WORKSHOPS: Presenter Materials

 

JUMP TO:	Tuesday, October 28:  Sessions A & B Wednesday, October 29:  Sessions C & D Thursday, October 30:  Session E
At-a-glance:	Track Descriptions	Workshops Schedule
Indicates workshop session materials are posted below.     All materials are .PDFs unless otherwise noted.     Check out the National Conference Photo Gallery     Review the conference awards and the keynote presentations.

Tuesday: October 28, 2008

Session A [TOP]

A1 The New Age of Aging : Innovative Older Adult Programming and its Impact on the Nonprofit Human Service Workforce
 By 2020, it is estimated that the United States’ population will have 78 million adults 65 years old and above. This results in a very real need for human service agencies to address how they can serve the older adult population, including its workforce development issues, environmental concerns, technology issues, and the overall continuum of care. This session highlights the Alliance’s New Age of Aging program, its goals, and its accomplishments. A panel of representatives from agencies receiving grants from the New Age of Aging will describe their innovative mentorship of other member agencies and their grant-funded programs. Presenters will address unique aging services and program ideas as well as lessons learned, successes, challenges, and barriers related to implementation of programs and services for older adults.
Jonette Arms, project director–New Age of Aging, Alliance for Children and Families; and Edward jj Olson, president, E jj Olson & Associates
FAQ sheet
Mentoring Initiative
Mini-grant handout
NAA Overview handout
New Age of Aging presentation

A2 Trauma-Informed Care and Positive Behavior Supp ort: Year Two of an Agency Transformation
Learn about one child welfare agency’s experience over the past two years as it has implemented trauma-informed care and positive behavior support across a diverse array of services. This process began with the goal of reducing restraint in the residential treatment program and is quickly moving throughout the organization, including treatment foster care and other community-based programs. A frank discussion will take place that will allow attendees to move toward a better understanding of the barriers and benefits of implementing trauma-informed care and positive behavior support.
Mike Boeder, director of the division of therapy services, and Tim Grove, director of quality improvement, St. Aemilian-Lakeside
Trauma-Informed Care presentation

A3 Shared Values, Different Approaches in the Civic Engagement Arena
The natural tensions that can arise between institutional and community interests when Alliance member organizations engage in public policy, advocacy, and civic engagement will be closely examined. While these tensions are natural, they can also be productive, leading to stronger partnerships with communities in order to create policy change on behalf of children and families. Attendees will be asked to share the differences between nonprofit organizations and the communities they serve that can lead to diverging policy interests and strategies. Representatives from Family & Children’s Service will share scenarios and real-life examples of the differences in policy approaches they have encountered as part of the agency’s community organizing and civic engagement efforts.
Jeff Bauer, public policy and civic engagement director, and John Everett Till, vice president of family and community programs, Family & Children’s Service

A4 Successful Partnerships with Local Businesses: More than an Annual Appeal
Traditionally, human service organizations have approached local businesses for donations and volunteers. Attendees at this workshop will learn about an innovative approach to business partnerships developed by La Comunidad Hispana (LCH) in Chester County, Pa., which resulted in long-term partnerships with local
businesses that extend far beyond annual solicitations for cash or in-kind goods or services. Prompted by the realization that many of LCH’s programs benefit the local workforce, LCH developed new programs with businesses while asking them to also make long-term commitments to the agency and the people it serves. This workshop provides details about how attendees can reframe their work with individuals and families in order to partner with businesses in nontraditional ways.
Jessica Boyer, senior program officer, and Amy Friedlander, vice president, Philadelphia Health Management Corporation
Successful Partnerships

