of services (Stages 1-4 and ongoing)

. Needs assessment and establishment of priorities for service delivery (Stage 2)

. Determining community outcome goals (Stage 2) . Promote prevention and early intervention services (Stage 3) . Joint planning for resource utilization in the community (Stage 3) . Serve as a catalyst for community resource development (Stage 4) Citation from Florida Statute 20.19 (6) describing duties of Community Alliances

A strong recommendation is that at least one of the community outcomes for families will address prevention and early intervention.

Goals: . Discover what services are / are not provided in the local community . Decide on a few priority outcomes that the Alliance will commit to improving . Develop the capacity to measure and track the outcomes

These goals will be met when the Benchmarks & Achievements are completed.

Stage 2-1 Community-Based Care Community Alliance Resource Handbook Version 1.0 12/2000

STAGE 2

~ BENCHMARKS and ACHIEVEMENTS ~

1. Agreement on outcomes that are tied to the target population and relate to the mission / vision goals established by the Alliance.

. The Alliance will be most interested in outcomes that relate to their vision / mission

. The outcomes give shape to the planning and evaluations that follow this stage

. The outcomes must be measurable and achievable

. Outcomes may cover the following areas: . Child Protection outcomes . Outcomes related to prevention and early intervention . Child behavioral health outcomes . Child health outcomes . Vocational and transitional outcomes as children transition to adults . Child education outcomes . Child delinquency outcomes . Outcomes in other areas related to families

. As a first step, Community Alliances may begin their work with outcomes pertaining to Family Safety issues. Additional outcomes may be added at any time.

Example: Initial Family Safety outcomes: . 95% of the children will have no findings of child maltreatment within one year of case closure from services. . 97% of children not abused or neglected during services.

Stage 2-2 Community-Based Care Community Alliance Resource Handbook Version 1.0 12/2000 . 85% of children given exit interviews who were satisfied with foster care placement. Example: More community-involved outcomes: . Number and percent of individuals in protective supervision who have case plans requiring substance abuse treatment that are receiving treatment. . Number and percent of children whose education is continued in the most appropriate setting with the least amount of disruption.

Attachment A at the end of this section gives the reader examples of outcomes from several different community-based systems of care including some from programs in other states. Deciding on community outcomes is an important first step for the Community Alliances.

. Example: Hillsborough County in their newly released Community Plan lists more comprehensive suggested “Outcome domains” that cover System Outcomes as well as Child and Family Outcomes and will measure impact from a variety of stakeholders. A full description of their outcomes is found in Attachment A at the end of this section.

. Selecting Outcomes . Is the outcome important enough to commit time, energy, and funds for improvement? . Is community diversity taken into consideration? . Can the outcome be tracked accurately over time? . Can improvement be achieved through coordinated efforts of the Alliance?

Attachments B and C found at the end of this section, are excerpts from two resources on how to develop outcomes. Information on how to procure both documents is found in the attachments. These excerpts are provided as a sample from each of two resource documents and are not intended to capture the full content of the book.

As the Community Alliance develops community-based outcomes it is critical to remember the emphasis placed on prevention and early intervention by the Legislature when outlining the duties of the Community Alliance. Listed below are two web sites that provide good information regarding prevention and early intervention strategies and are important

Stage 2-3 Community-Based Care Community Alliance Resource Handbook Version 1.0 12/2000 to Community Alliances for ideas of best practices and plans for new prevention programs: . The web sites on prevention: . http://www.preventchildabuse.org/fs15.html provides a recommended continuum of prevention activities for a community . http://www.preventioninflorida.org.

. Accomplishing the benchmarks and achievements in Stage 2 consists of a sizable investment of time and commitment, but the results are crucial to the ongoing planning and oversight activities of the Community Alliance.

2. Develop a baseline of information by analyzing existing outcomes of various programs and agencies serving families in the community.

. The Department of Children and Families can provide baseline data regarding Family Safety.

The key to “Data as information” is that the data must answer the questions inherent in determining outcomes such as: . Is it consistent and reflective of the Alliance mission / vision?

. Does it answer questions about achievement of the outcome?

. Is it tied to the target population?

. What are the trends of this data?

Attachment D at the end of this section gives the reader an example of the data reports that are available from the department. Similar data should be available from other agencies in your community. Examples of different formats for presenting data in graph form are also in included. There is a great deal of data available. The key is to ask staff and/or stakeholders to turn the data into information for Community Alliance

Stage 2-4 Community-Based Care Community Alliance Resource Handbook Version 1.0 12/2000 members so that it answers specific questions concerning community outcomes.

3. A collaborative process for measuring community outcomes on a regular basis. Community Alliance members should feel comfortable in requesting an analysis of the data obtained (to provide the information needed) to determine the achievement of outcomes. Technical Assistance is available when / if Alliances need help and guidance. Contact the local District Mission Support and Performance (MSPT) Coordinator, local District CBC Coordinator or Central Office CBC staff for assistance with outcome measures.

. The initial review of current available data by the Community Alliance should determine what additional data information is needed to better understand how the current system works and how it can be improved.

. This review also provides the baseline for future performance improvements.

. A simple matrix may be designed to capture the needed information and can be adapted to meet many measuring and tracking needs. Community Services Inventory Chart Connecting Outcomes to Services Funded # Data on Quality SERVICE Provided by Served Current Wait Concerns by Outcomes List Foster A1 Foster Yes Yes – see Care Services ABC XXX 150 Remarks

Additional information on ways to review community services is provided in Attachment E, which gives the reader examples of three protocols. Each of the protocols, like the matrix above, can help the Community Alliance review the bottom line of what services are available for the community-based system of care, the adequacy of the services, and gaps in services. . Each Community Alliance must decide which process meets their individual needs and will work best for their community. . Community Alliances may want to take the best of each of the examples that most matches the way they want their stakeholder committees to approach this planning effort. . The three protocols are: 1. Hillsborough County planning protocol, 2. The protocol used by two communities in Texas, one urban and one rural, in a nine-page excerpt from a larger paper on developing community-based systems of care in Texas including examples and findings in matrix form of their work, and 3. Community Resource Mapping, a protocol used successfully in North Carolina by several.

Attachment F describes an instrument that many communities have used in conjunction with one of the above protocols to give further in-depth information about the children in the target population and the their needs and strengths. It is important as a tool to help a community decide what community-based services are needed to serve the children and their families. . Child & Adolescent Needs and Strengths (CANS) Methodology for Children and Adolescents with Special Needs: An Information Integration/Decision Support Tool for Planning and Monitoring Services in Home and Community Based Systems of Care for Children & Adolescents and their Families. This information integration tool has been used in six states and one large urban county to gather information to plan for systems of care for children and their families.

4. A report detailing services and programs currently available within the community that assist children and families in meeting the outcomes established by the Alliance.

. The report is based on the community data collected and analyzed by the committees of the Alliance.

. It specifies the services and agencies that impact on the outcomes designated by the Community Alliance.

. Excessive service duplication and gaps in services, which hinder outcome attainment, will be highlighted in the report.

HELPFUL HINTS

Pick 3 - 4 outcomes for which data will be collected.

See what data and other information is available.

Combine the information and discuss: . Can this outcome be improved? . What additional data is needed? . How can additional data and information be obtained?

Stage 2-7 Community-Based Care Community Alliance Resource Handbook Version 1.0 12/2000 COMMUNITY ALLIANCES A Community Alliance provides for community ownership and oversight; provides a focal point for setting community priorities; and is a catalyst for community resource and development.

Stage II ~To continue partnership building activities through an analysis of the desired outcomes of the children and their families in the community; an environmental scan of the community resources bearing on the outcomes to determine service duplication and gaps. ALLIANCE ALLIANCE ALLIANCE ACTIVITIES RESOURCE NEEDS BENCHMARKS & ACHIEVEMENTS Identify what Access to current List of desired outcomes for children information from DCF outcomes for the and their families that and other data systems communities’ Alliance wants to see children and achieved Technical assistance in families analysis of current Determine how well system of care and how Strategies and is the community Alliance agencies can opportunities to currently meeting the work in partnership to achieve improved outcomes improve outcomes outcomes

Isolate processes, Existing Lead Agencies Environmental linkages, supports are an important scan report of currently impacting resource existing service community outcomes array and gaps Determine what Environmental scan additional information is of existing agencies, needed to better programs and understand how the initiatives in the current system works community that may and how it can be impact on the improved outcomes

Stage 2-8