(Spring 2010 Honorable Mention) Abbott House; Mitchell, SD Good Enough is not Good Enough Residential Services	Abstract: Abbott House has been a safe haven for abused children for over 67 years. We provide residential and therapeutic services to girls and families in South Dakota. Since 1973, Abbott House has provided residential services for girls aged nine to eighteen. The typical length of stay is 12 to 15 months. Abbott House envisioned premier services to provide the missing link in residential services. In July 2007, Abbott House was selected to provide psychiatric residential treatment programming.   Abbott House identified improvements that will help provide the best treatment for children. Construction of a new 14 bed intensive unit, a wellness and exercise center, two family suites, sensory room and a teaching kitchen is presently underway. We envisioned these services to provide an area for families in crisis to be in close proximity to their children, a wellness center to promote mind and body togetherness, a teaching kitchen to assist in developing important life skills, a sensory room to address the individual child's unique needs and an intensive unit to provide intense care to South Dakota's most damaged children. Implementation of a trauma based programming model has been initiated. Eleven new staff positions have been added to provide more specialized services and a lower staff to child ratio. Since the implementation of these services, Abbott House has seen a 33 percent reduction in restraint and seclusion, a 25 percent reduction in clinical issues, an average of 4.5 (out of 5) point scale client satisfaction, and an excellent rating by placing agencies.
(Spring 2010 Honorable Mention) Washington County Department of Social Services; Hagerstown, MD  Family Involvement Meetings Child Welfare Services	Abstract: The goals of Family Involvement Meetings (FIMs) are to improve outcomes for children and families through a collaborative approach to service delivery, to increase support to child welfare staff, and to engage the larger community in child welfare decisions. FIMs encourage and support creative service delivery to plan for the safety, well-being, and permanency of children. In two years of implementation, the reasons to convene a FIM have expanded and now children across the child welfare spectrum benefit from the technology, philosophy, and skill set of the facilitator. Fewer children are entering foster care placements, more children are placed with relatives and other family supports, foster care placement stability has increased, children are placed in a family setting more frequently as opposed to a group home facility, and children are exiting formal foster care more quickly through reunification, adoption, and guardianship. FIMs facilitate safety for children and facilitate permanency of relationships.
(Spring 2010 Honorable Mention) ICAN; Chandler, AZ  Innovative Teen Recruitment & Retention Practices After School Programs	Abstract: ICAN's Peer Leadership program is comprised of youth ages 13-18 from a community ridden with gang activity and extreme generational poverty. ICAN's Peer Leadership Program utilizes innovative strategies for recruiting and retaining teens in positive activities that promote community change. ICAN's Peer Leaders are recruited through direct community partnerships, creative partnerships with schools and street outreach through a partnership with the Chandler Police Department Gang Unit. Through our partnerships, ICAN is able to reach out to youth who would traditionally be "lost" in most school and after school programs. ICAN youth are contacted and visited monthly by ICAN staff and a Police representative who ensure that the youth are supported, safe and attending programs. Once involved in the program the teens are tasked with learning leadership competencies and applying those skills through monthly community service projects. In 2006, this group of youth, working with key stakeholders, organized the Chandler Coalition on Youth Substance Abuse to create and implement a community development strategy to address underage drinking. Through this community development process, the ICAN Peer Leaders have collaborated with local merchants to remove alcohol signage, provided free training to merchants on carding, and educated the community about the risks of underage drinking. Once the teens become involved in these meaningful activities and have the opportunity to be positive change agents in their community, retention becomes inevitable.
(Fall 2009 Award Winner) Parsons Child and Family Center; Albany, NY Children in Crisis: A Community Response Systems Collaboration	Abstract: More than five years ago, a collaborative of parents, public and not-for-profit agencies representing three counties, envisioned a better response for children, youth and their families experiencing emotional, behavioral or psychiatric crises (Schimmer, 2006).  On February 26, 2007, the Child and Adolescent Mobile Team (CAMT) was launched. Parsons Child and Family Center operates CAMT, an innovative cross-systems, three county children's service. Historically, children and adolescents in our region with serious mental health and/or developmental disability challenges had little or no access to effective community-based, skilled crisis intervention services.   The primary mission of CAMT is to serve children and their families in behavioral, psychiatric or emotional distress by going to wherever the crisis is occurring in the community and intervening immediately, thereby reducing the need for more restrictive, costly and higher levels of care.  As of July 31, 2009, CAMT has responded to 942 calls regarding youth and families in crisis since its inception.  To date the diversion rate for all mobile calls is 77%.  Another indicator of CAMTs effectiveness is the reduction in the number of children served by the local state run psychiatric center crisis unit during its hours of operation.  In the months since the team's implementation, the percentage of youth seen has dropped an average of 5%. CAMT is exceptional with regard to: its development; the community partnerships voluntarily formed to direct and support it; its service delivery model; and the diversified manner in which it is resourced.
(Fall 2009 Runner-up) Guardian Angel Community Services; Joliet, IL  Prom 'N Aide Recovery, Prevention, and Early Intervention	Abstract: Guardian Angel Community Services, a 112- year-old social service organization, offers six programs.  One program, the Sexual Assault Service Center, has developed an innovative project entitled Prom 'N Aide, to help fight teen dating violence which impacts approximately one third of all U.S. teenagers. Most teens lack an understanding of what constitutes sexual and dating violence, which combined with the acceptance of the "boys will be boys" mindset and the tendency to blame the victim, leaves teens at an alarming risk. Teen victims commonly report incidents that include sexual assault by multiple perpetrators, drug facilitated assaults, and threats of serious future violence.  Prom 'N Aide educates adolescents on healthy relationships through incentive-based prevention education.  Females participating in the dating safety classes are offered a free prom dress; males are given gift certificates for prom-related expenses.  The curriculum is interactive and class sizes are small, fostering a safe atmosphere where students can feel comfortable discussing their personal experiences, beliefs, and the values they have internalized from their cultural and environmental backgrounds.  The class goals are to educate participants on how to recognize warning signs in a potential partner, evaluate their own relationships, and set and enforce healthy boundaries. Goal attainment is measured through class evaluations which averaged 4.8 on a 5 point satisfaction scale. Repeated participation in the project, comments on satisfaction surveys, and anecdotal evidence from class discussions are also indicators that Prom 'N Aide is making an impact on the lives of young people.
(Fall 2009 Runner-up) Episcopal Community Services; Philadelphia, PA  ECS Vocation Advantage: Vocation Assessment and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Single Mothers who are Homeless Behavior, Support, and Management	Abstract: Episcopal Community Services (ECS) is a COA-accredited agency providing multiple services to vulnerable persons in Philadelphia. During 2008/09, ECS launched and evaluated a pilot project that paired individualized vocational services with cognitive behavioral therapy. The project served 21 homeless mothers residing in ECS's family shelter. The goal of the pilot was to determine the efficacy of combining ECS's model of vocational assistance with cognitive therapy to help homeless women take steps towards self-sufficiency. An initial survey conducted before the program's conception revealed that women in ECS' shelter were hindered by a lack of information and problematic thinking. Although respondents agreed that education and work are the keys to stability, the women did not know how to achieve job goals or thought there were too many barriers to returning to school. ECS Vocation Advantage paired vocational assessments with cognitive behavioral therapy to address both the gap in homeless mothers' knowledge of mainstream economy and employment, and the negative self-concepts that hampered the women's movement from aspiration to achievement. A professional evaluator assessed the results of this intervention and found that the innovative Vocation Advantage model had a significant, positive impact on participants' thinking and intended behaviors. ECS will share these results with other agencies interested in implementing the program.