A5 Inspiring and Motivating Internal Talent through a Professional Coaching Initiative
United Methodist Family Services (UMFS) will share how it developed a professional coaching program in response to challenges presented by the shortage of internal talent for leadership positions. The program matches a successful and respected leader in the organization—referred to as the coach—with another professional—referred to as the protégé. Details on the design of UMFS’ coaching program will be shared, including how the identification and matching of coaches and protégés takes place, the resources developed, and the results of this three-year program.
Erik Laursen, vice president of learning and program development, and Sherry Leyshon Napolitan, vice president of human resources, United Methodist Family Services
Inspiring & Motivating Internal Talent

A6 Building Brand Awareness that Increases Donor Support
Child & Family Services recently faced the dual challenge of raising awareness of the organization with a small communications budget while, at the same time, increasing donor support for an agency that is well ingrained in the community but has low awareness and visibility. The organization moved forward with a board supported initiative to create an integrated marketing/development communication plan that maps out the goals, strategies, and tactics needed to build brand awareness, increase fundraising, and improve media relations. Tapping into a group of skilled corporate marketing and communication volunteers, Child & Family Services was able to significantly reduce the cost of its branding program, increase consumer awareness of the agency, and push the agency’s capital campaign significantly over its $6.8 million goal. Child & Family Services staff will share the entire process it undertook to reposition itself in the minds of its consumers and donors as well as propel the organization into the 21st century.
Brian LaValley, director of public relations, and Susan Siwiec, chief development officer, Child & Family Services
Building Brand Awareness presentation

A7 Financial Accountability and Benchmarks: Best Practices in Financial Operations
The financial reporting of revenues and costs, including the allocation of indirect costs involved in operating a program or service, will be discussed by Northeast Parent & Child Society. In addition, fully allocated costs for operating programs and services, and the tracking of results for fundraising and development functions, will be covered in detail. Attendees will learn about the calculation of the unit cost of providing a service and be provided with information about industry benchmarks regarding financial performance. The role of technology in tracking results and generating timely reports for program and department leaders also will be discussed. This workshop will also address the new IRS requirements of Revised Form 990, Information Return for Organizations Exempt from Income Tax. The revisions to Form 990 will impact every nonprofit organization.
Richard T. Marini, executive vice president of finance and administration/chief financial officer, Northeast Parent & Child Society
Best Practices
Employee or Independent Contractor
Financial Accountability & Benchmarks
New IRS Form 990

A8 Case Study in Obtaining Leadership in Strategic Planning
How to use the balanced scorecard approach to effectively design and implement a successful strategic plan for an organization will be featured during this workshop. Presented in a case study format based on the recent actual experiences of Catholic Family Center, a large human service organization in Rochester, N.Y., this workshop will share and discuss many details of the organization’s strategic planning process.
Christina Paulus, senior vice president of strategic planning and program services, and Betsy Welles, assistant vice president of program services, Catholic Family Center
Strategic Planning presentation

A9 Do More Good Better: Using the Power of Strategic Clarity to Increase Social Impact
Using a combination of lecture, discussion, and collaborative exercise, this workshop will illustrate a set of concepts that help nonprofit leaders make difficult decisions more effectively. The presentation is based on The Bridgespan Group’s strategic consulting work with clients and two of its articles: “Zeroing in on Impact” and “Business Planning for Nonprofits: What It Is and Why It Matters.” Specifically, this workshop will address defining an organization’s target constituency; articulating the impact for which an organization will hold itself accountable; outlining the activities required to achieve that impact; and identifying the people, geography, services, or outcomes that anchor an organization’s work. Following the presentation, participants will have online access to follow-up tools.
Paul Rosenberg, partner, The Bridgespan Group
Do More Good Better presentation

