Coleman Foundation Blog

Shared Services Entity Supports Disability Agencies

In June of 2009, eight south suburban Chicago non-profit organizations that serve individuals with developmental disabilities came together to discuss the potential for sharing resources and leveraging their collective purchasing power given the present and foreseeable budget challenges of the State of Illinois.  After a year of discussion, six of the eight formed Community Service Partners (CSP), a non-profit organization established to work with other non-profits to create shared resources, enabling member agencies to use more of their funding on programs and less on administrative costs. 

The six member organizations are Charleston Transitional Facility, New Hope Services, Park Lawn Center, Sertoma Centre, SouthSTAR Services, and Southwest Community Services.

CSP adopted the mission “to design and share business functions to achieve the most efficient resources, resulting in its member organizations delivering high quality person centered services in their local communities.”

Core Activities

CSP was incorporated in the summer of 2010.  In November of 2010, a CEO was hired, partially funded by the Coleman Foundation.  This support allowed the organization to establish its initial services offering information technology (IT) and staff training as well as to explore future lines of business such as transportation, employee recruitment and bulk purchasing.

In its first year, CSP’s IT department developed an e-ticket system that was introduced to the member organizations.  The e-ticket system allows for a computer user at a member organization to fill out a form via the internet detailing an issue that they were having regarding IT.  Then a CSP-employed technician could respond to the e-ticket and resolve the issue.  CSP was able to resolve 2,323 IT issues from members.

Also in its first year, CSP was able to combine member agencies training programs into one collaborative initiative for Direct Service Professional (DSP) Training.

Outcomes

• The information technology service line resulted in savings of more than $100,000 across the six members.
• The staff training service line generated over $90,000 in savings across the six members.
• Due diligence was completed on a future transportation network which will provide more efficient use of current assets.
• An overall satisfaction survey was given to its key stakeholders by CSP with results as follows:    
  • 100% of respondent were satisfied with the success of CSP
  • 82% of respondents were satisfied with CSP increasing efficiencies
  • 81% of respondents were satisfied with CSP meeting the needs of the emerging populations of the member organizations.
  • 87% of respondents were satisfied with CSP saving its organization money.
  • Overall, IT’s e-ticket system was well received. 92% of end users that responded to a survey in December of 2011 rated the system as average or above.  Other results were:
    • 95% said the e-ticket system was easy to use
    • 95% felt that the CSP technician was knowledgeable
    • 93% felt that their agency’s IT has improved under CSP
    • 96% of all e-tickets were resolved within one business day and all e-tickets were resolved in two business days.

Key Lesson Learned:  Board involvement important

Each of the six organizations has its own board of directors and they were involved early in the process of developing Community Service Partners.  In April of 2011 CSP brought all of these board members together again to report about the progress and the plans for the future of CSP.    During this meeting CSP heard from several board members that they would like to become more involved.  After that meeting, CSP developed a Board Committee that meets quarterly to hear firsthand about the progress of CSP.  This has resulted in the committee exploring interim Executive Directors, executive transition management, and reporting of CSP success to its board of directors.

Key Lesson Learned:  CSP must be visible in the community

CSP learned early that trust was a major factor for other non-profits when examining the opportunity to share administrative resources.  Often nonprofit leaders were skeptical of CSP as an organization wanting to provide administrative supports to their agency.  In order for the agency and the leadership to trust CSP, it was necessary to work with them in the community on different projects and/or community groups.  CSP became actively involved in United Way’s South Suburban Leadership Council and South Suburban Council on Homelessness, establishing trust which led to CSP taking the lead role in the forming of the South Suburban Transportation Network (a network that provides transportation to residents of the south suburbs for employment, health and social services reasons).  Furthermore, this relationship has helped identify agencies as potential customers.  Five such agencies have become new customers of CSP.

Key Lesson Learned:  Leadership from the member organizations is a key factor to the success of a shared administrative model

Organizers felt that the shared administrative model would not work unless member organizations had “buy in” from their leadership.    Early on, CSP realized that key leadership staff of member agencies needed to have this “buy in” or they could sabotage the process and make it difficult to accomplish CSP’s goals.  To establish the necessary buy-in, CSP made sure that all affected decision makers in an agency took an active role in developing a service/product that would be offered back to the member agency.  

Coleman Foundation Announces Developmental Disabilities Impact Plan

The Coleman Foundation has focused on three program areas for over twenty years – Cancer, Developmental Disabilities and Entrepreneurship Education.  Over the past several months, program staff has employed the “Getting to Impact” framework developed by the Association for Small Foundations as part of a strategic planning process to more clearly make the connection between grant strategies and intended outcomes in these three major areas.  On March 1, 2012, the Board of Directors approved these Impact Plans to provide a basic outline of the goals for the Foundation’s grantmaking in 2012. 

The Developmental Disabilities Impact Plan is based upon the importance of vocational and residential experiences to individuals with developmental disabilities.  Foundation strategies are intended to enable grantees who serve such individuals to discern their vocational and residential goals and facilitate the efforts to acheive them.  Individuals who have options for both housing and employment opportunity are more likely to achieve higher quality of life and greater self-determination.

The Foundation’s Impact Plans should inform potential grantees as to the particular strategies the Foundation seeks to fund. The Foundation welcomes potential grantees to review our grantmaking process which is available on our website.    Download Disabilities Impact Plan

GRACE Project Profiled on Chicago ABC Affiliate

The GRACE (Generating Resources for Aging through Collaborative Energies) Project, an initiative of the Intersect for Ability network, was recently profiled on Chicago's ABC affiliate.  Click here to watch the report on this effort which is enabling community agencies to better serve aging individuals with developmental disabilities.

Two Intersect for Ability Projects Presented at ARC/TAP Conference

Two lead programs of the Intersect for Ability collaborative network of developmental disability agencies were presented at the 2011 Annual Convention of the Arc of Illinois and The Autism Program on April 27 and 28.

Lori Opiela and Laura Gonzalez of Seguin Services presented "Building Bridges to the Future: A Model Transition Project."  The project consists of six organizations (Seguin, Clearbrook, Park Lawn, Elim Christian Services, Helping Hand Center and PACTT) providing students and their parents with coaching, linkages to financial, medical and legal resources, and adult services training experiences to ensure students successfully transition from educational systems to adulthood.  Central to the effort are Transition Outreach Specialists at each lead agency who link with area high schools to identify and support transitioning students and their families.  The session highlighted the accomplishments of the effort which includes support to over 450 families and participation in more than 150 Individualized Education Programs for students preparing to transition since the inception of the program in August, 2009.

The session run by Susan Kaufman, Sheila Lullo, Shannon Paul and Sara Bartels from Clearbrook highlighted elements of Intersect's GRACE project (Generating Resources for Aging Through Collaborative Energies), a combined effort of Clearbrook, Seguin, Misericordia, Park Lawn, Elim Christian Services and Little Friends.  This project developed training for staff who work with aging individuals with developmental disabilities to prepare them to better serve this growing population.  Attendees of the session experienced a small sampling of the training exercises designed to create emapthy on the part of direct support professionals (DSPs) for changes experienced by aging program participants.  These exercises along with simple program activities for aging adults with developmental disabilities are part of a comprehensive program manual produced as part of the effort.  Training programs which teach DSPs about physical changes, age-related diseases and best practice programs, as well as recommended modifications to day and residential programs are occuring across the Intersect for Ability network, improving the ability of members to deliver excellent services to a growing population.

Intersect for Ability Enables Collaboration Between Developmental Disability Service Leaders

The history of the developmental disability service community in Illinois, inclusive of individuals, their families, and the providers who serve them, is marked by heavy reliance on tenuous government funding and steady increases in the number and intensity of service needs.  This context has spurred competition, duplication of effort, isolated areas of expertise and organizational and programmatic silos.  In this environment there is little natural opportunity for the many community based providers of services to establish meaningful linkages with one another or consistent standards of care across the field.

Economic pressures faced by the developmental disability community have intensified in recent years.  Agencies, relying heavily on government funding and experiencing state payment delays of unprecedented duration and size, routinely draw upon lines of credit to make payroll and provide needed care and sometimes have been forced to close programs.  The current crisis in the developmental disability service community calls for a fresh approach.

Core Activities

Intersect for Ability represents a dramatic shift away from the competitive, siloed environment that has characterized social services for several decades.  Intersect for Ability operates through a proven network approach that deploys shared resources and collaboration.

Established in 2008, through a system development grant from the Coleman Foundation and managed by The Hope Institute for Children and Families, Intersect for Ability consists of ten organizations serving individuals with developmental disabilities in the Chicago area.  Intersect agencies represent a broad cross-section of the provider community.  Agency differences create rich opportunities for innovation and rapid program adaption and dissemination.  In spite of differences across agency (size, philosophy), comprehensive evaluation and planning has led to the identification of common areas of concern including three focal areas for ongoing collaborative work.  Intersect for Ability has developed a structure to support program replication and has secured funding from the Coleman Foundation and other private sources to advance quality programs.

Outcomes

• Establishment of organizational and governance structure of Intersect for Ability, including managing partner role, network council and clearly identified roles of agency project collaboration.
• Alignment of agencies around a Guiding Principles Consensus Statement.
• Joint planning and prioritization of needs resulted in selection of three focal areas (staff training and retention, transitions from school to work and work to retirement, employment).
• Significant increases in communication between agencies at multiple levels across each organization.
• Execution of six collaboratively planned programs which are providing needed client services, increasing agency capacity and enabling sharing of best practices.

Key Lesson Learned:  Managing partner role is essential to network formation and optimal initial operation

The first Intersect-related grant made by the Coleman Foundation was to The Hope Institute for Children and Families to provide network development and system support.  This took the principle form of three staff: a Network Development Specialist with deep experience in the field who facilitated and coordinated (but did not develop or lead) network activities including those of a Network Council comprising representatives of all Intersect agencies; a Network Coordinator who maintained meeting agendas and notes and scheduled Network Council events; and a Program Evaluation Specialist, contracted to the University of Illinois at Springfield, who provided guidance to the development of Intersect program evaluation systems as well as performed an evaluation of the network itself.  These staff members played critical roles and provided neutral, third-party perspectives necessary for communication, resource sharing and trust.  A key deliverable was the development of specific definitions of levels of collaboration which were used in program planning to convey resource requirements by multiple agencies.  It is unlikely that staff from the participating agencies could have performed these network support tasks as effectively due to the natural bias that would exist as an employee of a single member agency.  Also, it was important that the managing partner was able to commit the necessary time to network formation activities, a commitment which would be hard to fulfill by unfunded resources from a network member.   Following network establishment, the managing partner should have a continuing, albeit smaller role in sustaining a mature network. 

Key Lesson Learned: Network weaving is an intentional process that can bridge divides

Network weaving can be defined as integration of linkage, communication, activities, products and patterns of behavior that gradually shape network identity and define the role of individual network members.  Completion of a comprehensive organizational assessment in the early stages of network formation creates a repository of network information that the managing partner is able to use to weave the fabric of the network.  Policies and structures (e.g. membership guidelines, monthly meetings which rotate between member sites and include facility tours) that increase agency-to-agency information exchange encourages and equips members to take responsibility for network weaving.  Ideological divides in the developmental disability community are dramatically lessened by understanding of individual agency philosophy and operations.  For example, Intersect agencies assumed to be polar opposites on community integration issues have gained new respect for one another and have joined around issues of client respect. 

Key Lesson Learned:  Network members find motivating value in collaboration, beyond the dollars

Intersect for Ability member agencies, in the face of a state funding crisis and their own budget pressures, have devoted considerable time, uncompensated by any source, to network activities.  Attendance at Network Council meetings, participation in a conference for program sharing, as well as joint program development and preparation of proposals for funding from multiple potential sources were commitments members were willing to make in anticipation of direct benefit from the network.  While initial interest by members was certainly driven by the opportunity to receive Coleman Foundation grant funds, all members (including those not funded in the initial round of grantmaking) maintained an active engagement with the network beyond the first round of awards.  Network members found value beyond the grant dollars through their exposure to one another, the resulting sharing of best practices and the joint development of solutions to shared challenges.    

Key Lesson Learned:  The network concept does not immediately lead to new sources of funds

A key Coleman Foundation goal of Intersect for Ability is to aid the network and its members in identifying new funding streams to lessen a historical reliance upon tenuous governmental support.  The premise that a collaborative network of developmental disability agencies would be an effective avenue to new funders has not been proven.  Members have been hesitant to fully embrace an opportunity to employ the network as a joint resource for development –- though incremental funds have been raised by network partners towards select programs -- and the Foundation has struggled to inspire funding of network activities by other private sources.

Training First Responders to Understand Autism

In recent months, several episodes of conflict between individuals with autism and police officers and other first responders have occurred across the country.  In response, the Autism Training Center of Giant Steps Illinois developed a series of trainings, entitled “The Face of Autism in Our Community: Autism’s Impact on Families and Communities,” designed to increase the ability of community members to identify individuals with autism and effectively interact with them during normal times as well as in moments of crisis.  A grant from the Coleman Foundation funded the development of this training and various visual support systems that are given to participants in training sessions.

 

Core Activities

 

Training material was developed which supported eleven training sessions given to a variety of community entities (town hall meetings, community panels, parent groups, high school students/staff).  A special focus was placed on community first responders (police and fire personnel) and a train-the-trainer curriculum was developed for this audience and given to state and local personnel. 

 

Outcomes

·     85 first responders received training from this development within the first year of this project’s inception

·    255 other community members have received training from this development

·     Another 270 first responders will receive this training in early 2010

·     A Train the Trainer Manual, Regular 1st Responder Manual and Visual Support Cards, used to facilitate communication between responders and individuals with autism, were developed.

 

Key Lesson Learned: While interest in training is strong, resources are limited

 

While there is strong interest in this training on the part of other first responder organizations, it has been a challenge for these departments to fund training from their operating budgets.  Giant Steps initially anticipated the ability to offer trainings on a fee basis.  This assumption has been challenged in the early months of implementation and the organization is seeking other means by which to support this program.

 

Key Lesson Learned:  It is important to incorporate direct contact between first responders and individuals with autism during training

 

When it has been possible, training has occurred in the Giant Steps Therapeutic Day School building.  Repeatedly, trainees have stated that being around the students with autism has been an added highlight as meeting them helps “demystify” autism and serves to increase their personal ease with this population.

A View of Autism through the Eyes of Families

Radio documentarians at Long Haul Productions completed a six-part series entitled Autism Chronicles which followed three families with autistic children as they explored treatment options and other challenges.  The series, which aired on National Public Radio and its Chicago Public Radio outlet, was heard by over 2 million listeners.

The six installments, using first-person narration by the family members who served as subjects of the documentary, provide a unique and revealing perspective on the experiences faced by families touched by autism.

The series, funded in part by the Coleman Foundation, can be found here.

A Rural Resource for Families and Children with Autism

Easter Seals of LaSalle and Bureau Counties (ESLB), an affiliate of Easter Seals DuPage and the Fox Valley Region, offers full evaluations, direct therapy, family counseling and free-of-charge developmental screening to children ages birth to three and their families who live in nine predominantly rural counties in north central Illinois.  ESLB participates in the State of Illinois Early Intervention program and is the only agency in its area providing in-home early intervention services.  Nearly 160 children up to age 13 are served each week through developmental therapy programs, child development and daycare programs and Lekotek assistive technology programs.  Services are provided in child-care centers, private homes and agency facilities across several small, rural towns.

 

Core Activities:

 

In response to information received from families and providers at a series of Community Visioning meetings, ESLB created the Illinois Valley Autism Resource Center in partnership with The Autism Program (TAP).  The Autism Program, Illinois Department of Human Services, Hope Institute, provided partial funding, along with The Coleman Foundation and Easter Seals.    Located within the facility of a partner agency, the 1000 sq. ft. facility provides resources and counseling to individuals with autism and their families.   The Center includes a Family and Community Resource Room containing over 300 items for families and professionals to access including books, DVDs, learning aids, home teaching kits, sensory equipment and computer software.  Many of the materials have been created by professionals at The Autism Program and are duplicated and available at no charge to families and other visitors to the center. The Center is staffed to assist visitors in finding the information they need and, importantly, to tailor resources to meet their specific needs.   

 

Outcomes:

• 167 families used the Center over the course of its first 5 months
• 633 encounters occurred in the first 90 days
• 1,326 items within 35 categories of “freebies” (laminated PECs card sets, books, etc.) were given to families who visited the Center
• A self-administered Community Partner Survey resulted in the maximum satisfaction score of 32

Key Lesson Learned:  There is a Great Need for Recreational Programming in Rural Areas

 

Feedback obtained from families using the Center revealed that there was a lack of recreational options for autistic children in the largely rural area that surrounds the facility.  The Center responded by developing a program that included game nights, art clubs and a family picnic.  A “Safety Night” included fire truck, ambulance and police car along with the corresponding personnel to give individuals with autism the opportunity to see and touch safety vehicles.  Additionally, the Center provided social stories for caregivers to read with children to familiarize them with what is expected during a time of emergency as well as visual schedules relating to each type of emergency.

 

Key Lesson Learned:  Locating Center at a Program Partner Facility Can Pay Dividends

 

Though the original plan called for locating the Center at a distinct storefront site, ESLB decided to establish it within Ottawa Friendship House, a partner agency whose services to developmentally delayed adults complement ESLB’s pediatric services.  This decision not only saved $5,300.00 annually in rent expense, but also positioned the organization to seek intergenerational grant funding and develop joint programming such as Lekotek services and respite care. 

Misericordia Breaks Ground on New Homes for Disabled

Founded in 1921 as a maternity hospital for women of meager means, Misericordia now supports more than 550 children and adults with developmental disabilities.  Misericordia's campus includes residences as well as several supportive programs.  The organization maintains a waiting list for services numbering over 600 individuals.

In November 2006, a matching grant of $900,000 was made for the construction of one of several planned Intermediate Care Facilities for the Developmentally Disabled, housing twelve individuals and located on the Misericordia campus on Chicago's north side.   Foundation funds, matched by both Misericordia's organizational endowment and new funding sources, additionally will provide furnishings for two homes and landscaping of the property; bring electricity and plumbing to the site from existing lines; and construct new parking lots and roadways.

On June 17, 2008, Misericordia broke ground on the construction of four new homes.  At right, Sister Rosemary Connelly, Executive Director of Misericordia, presents Michael Hennessy and Clark McCain with a commemorative plaque marking the Foundation's gift for The Coleman Foundation Home.