Tagged With "systems improvement projects"
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SaySo and Karen McLeod Honored at NC Child’s Voices for Children Breakfast
The 2019 Voices for Children Breakfast was hosted by NC Child earlier this month. Members of the child advocacy community came together to celebrate achievements in their work with families and children and recognize leaders who have made a difference. SaySo (Strong Able Youth Speaking Out) was awarded the first-ever Community Voices Award. SaySo is a statewide association of youth aged 14 to 24 who are, or have been, in the North Carolina foster care system. As youth who have first-hand...
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Taking Lessons Learned from the ACES Southeastern Summit 2017 to the Heart
Post by Carla Whaley- Partnering for Excellence Project Assistant This was my first ACEs conference. I did not know what to expect. Two days were ahead of me, full of Keynote speakers and breakout sessions, set in the beautiful backdrop of western North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains. The breakout sessions I chose were all very different, ranging from Exploring ACEs among Mothers and Daughters , to Creating Compassionate Schools Using Trauma Informed Strategies , to Yoga for Resiliency and...
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Training: Ways of Sharing Resources
This is saved as a blog post and there's an attachment. Sharing resources as a blog post is easier to make visual.
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A Kaiser pediatrician, wise to ACEs science for years, finally gets to use it
Dr. Suzanne Frank has known about the impact of childhood adversity on young lives for decades. She’s seen the fallout in the faces of young people huddled in beds at a children’s shelter where she worked years ago. She’s seen it as the regional child abuse services and champion for the Permanente Medical Group. And she’s seen it in hospital examination rooms where, as a member of the Santa Clara County’s Sexual Assault Response Team, she’s been called in to examine shell-shocked children...
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ACEs Science in Education: The Next Big Challenge is Systems Change #ACEsCon2018
This was a WONDERFUL ACES Connections resource from the 2018 ACES Conference around education: "One of the first sessions of the 2018 ACEs Conference: Action to Access discussed the barriers and opportunities for increasing access in the field of education. The main question was: "How can one achieve systematic changes within the field of education?" The session was moderated by Michelle Flowers, a passionate advocate, and the principal of Kinney High in Rancho Cordova, CA, which is part of...
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Benchmarks' Partnering For Excellence is Looking for a Project Coordinator
Hello ACEs Connection Friends! We are extremely excited to announce that Benchmarks’ Partnering for Excellence (PFE) is looking for a Project Coordinator for our Cleveland County DSS and Partners Behavioral Health Management partnership. The position is based in Shelby, North Carolina and requires co-location at Cleveland County's DSS four days per week with one day that can be spent working from home. A few brief additional nuances about the position include: - Data management and data...
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Benchmarks - Partnering for Excellence Job Post - Pitt & Craven County Project Assistant
Hi Everyone! Benchmarks is expanding and we are super excited to announce that we will be hiring for a Project Assistant for Pitt and Craven County’s Partnering for Excellence initiative! Attached is a PDF of the job description and qualifications in detail. We anticipate filling this position by the end of January! Please if you would, share with those that you feel may qualify. Thank you in advance! Lavita
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Benchmarks' Partnering for Excellence Save the Date
Benchmarks will be hosting the Partnering for Excellence Conference for the third time this year. The conference is instrumental in bringing together professionals and those with lived experience. Through a combination of experiential activities, panels, and keynote speakers, the audience learns about the impact the Partnering for Excellence initiative can have as well as being encouraged to go out and be changemakers. This year promises to be even better than those in the past as the...
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Community Resiliency Model (CRM) Information Session
Rowan County is excited to take the next steps across all sectors to foster a resilient community. We will be offering the Community Resiliency Model™ Trainer Training on January 27th - 31st, 2020 . The location will be in downtown Salisbury at St. John's Lutheran Church. Breakfast, lunch, and snacks will be provided for trainees for the entirety of the training. You can download the training flyer here. The Community Resiliency Model™ (CRM) of the Trauma Resource Institute trains community...
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Community Resiliency Model (CRM) Orientation Training: Trauma-Informed Communities (TiC), Trauma-Aware Communities (TaC), Trauma-Responsive Communities (TrC)
Last week, Benchmarks hosted an all-day orientation training on the Community Resiliency Model (CRM) for twenty-two participants in Salisbury, North Carolina. This orientation is a prerequisite for the sixteen participants who will be attending the four-day train-the-trainer training offered by the Trauma Resource Institute (TRI), which will be held in early July in Thomasville, North Carolina. Since Benchmarks’ Partnering for Excellence (PFE) staff have been very supportive regarding the...
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Congrats to the PFE Team!