A10 Multicultural Treatment with Social Responsibility Therapy for Youth with Harmful Behavior
The Social Responsibility Therapy (SRT) treatment approach, which addresses several important issues human service organization leaders face when implementing programs that target harmful, abusive behavior, will be examined in detail. SRT specifically addresses the problem that most harmful, abusive behavior is multicultural, while most harmful behavior treatment programs are not. SRT also addresses the fact that most harmful, abusive behavior treatments are abuse specific (e.g., sexual abuse treatment, domestic violence treatment, substance abuse treatment) while youth behavior is typically not (i.e., most problem youth exhibit multiple forms of harmful, abusive behavior). In addition to covering the top 10 therapeutic advantages of SRT in the treatment of harmful youth behavior, the structured discovery approach of SRT, which targets five basic types of harmful, abusive behavior, will be discussed.
Jennifer LaCortiglia, program director, and Robert Sprague, state foster care director, The Village Network; and James Yokley, clinical psychologist, MetroHealth Medical Center, and assistant professor, Case Western Reserve University of Medicine
 

Session B  [TOP]

B1 The Right Message, the Right Time, the Right Audience: Improve Your Return on Investment Through Direct Marketing
Every dollar counts when it comes to small nonprofit marketing and fundraising budgets. Projects are often approved on the basis of a preidentified return on investment. Direct marketing— direct mail, e-mail, web, mobile, etc… —is increasingly becoming the method of choice for marketing and fundraising professionals who are challenged by financial constraints. The Direct Marketing Association forecasts that nonprofit advertising expenditures will grow at an annual rate of 2.4 percent through 2012. Meanwhile, “sales” from direct marketing efforts will grow at 6.8 percent annually over the same period, meaning there will be an increasing return on investment that nonprofits can take advantage of. This workshop, based on the firsthand experience and knowledge of an award-winning direct marketer, will teach attendees how to successfully implement effective direct mail campaigns within their organizations. Two case studies from a human service organization that has implemented direct mail campaigns for both marketing and fundraising—one of those projects earned it the 2007 Marketer of the Year award from the Rochester (N.Y.) American Marketing
Association—will be presented.
Jennifer Bacci, director of marketing, Hillside Family of Agencies; Mary Bonaccio, director of client services, The Verdi Group; and Shelby Page, director of annual giving, Hillside Children’s Foundation
Right Message, Right Time, Right Audience

B2 Facilitating Systemic Change in Michigan’s Child Welfare and Juvenile Justice Arenas: A Case Study
This presentation chronicles the work of Michigan’s private child welfare agencies in advocating for and successfully initiating meaningful improvement in service delivery, funding, and collaboration between the public and private sectors in Michigan. The presentation identifies key players, main strategies, and important circumstances that led to significant changes by the state Department of Human Services. Key elements of the effort will be summarized and presented as a relevant and effective model for policy formulation and advocacy.
Robert Blumenfeld, senior vice president of finance and development, Orchards Children’s Services; and Gary Q. Tester, vice president of advocacy, Holy Cross Children’s Services
Systematic Change in Michigan's CW & Juvenile Justice Arenas

B3 Responding to Demand for Measurable Results: How to Measure Your Agency’s Outcomes While Pursuing New Programs
This workshop will focus on successful strategies to ensure that multi-site organizations continue to deliver quality services even while they develop new statewide programs. More and more, opportunities for new programming are based not only on consumer demand, but also on an organization’s ability to demonstrate measurable results. It is by measuring your agency’s outcomes that you are able to compare your level of services to other organizations, allowing for the pursuit of new and innovative program development. At this workshop, participants will learn about the challenges in developing, implementing, and measuring quality for statewide programs.
Cindy Burks, vice president of treatment and utilization management, John Money, senior vice president of administration, and Chip Wolf, vice president of the southwestern region, Boys & Girls Town of Missouri
Demand for Measurable Results

B4 Cultivating and Nurturing a Peak Performing Board
This session equips board members, chief executives, and senior program leaders to nurture and interact successfully with a peak performing board. In addition to a clear understanding of the differences between nonprofit organizations and for-profit businesses, peak performing boards must possess a strong vision of what characterizes peak performance and the tools needed to achieve that vision. This training includes extensive time for attendee participation throughout the workshop, including discussion about participants’ personal priority issues and concerns.
Len Iaquinta, principal, Excellence in Communications; and Betsy Vander Velde, president and CEO, The Family Conservancy
Cultivate Flow Chart
Engagement Pyramid
Herman Renz paper
Nonprofit Tongue Twister
Peak Performing Boards presentation
Prospect Evaluation Grid
Prospect Evaluation Grid - worksheet
Prospect Management Flow Chart
Public Confidence in Nonprofit Groups Slides
Segment Flow Chart
Voice of a Legacy - Ad
Ways of Giving - Ad

