For Agencies
At FACE, we strive to have a genuine, positive impact on the health and wellbeing of youths and families in Boone County. If we are to achieve this impact, it is not enough to simply improve the availability and coordination of services for families – we must also improve the bottom-line quality of care that is provided. We must support providers and agencies in their efforts to provide high quality care and ongoing evaluation of the success of service efforts. As such, FACE provides non-conflicted referrals for a wide range of services to meet our clients’ needs. We also support workforce development that is data driven and focused specifically on helping providers become trained and competent in effective, evidence-based practices (EBPs). Our goal is to work with all health and social service providers and agencies countywide to offer non-conflicted referrals, workforce development, and evaluation support.
Technical assistance
FACE aims to support local government and social service agencies seeking to improve the impact and coordination of services for youth and families in Boone County by providing technical assistance. More specifically, FACE seeks improve the accuracy of present investments and infrastructure improvements in our social service system through:
FACE believes that our communities will be more healthy and successful when we use scientifically-based supports (i.e., programs and practices). More importantly, implementing effective supports with fidelity requires careful planning to ensure supports accurately target intended risk factors, that supports are integrated in a seamless continuum of services that address the needs of a community, that appropriate evaluation systems surround the implementation of a program to measure whether it is achieving its intended outcome, and that creative financing options are in place to ensure the sustainability of efforts over time.
FACE believes that we know what works–but that we are often not using our community’s resources to ensure that everyone has access to the services they need. To better inform policy and program investments that are responsive to the needs of Boone County communities, FACE will connect local data from needs assessments (i.e., Boone County Schools Mental Health Coalition K-12 screening data; Missouri Kids Count; etc.) as well as data from local program evaluations to better inform infrastructure development. FACE will work the local Boone County Funding entities (e.g., Heart of Missouri United Way, Boone County Community Services, City of Columbia, Columbia/Boone County Public Health and Human Services Department, etc.) and other relevant sectors (e.g., law enforcement, schools, hospitals, etc.) to ensure that data are used to identify specific needs and underserved populations, identify gaps in our service continuum, identify effective supports to address gaps (i.e., programs, practices, services, etc.), develop implementation plans to integrate services within the existing continuum of services, and support ongoing evaluation of investments and implementation at the program and community levels.
FACE believes that as a community, we can reshape the landscape of the social service system in a manner that not only permits involvement of all current community agencies and partners–but we will identify new services to fill the present gaps in our service continuum. It is this vision that shapes our goal to assist with enhancing partnerships and coalitions among providers that will create a community to support healthy kids and families. To do this, FACE endeavors to work with local funders and agencies to (a) identify gaps in the service continuum, (b) report to funders where those gaps are, (c) consult with funders around effective programs and services, (d) work alongside local providers and agencies to build creative means to adopt new initiatives, (e) promote trainings for our network of providers to enhance the adoption of practices and programs that target identified needs, and (f) and provide agencies with ongoing support and technical assistance to finance and maintain effective programs and practices.
FACE seeks to support local agencies and providers to expand our community’s capacity to identify gaps in services, work to develop programs and services that fill those gaps, and use data and research to develop a community of learners who can better serve youth and families.
At FACE we believe developing a community of lifelong learners is the cornerstone to a collective mindset that we can overcome any problems–no matter how complex. To that end, FACE will offer ongoing training and coaching to our community of providers to build practitioner skill sets that match our community needs. This may include
- In-person training events for providers
- Community outreach and media campaigns to promote healthy behaviors and reduce negative and stigmatizing attitudes towards help seeking
- Providing online training and support tools (client progress monitoring, online infrastructure to request assistance, etc.)
- Providing trainings with CEU’s as well as easy pathways to supervision and certification of professionals seeking licensure.
Continuous quality improvement
FACE aims to develop and promote widespread use of an integrated information management system. To reassure the taxpayers of Boone County that their investment in FACE is producing valuable child, family, and community outcomes, deidentified and aggregated data will be reported back to the Boone County Children’s Services Board to gauge the success of FACE, drive funding and decisional systems, allocate resources, and improve the bottomline quality of services in our community. By documenting and monitoring the progress using reliable measures, clearly defined exit criteria, and tracking progress on these indicators at the county levels using an integrated information management system—FACE will serve as a central pillar to monitor the success of services at several levels, specifically:
Through continual ongoing progress monitoring tools, FACE clinicians will be able to monitor the success of any single service plan on child and family functioning. These data will only be shared with families and youth;
By aggregating and deidentified progress monitoring data of FACE families, over time we will come to understand where gaps in our service continuum exist and what services are effective—these data can be used to adopt new practices, be used in grant proposals to convince funders to purchase services, and be used to better understand what works;
By examining aggregated and deidentified county level indicators of social, emotional, and behavioral health of youth and families in Boone County, FACE will provide responsive information on (a) emerging risks, (b) effective services and programs, (c) and monitor the overall success of the Children’s Tax for both the board and the citizens of Boone County.