Big CONGRATULATIONS to the PFE Team for another outstanding conference AND BIG thanks to all who joined us and supported our very exciting conference and project! We can hardly wait to see you next year. In the meantime, take a moment to watch our slideshow of highlights from our event!
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Craven County Lunch and Learn
Over the past few months, the Benchmark’s Partnering for Excellence (PFE) team has been working diligently to prepare our newest partnership in Pitt and Craven counties to become effective advocates as they become a more trauma-informed community. We have been thrilled by the collaboration and efforts that we have seen coming from The Department of Social Services’ (DSS) Child Welfare teams, Trillium—the managed care organization supporting the PFE implementation locally—and, local mental...
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Focusing on "Creating Nurturing Systems"
In just six weeks, stakeholders from across North Carolina will get together to learn about system integration work with youth involved with child welfare. This is the third annual Benchmarks' Partnering for Excellence (PFE) Conference and this year, we have decided to really focus on "Creating Nurturing Systems". While the daily work of PFE can be hard and challenges us to think of new ways to meet the needs of the family, the annual conference offers us a way to celebrate our successes and...
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From A to R: Lessons at the Child Fatality Prevention Summit
Benchmarks' Partnering for Excellence Project Director, Jenny Cooper, had the opportunity to talk about everything from ACEs to Resiliency at North Carolina's Child Fatality Prevention Summit. The Summit was the first of its kind in the state and brought together Community Child Prevention Team and Child Fatality Taskforce Teams from throughout the state. While the morning plenary session spoke of ACEs and the high rates of ACEs in North Carolina, Jenny's presentation took the opportunity to...
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Hurricane Florence first responders receive free trauma/resilience training
In a webinar offered this morning by Elaine Miller Karas , executive director of the Trauma Resource Institute in Claremont, CA, leaders from several North Carolina ACEs Connection communities affected by flooding and other damage by Hurricane Florence learned more about trauma response and how to better help their communities find resilience. Karas, who was delivering her Community Resiliency Model (CRM) training at Duke University in Durham, NC, offered the free training and provided...
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Look Out, PFE is Growing...
Last week Benchmarks’ PFE had its first round of meetings in the Eastern part of North Carolina. After several years focusing our efforts in the Central and Triad regions of North Carolina, in July, the Duke Endowment approved expansion of the project into Pitt and Craven counties in partnership with Trillium. In addition to being in new stomping grounds, this expansion will be PFE’s first time attempting to lift more than one county at once while also using dual funding sources. To date,...
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More Collaborations = Safer Communities!
At Partnering For Excellence, we stress the importance of collaborating and working together to ensure the best possible care for those that we serve. Oftentimes, we have multiple departments/organizations that act as "silos" and don't communicate with one another despite usually caring for/treating the same populations in similar capacities. As an initiative, we work to bring together county level Department of Social Services, Managed Care Organizations, and local providers. By doing so,...
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Partnering for Excellence Joins ACEs Connection!
Partnering For Excellence is excited to join ACEs Connection! Benchmarks' Partnering for Excellence (PFE) is an initiative in North Carolina which aims to align the Mental/Behavioral Health System and Child Welfare System to create better outcomes for children and families whom have experienced trauma and are now involved with the Department of Social Services. The Partnering for Excellence Model is able to assists these systems and others in collaborating to form trauma-informed...
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PFE Booster
Have you ever needed a boost ? Perhaps it was just a little help to make you taller or did you need a few encouraging words that could help redirect your path? The staff at Cleveland County DSS were showing signs that they needed a boost up after implementing the Partnering For Excellent (PFE) initiative in Cleveland County, NC almost four years ago. With changes in leadership, staff and organizational structure, including the welcome of a new director, along with general fatigue and...
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Prevent Child Abuse North Carolina 2019 Learning and Leadership Summit
Last month, Benchmarks’ Partnering for Excellence (PFE) Chief Research and Development Officer, Jenny Cooper, and Project Coordinator, Julia Holcomb, co-presented at the Prevent Child Abuse North Carolina (PCANC) 2019 Learning and Leadership Summit in Raleigh, North Carolina. Benchmarks’ Partnering for Excellence (PFE) is an initiative intended to improve the behavioral health and well-being outcomes for children involved in the child welfare system. It creates a partnership between the...
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Reflections from the ACES Southeastern Summit 2017
Authored by Keesha Corbin, Partnering for Excellence Project Coordinator Walking through the doors of the Renaissance Hotel in Asheville, North Carolina, there was a bustle of excitement. Everyone came to life during the first presentation by Mary Lynn Barrett as we sung together as an audience. Next came the presentation that everyone had been waiting for, Dr. Felitti, the researcher that gave a new meaning to the work of so many in the audience. Looking around the audience, I saw many...
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New Name- More Great Work
Greetings! You haven’t heard from Benchmarks’ Partnering for Excellence (PFE) since our world changed in March. We have been busy on the ground making sure that our social services system and mental health system had all of our attention as we worked to navigate these uncertain times. As we make our way to a “new normal”, we are back and better than ever. In the near future, you will see a revamped site with information about another exciting project being shared. To that end, we are...
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Federal Government Highlights Trauma’s Impact: Healthy People 2030
The Healthy People Initiative, launched in 1979 by the Surgeon General of the United States, was the nation’s first comprehensive health promotion plan. But prior to Healthy People 2030, the newly released plan, there had not been one objective that was specific to childhood trauma, ACEs, trauma-informed care, or toxic stress. Even with decades of research confirming the impact childhood adversity has on development, it has not been included until now! Since the inception of the Health...
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Introducing Benchmarks’ Standardized Assessment Protocol
According to leading research, 99% of children entering the foster care system have experienced trauma in their lifetime, and few of those children receive the trauma-informed healthcare they need to recover and prosper. These children are more likely to not only suffer short-term from their trauma, but long term as well. Children who do not receive effective, holistic healthcare experience a lifetime of mental health disorders, substance misuse, and physical illnesses, including diabetes,...
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Expanding Trauma Services in Foster Care
Benchmarks is thrilled to announce the addition of two new counties to our Standardized Assessment Protocol (SAP) project—Burke and Rutherford Counties! Burke and Rutherford began partnering with us this summer. The two counties will work together, with Partners Behavioral Health Management and Benchmarks, to prioritize children in their foster care system who need to receive trauma-informed clinical assessments. In addition to providing their foster care system with these assessments, the...
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Creative Engagement: Celebrating Achievements
When employees are celebrated, they tend to have a greater connection to their work and sense of being valued. As more people are working from home, alternating days in the office and practicing social distancing, employees can begin to feel disconnected. Creating opportunities for engagement may also be challenging for organizations navigating remote working environments. Over the past month, Benchmarks’ Partnering for Excellence (PFE) and Standardized Assessment Protocol (SAP) teams have...
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Worth the Effort: Building Resilience in Social Workers
Let’s talk ·R·E·S·I·L·I·E·N·C·E! Resilience is an individual’s ability to overcome adversity, and it is influenced by many factors. A person’s resilience is strongly impacted by their environment and support systems within their lives. A supportive environment, relationships, and connections with other trusted and dependable human beings can make a tremendous difference in the lives of children and families who have endured toxic stressful and traumatic situations. We know how important...
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Benchmarks Unveils New Infographic
Benchmarks' Partnering for Excellence redesigns the local child welfare/behavioral health system, changing the way DSSs, MCOs, local providers, and the wider community understand trauma and the need for accessible, appropriate mental health services for children, youth and families who have experienced potentially traumatic events. PFE aims to lead communities to an understanding of the importance of trauma-informed and trauma-responsive communities, to create a lasting change in the...
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Standardized Assessment Protocol Spotlight: Surry and Yadkin Departments of Social Services
Over the past year, Surry and Yadkin Counties' Departments of Social Services have partnered with Benchmarks' Standardized Assessment Protocol pilot to bring about positive outcomes for children, ages 4 and up, in their foster care program. Both Surry and Yadkin joined the project before CoVID-19 changed every aspect of their jobs. What began as an in-person implementation project, quickly, and without warning turned into being completely virtual-- all while partnering with a coordinator...
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Rock Star Partner Highlight: Easter Seals UCP
While the COVID-19 pandemic has presented many unique challenges, it has also been a catalyst for creative solutions to help support those who need it most. This week we would like to highlight the work of Benchmarks’ Partnering for Excellence (PFE) partner, Easter Seals UCP. Easter Seals UCP is working in partnership with PFE in Pitt and Craven county DSSes and Trillium, the area’s LME/MCO. Easter Seals UCP has taken on the challenge to help their clients and staff navigate the pandemic,...
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Using Social Determinants of Health to Improve Outcomes for Child Welfare Involved Children and Families
Health can be significantly inconsistent between individuals and populations. Variables called the Social Determinants of Health (SDoH) assist in understanding the range of factors that affect a person’s overall well-being. SDoH are defined by the World Health Organization as “the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age.” These environments are mostly shaped by the distribution of money, power and resources and have substantial impact on education, occupation, policies,...