B5 Using Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports to Teach Effective Communication Skills
This highly interactive session focuses on strategies for enhancing communication among and between youth and adults. The first component will introduce a problem-solving activity involving youth and adults designed to clearly demonstrate the many benefits of effective communication skills. The activity engages participants in a scenario and encourages discussion that leads to the determination of a solution. Secondly, the workshop will highlight the evidence-based practice Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) and its defining principles. The presenter will offer data resources that illustrate the success of PBIS in treatment and education environments.
Tom Kalke, PBIS project manager, Hillside Family of Agencies
Positive Behavioral Interventions & Supports

B6 Camden DREAM S: A Permanent Supportive Housing Opportunity for Youth Aging Out of Foster Care
Attendees will learn how one leading nonprofit, through advocacy and education, succeeded in encouraging its county to acknowledge the need for youth aging out of foster care to have a continuum of care that includes permanent supportive housing. The result was the development of an affordable housing project for teens aging out of foster care. The project combined federal, state, county, local, and private resources to rehabilitate three burned-out abandoned homes into 13 apartments for young adults. While planning and developing the project, the Center for Family Services learned how to navigate neighborhood, city, and historic review hearings to win approval for this greatly needed project. Attendees at this workshop will learn how to formulate a plan, gather neighborhood and local support, and successfully implement a project like this in their own community. The workshop will also include sample timelines, neighborhood strategy handouts, and ideas for the rules and supports that youth residents will need.
Eileen Henderson, vice president, and Richard Stagliano, president and CEO, Center For Family Services
Camden DREAMS presentation

B7 The Data-Driven Balanced Scorecard: Leveling the Playing Field
In a recent survey, CEOs of Fortune 500 companies identified strategic planning as the number one challenge facing their companies today, even though less than 25 percent of them felt that they were doing a good job with it. The reason—lack of execution. It’s no different for nonprofit human service organizations. Leaders of complex and multifaceted agencies must constantly demonstrate effective strategic thinking and strategic management skills aimed at clear results. Nonprofit human service leaders may no longer just survive, but they must thrive in complex, strategic environments. Great leaders must continue to develop new and broader sets of strategic thinking skills that take them beyond plans to outcomes and results. In this workshop, participants will be exposed to hands-on tools that will enable them to more effectively position their agencies for the future. The two primary foci will be understanding and implementing the balanced scorecard approach as a strategic management tool, and utilizing data to frame and modify strategies as they implement and monitor balanced scorecard methodologies. Through small group experiences, participants will learn how to craft a balanced scorecard approach for their agencies and make data a friend.
Todd Gordon, regional director, Cheri Rodman, continuous quality improvement coordinator, and Richard W. Rodman, associate director, The Village Network

B8 Responding to the Surge of Girls in Juvenile Justice: The Delaware Girls Wraparound Program
The surge in the number of girls involved in the juvenile justice system in recent decades has challenged systems to rethink how to provide these girls with effective services. The Delaware Girls Wraparound Program is a statewide innovative program that helps teen girls re-enter the community following incarceration. The program is based on the core principles of wraparound services and is infused with gender-specific values and approaches. This workshop will provide attendees with an overview of the program services and information about how the program is integrated into a larger system reform initiative.
Denise Bray, consultant, Delaware Girls Initiative; Vicky Kelly, clinical director, and Tracy Mitchell, program director, Children & Families First

B9 Retention Improvement Project: A New Approach
This is a detailed look at Children’s Home of York’s Retention Improvement Project, a unique and successful approach to high employee turnover. After years of grappling with extremely high employee turnover—in some years reaching 105 percent—the organization determined that a plan was necessary. Since the implementation of the Retention Improvement Project, turnover is tracking around 50 percent. The project’s success is due to its innovative design and the unique team approach applied across multiple departments within the agency. Participants will hear firsthand how teamwork and trust between multiple departments was created, as well as the results that have been realized in addition to the significant drop in turnover, including much higher staff morale and improved communication. Attendees will leave with tools—including copies of Children’s Home of York’s survey questions and action plan—that can be used to implement a similar project at their own organizations.
Steven Schlegel, human resources manager, and Ed Watson, director of residential services, Children’s Home of York
Sample Staff Retention Survey

B10 Take My Boss … Please: Leadership and Humor in Nonprofit Organizations
The presenter will share preliminary results from his doctoral research related to the experience of humor in nonprofit organizations. A review of current literature on humor and leadership will be provided, along with some relevant theories of humor and interpersonal workplace relationships. Participants will gain insights into the context in which humor often occurs in the human services setting, along with both effective and ineffective manifestations of its use. Multimedia examples from television and film as well as jokes, cartoons, and Internet communications will be used to reinforce the theory. Such insights are more than pleasant diversions, as understanding how humor functions in both its positive and negative manifestations can lead to more effective leadership and help to avoid negative consequences, including charges of harassment and discrimination. Humor facilitates effective communication, eases workplace stress, and is generally considered a sign of positive leadership and organizational health.
William Vogler, executive director, Family Answers

Wednesday: October 29, 2008

Session C  [TOP]

C1 Organizational Courage: Institutional Transformation through a Proven Model for Growth and Change
For a nonprofit organization, committing to quality means courageous leadership must commit to the continuous process of growth and change necessary to maintain relevance in the community. However, many nonprofits are kept from achieving sustainable growth or developing innovative programs because they lack the organizational infrastructure necessary to support change. The president and CEO of one of the largest and oldest nonprofits in the nation will discuss her proven model for growth, which she employed for more than a decade to continuously meet the social service goals of her agency.
Angela Blanchard, president and CEO, Neighborhood Centers, Inc.

C2 Strategic Planning: Creating an Environment to Execute the Plan
A new strategic plan that establishes significant new organizational directions and challenges the organization to implement the plan across a continuum of services reaching across 14 states, multiple organizations, and nearly 2,400 employees will be discussed in detail. Boys Town will share the extensive process it undertook to develop the five-year strategic plan with assistance from The Bridgespan Group. The presenters will discuss implementation challenges and evaluate solutions the organization attempted. Areas of focus will include staff communication, organizational performance metrics, implementation teams, board involvement and communication, management systems and processes, individual employee performance appraisals, new staff roles and positions, and site planning processes.
Father Steven Boes, national executive director, and Daniel Daly, vice president and director for youth care, Boys Town; and Kirk Kramer, partner, The Bridgespan Group
Strategic Planning presentation

C3 Measure Magic: Include Key Voices, Improve Services, and Prove It
Throughout the industry there is a trend toward making outcomes evaluation a standard component of therapeutic services. If you are not currently eliciting feedback from clients about the quality, usefulness, or “fit” of individual counseling sessions on a session-bysession basis, you may soon find your organization out of step with the up-and-coming best practice standard. One organization’s journey from a medically modeled tradition that put professionals in the captain’s seat to a postmodern, social-constructionist approach where professionals listen to clients and other customers in a whole new way will be the focus of the workshop. In this new model, clients and other customers are seen as experts in their own right, and the best therapists are those who know how to tap into clients’ knowledge. Presenters will share a streamlined process for measuring the most critical outcomes, a process that was developed by clinicians passionate about improving the alliance between therapists and clients. These measures have been empirically shown to be valid, reliable, and related to positive outcomes for clients.
Danielle Caraway, director, Autism Support Alliance; and Candis J. Carr, associate executive director, Family & Youth Counseling Agency
Measure Magic presentation

C4 From Clients to Citizens: Supporting Civic Leadership Among the People We Serve
This workshop will provide an overview of the development, planning, implementation, and evaluation of the Citizens Leadership Institute (CLI), a collaborative program of nine human service agencies in Pittsburgh. The program is designed to support and develop the capacity of low-income citizens so that they can actively participate in civic life. The first stage began in February 2008 when up to 20 low-income individuals began a 12-session leadership training program facilitated by the Coro Center for Civic Leadership. The training program prepared these “fellows” for the second stage of the project, which involved a series of community conversations about poverty-related issues. In September 2008, the fellows will complete the third stage of the project by reporting the findings and recommendations derived during the community conversations to civic leaders, including elected officials and other leaders of government agencies, foundations, and nonprofit organizations. Presenters will provide a brief account of the planning and development phases of this project, and will focus primarily on what is still to come. A preliminary evaluation of the results and outcomes of the CLI will be available.
Robert Feikema, director of programs and community initiatives, and Craig Stevens, coordinator of the Economic Empowerment Initiative, Parental Stress Center
Citizens Leadership Update
CLI Executive Summary
Flow Chart
Program Logic Model
From Clients to Citizens

C5 Creating an Innovative Cross -Systems, Tri-County Collaboration: The Child and Adolescent Mobile Crisis Team
When two nonprofit children’s service organizations, three county entities, two state agencies, and several private donors came together to create the Child and Adolescent Mobile Crisis Team (CAMT), the “silos” surrounding these entities were dissolved and multiple public and private funding streams were blended. Presenters will share their firsthand experiences in forming CAMT, which has a goal to establish an organized and effective community-based response to child and adolescent crises. The response is built upon each child’s existing family or caretaking system, and that system is integrated with available community services. Discussion will focus on the barriers and systemic challenges that need to be overcome if nonprofit human service organizations are to build collaboration and change the way services are delivered to children and adolescents with serious emotional and behavioral disturbances. The presenters will also provide a project status report that details consumer satisfaction data and outlines how well CAMT is attaining its established objectives and outcome measurements.
Sharon S. Cohen, supervisor for the Child and Adolescent Mobile Crisis Team, and Richard P. Johnson, project director for the Child and Adolescent Mobile Crisis Team, Parsons Child and Family Center
Child & Adolescent Mobile Team handout 1
Child & Adolescent Mobile Team handout 2
Mobile Crisis Team presentation

C6 A Community-Based Approach to Redesigning a Placement Continuum of Care
Presenters from Family Services of Metro Orlando will provide details about the historical benchmarks and research-based practices that were used to comprehensively implement its new vision of a continuum of care plan. The model integrated clinical and permanency best practices to dramatically “right size” a child welfare system with more than 1,500 children in out-of-home care. Actual practices that reduced residential group care by 60 percent, expanded foster care capacity by 40 percent, and reinvested more than $7 million annually in partnerships with subcontractors will be shared. Specific practices and roles of stakeholders—including a partnership with an information technology vendor—will be clarified, and challenges to implementation will be discussed. Moreover, the agency will demonstrate how its role as a limited partner with a large national managed care organization continued to rationalize a system of care for foster children needing treatment services.
Beth Lewis, chief operating officer, and Gregory Kurth, chief executive officer, Family Services of Metro Orlando
Placement Matrix
Redesigning Placement Continuum of Care
Residential Survey for Providers

C7 Continuous Learning and Professional Development Through Online Resources for Human Services Staff Development
Attracting, developing, and retaining talented workers is a formidable challenge facing human service agencies of all sizes. Corporate America is using distance learning to train and educate workers, but is it possible to also apply this online learning approach to the human services field? That’s the question Boys Town asked itself as the organization wondered, “Can ‘people skills’ be taught online?” The organization’s answer was yes. By partnering with Bellevue University, Boys Town developed a master’s-level curriculum that combines proven theories and practices with handson knowledge. The result, Boys Town University, is an online environment that challenges staff and encourages continuous learning and professional development. Presenters will share their insights from the experience of adapting online learning to educate human service professionals.
Kevin Murray, manager of Boys Town University, and Julie Nickolisen, continuing education manager, Boys Town

C8 The Power of the Ask
The “donation ask” can take many different forms and take several variations before reaching the perfect version. During this interactive and engaging workshop, members of the Alliance’s Resource Development Services Advisory Committee will share their experiences with the “ask.” Presenters will share which “ask” techniques work best and explain how to tailor the “ask” to your agency and your agency’s needs.
Kevin Cook, director of development, Andrus Children’s Center; and Barbara Ritchie, director, Griffith Centers for Children Foundation
The Power of the Ask

C10 Performanc e Management Without the Complexity of a Balanced Scorecard
In 2007, Andrus Children’s Center launched an initiative to implement a performance management system that was less complex and cumbersome than the balanced scorecard method—but produced similar results. The outcome was the implementation of a performance management process pioneered by Kevin Baum, former assistant fire chief and fire marshal for Austin, Texas. This presentation will share some of the critical lessons learned from the implementation of Baum’s performance management process, as well as how Andrus Children’s Center has been able to transform its culture from one that didn’t value data to one that not only values, but uses it. Presenters will discuss both the process of identifying a performance management system that will work within an organization’s unique culture and the development of the system into one that is tailored to the needs of that particular organization. Attendees will also learn about the collaborative development of a mission-driven performance management system as well as the identification of mission-critical service areas and related measures. This presentation is ideal for those who are thinking about creating an organizational performance management system that they can be committed to, or those who are thinking of redesigning their agency’s performance management system.
Cinthia Smith, research assistant, and Lorelei A. Vargas, director of policy, planning and research, Andrus Children’s Center
 

Session D  [TOP]

D1 Comprehensive Trauma Recovery Services: Best Practices in the Provision of Long-Term Trauma Recovery Case Management
Northern Virginia Family Service designed a highly effective model of long-term trauma care recovery services to serve victims of disasters and traumatic community incidents, which will be described in detail. During this interactive presentation, presenters will share the best practices and elements of a disaster recovery program that are needed to meet the longer-term needs of individuals, families, and communities affected by large-scale disaster. Presenters will also cover how the model can be adapted to meet ongoing community needs that stem from other traumas or smaller-scale incidents.
The experiences of Northern Virginia Family Service will help attendees learn important lessons on the development, provision, and adaptation of the project; effective ways to adapt the model to meet the unique needs of various communities; and the importance of ongoing preparedness and educational interventions in preventing or mitigating the more serious long-term effects of traumatic events.
Stephanie Berkowitz, director of the Survivors’ Fund Project, and Meredith McKeen, manager of group services and outreach, Northern Virginia Family Service
Long Term Trauma Recovery
Survivors Fund 2008 Final Report
Survivors Fund Process for Disaster Recovery

D2 Comparative Constituency Voice: A Post-Outcomes Approach to Measuring Performance
The Alliance for Children and Families and United Neighborhood Centers of America (UNCA) have partnered with the London-based organization Keystone to discover the benefits and uses of comparative constituency feedback in the human services field. During this presentation, presenters will share Keystone’s model of constituency voice, which goes beyond participatory planning or satisfaction surveys. Constituency voice helps build systems that embed client and other constituency voices in an organization’s operations. The presenters will also share findings from research conducted with Alliance and UNCA members around current applications of performance measurement, including a prognosis on the field’s readiness to incorporate new models of performance measurement. This discussion will help nonprofit human service organizations think about the strengths and weaknesses of their own methods, while considering the potential of applying a constituency voice model.
David Bonbright, chief executive, Keystone; and David Campbell, assistant professor, Binghamton University College of Community and Public Affairs

D3 Providing Opportunities for At-Risk Youth through Innovative Alternative Education
Through a variety of traditional and nontraditional school settings, the Alliance for Families and Children in Lynchburg, Va., has overseen dozens of unique programs for students in elementary, middle, and high school. This workshop will equip attendees with the tools, resources, and potential funding sources needed to begin or expand their own youth-centered prevention programs. Presenters will discuss several Alliance for Families and Children programs, including Second Chance Saturday School, a one-of-a-kind alternative to school-day suspension for middle school students. There’s also the Training Young Men Successfully mentoring program for third, fourth, and fifth graders that was developed in partnership with a local church association. In addition to detailing the organization’s own programs, presenters will discuss more broadly applicable ideas for building community trust, developing unique programs, identifying needs, and establishing partnerships.
Paul Baldwin, prevention specialist/PCN coordinator, and Tracey Dixon, director of prevention and marketing, Alliance for Families and Children
Providing Opportunities for At-Risk Youth

D4 Getting the Information You Need to Succeed
In today’s environment, effective knowledge management is a challenge for nonprofit executive leaders and their management teams. Given the current information-heavy age, it’s vital to cut through the global information clutter to access critical resources that can help transform an agency into a high-performing nonprofit human service organization that’s capable of successfully carrying out its mission. Thanks to two national resource centers, the Alliance’s Severson National Information Center and the Child Welfare Information Gateway, the best information, knowledge, and connections are right at the fingertips of busy nonprofit leaders through robust online services. Attendees at this workshop will learn how to gain instant access to time-saving templates, cutting-edge information to understand the big picture for planning, and essential support for relevant and practical decision-making.
Patricia Brincefield, communications deputy director, Child Welfare
Information Gateway; Susan Hornung, director of the Severson National Information Center, Alliance for Children and Families; and John Vogel, library services manager, Child Welfare Information Gateway
Severson Center presentation
Child Information Gateway presentation

D5 Engaging Men in Fostering Domestic Peace: An African-American Community Approach
Since 2002, Family & Children’s Service’s 100 Men Take a Stand for Domestic Peace Project has engaged African American men to prevent domestic violence within their own community. The project has been so successful that communities across the country have started to replicate its strategies. Presenters at this workshop will share their experience in partnering with public health agencies, family- and youth-serving organizations, and community groups to implement the program. They will share specific strategies that have been used to engage African American men in interpersonal violence prevention. Participants will receive examples of materials developed to reach target audiences and will be equipped with the information and tools necessary to explore whether civic engagement activities of this kind could expand the reach and impact of their own organizations.
James Martin, project organizer for 100 Men Take a Stand For Domestic Peace, Jeannette L. Raymond, co-manager for the Initiative for Voice Free Families, and John Everett Till, vice president of family and community programs, Family & Children’s Service

D6 Widening the Circle: Utilizing Innovative Service Programs and Strategic Partnerships to Engage the Community
Program development requires attention to details related to mission, operations, and finances. However, it must also include attention to vision beyond the scope and horizon of a problem- or population-oriented perspective. While successful program development must incorporate the elements of a movement capable of engaging a critical mass of interest and support, it must also be sufficiently innovative to overcome the inertia caused by entrenched problems and previous attempts to resolve them. The “Four C’s—convener, catalyst, collaborator, and coordinator—should be coupled with innovative ideas. This presentation will detail and describe the above elements of program development while looking closely at two innovative programs developed by Family and Children’s Association.
Nancy Cohan, team director, and Philip Mickulas, chief operating officer and senior vice president, Family and Children’s Association

D7 Using Systematic Review of Data to Get on Target and Inform Practice
Often data is viewed by nonprofit human service organizations as nothing more than a necessary requirement to receive or maintain program funding. