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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.
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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.
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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
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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
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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
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Community Alliance Resource Handbook
Version 1.0 12/2000
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.
Stage 2-6
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Community Alliance Resource Handbook
Version 1.0 12/2000
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?
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Community Alliance Resource Handbook
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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