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Prioritizing Partnerships with Aligning Values—An Introduction to Youth Villages
Youth Villages opened in 1986, and now provides children’s mental health services across 24 states in over 100 locations. They take pride in increasing positive outcomes for the children and families who participate in their services. In 2018, they reported 88% of the children they previously served are living successfully at home with their families 12 months after completing their programs! Youth Villages offers various programs for children and families involved with foster care. They...
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Labor of Love: Why TiCCAs? A Clinical Coach Conversation
In an increasingly stressful, productivity driven world, one might ask themselves, “Why would mental health professionals add more to their plates? Why would they agree to do a Trauma Intensive Comprehensive Clinical Assessment (TiCCA) for clients, rather than a regular Comprehensive Clinical Assessment (CCA)? Are we just reinventing the wheel?” Benchmarks’ Clinical Coaches, Jacqueline Millican-Crabb, LCSW, LCAS, CCS of Nazareth Child & Family Connection, and Celena Ditz, MS, LMFT of...
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How Benchmarks Center for Quality Integration’s Organizational Culture Influences Community Work
Organizational culture is the overall personality of an organization. This is comprised of attitudes, experiences, beliefs, and the values of an organization. An organization’s culture shapes and controls the interactions within the partnerships between agencies. Benchmarks’ Center for Quality Integration (The Center) internal organizational culture is reflected and filtered down to our communities through the daily work we do. The Center strongly values advocacy for the child welfare,...
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Benchmarks’ CQi Team Dares to Lead
Throughout our time working in human services, we realize that people with leadership titles are not the only ones utilizing leadership skills. Having a leadership title does not automatically make for a strong leader. This has been recognized by people in all career fields that require leading and following. Investing in professional development and helping to grow employees is important for all companies. Benchmarks’ Tara Fields, Chief Operating Officer, and Jenny Cooper, Chief Research...
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Rockingham County Youth Services Rockstar Spotlight
Rockingham County Youth Services (RCYS) is a local county government agency in Rockingham County, NC that provides counseling and other community alternatives for school-aged youth and their families. RCYS began in Rockingham County in 1979 as a program for troubled youth. Since then, the agency has evolved to provide programs that include counseling for children and adolescents, parenting classes, as well as programs ranging from teen court to substance abuse prevention. The evolution of...
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Nazareth Child & Family Connection: Empowering Youth and Families
Nazareth Child and Family Connection has been a vital member to Benchmarks’ Partnering for Excellence (PFE) partnership since 2012. While they offer amazing services to the children and family involved in the project, Nazareth is also a huge contributor to innovative and best practice in and around their community. Nazareth was founded in 1906 and has since continued to provide an array of services to meet the needs of children and families located in Rowan and Davidson Counties. Their...
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Partners Health Management Spotlight
Without the efforts of a dedicated multidisciplinary team, the work of the Standardized Assessment Protocol (SAP) would not be possible. SAP is proud to be aligned with Partners Health Management—the Local Management Entity-Managed Care Organization (or LME-MCO) for four of the six counties SAP is working with. Partners works diligently to manage services for the behavioral health care needs of those who reside in Burke, Catawba, Cleveland, Gaston, Iredell, Lincoln, Rutherford, Surry, and...
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In it for the Long Haul
In a few short weeks, Rowan County DSS will host their last implementation meeting for the Partnering for Excellence (PFE) initiative. Rowan County DSS has been working in partnership with Cardinal Innovations for the last seven years to implement the PFE pathway among their staff and improve the "trauma informedness" of their community. Building a trauma informed culture within the agency and among community members and stakeholders is much more than providing education and improving...
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An Introduction to Support, Incorporated
We are pleased to announce one of our partnering clinical agencies for Burke and Rutherford counties within the Standardized Assessment Protocol project--Support, Incorporated! Support, Inc, which was founded in 2001, is located in Gaston, Lincoln, Cleveland, and Catawba County and is contracted with several Managed Care Organizations within North Carolina. Support, Inc has a strong clinical model that incorporates behavioral practices and ecosystemic principles—they aim to combine both...
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Susan Willis
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Lavita Whitley
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Mary Trimpi
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Rachel Dodge
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Julia Holcomb
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Pandemic Fatigue in the Child Welfare Workforce
Benchmarks’ Partnering for Excellence project works closely with child welfare workers to address trauma in families across the state of North Carolina. We are often inspired by the hard work and dedication we see from our state’s child welfare workers. Their days are centered around supporting those in need, and often helping those who find themselves in crisis. It is demanding work and research shows child welfare work and professionals in social services experience higher rates of stress...