(Spring 2009 Award Winner) St. Johns County Health and Human Services Department; St. Augustine, FL Multidisciplinary Prevention, Community-Based Care Prevention Recovery, Prevention, and Early Intervention	Abstract: In a seminal study, Preventing Child Abuse (2006), The World Health Organization and The International Society for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect have concluded that child abuse is best addressed systematically--by integrating three fundamental components: an information system, prevention initiatives, and care services.  The St. Johns County Florida Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has been able to successfully achieve this goal by utilizing an Environmental Scan (providing real-time community data to target services by geographical area), a Multidisciplinary Prevention Approach (facilitating the implementation of proactive, longitudinal prevention strategies and programs), and a Wraparound System of Care (delivering comprehensive services).  The success of this integrated system of care appears across a spectrum of performance indicators: Cost-Effectiveness (e.g., Mental Health costs have not increased in five years), Program Outcomes (e.g., HHS is the first county in the state of Florida to lower the number of children in foster care by fifty percent - thus achieving the Casey Family Programs goal of 2020 and the state of Florida goal of 2012), and Program Achievements (e.g., the child welfare program of HHS -  the Family Integrity Program - has consistently attained the top Florida ranking across Quality Assurance standards). The key to sustaining a system of care is a multidisciplinary, strengths-based prevention strategy that is thoroughly integrated with all facets of service delivery.  This proactive prevention model defines service effectiveness by means of the long-term decrease of service utilization, recidivism, and "spillover" to other agencies.
(Spring 2009 Runner-up) Uhlich Children's Advantage Network (UCAN); Chicago, IL  The Value of Diversity Systems Collaboration	Abstract: UCAN's Diversity and Inclusion Journey (D&I) aligns with COA's objective of a program that "...uniquely meet[s] the needs of a service population and/or implementing distinctive methods for improving organizational capacity."  A distinguished social service agency that began as a civil war orphanage in 1869, UCAN strives to build strong youth and families through compassionate healing, education and empowerment. UCAN's diversity journey began in 1994 with the intent to train our then-roughly 125 coworkers on cultural diversity and the ways in which we can ensure culturally competent services to the children, youth and families we serve.  Today, UCAN's workforce of 475 serves our clients with culturally competent practices, beliefs and programs. Our Diversity and Inclusion Journey has led us to integrate our Clinical Philosophy throughout each program, and to create six Affinity Groups led by members of the Senior Leadership Team. Our D&I Journey is a multifaceted, inclusive approach to improving client services and includes: UCAN Diversity Committee, Agency Self- Assessment, Leadership Engagement, Client Programming, Agency-wide Employee Development, Affinity Groups, and Board Development. It began out of a realization that we have a responsibility to serve our clients in a racially supportive and affirming manner that meets their needs, and we were not as successful as we wanted to be.
(Spring 2009 Runner-up) Board of Child Care; Baltimore, MD  Spiritual Life Program	Abstract: The Board of Child Care believes the spiritual needs of our clients are as important as their physical, educational, emotional, and social needs.  As a result, a Spiritual Life Program component is made available to the youth that come into our care. Although the Board of Child is affiliated with the United Methodist Church, the Spiritual Life component to the group and shelter care has been developed as a more secular view on religion and faith and does not demand any denomination be practiced during a youth's stay.  As such, the Board of Child Care assesses the spiritual needs of individual residents in our group care programs.  Through the Spiritual Life Assessment, related goals and objectives for inclusion in Individual Treatment Plans are developed.  The Spiritual Life Program is a part of the treatment program at the Board of Child Care which intends that basic religious values be reflected in all areas of treatment of, and relationships with, our clients enabling them to see themselves as individuals of self-worth deserving humans and divine love and forgiveness.  We attempt to provide residents with opportunities for meaningful experiences of worship, Bible Study and education, fellowship and spiritual nurture within a supportive community of faith.  It is our goal to provide residents with a firm foundation in the basic elements of faith, which they can continue to build on in the years after they leave.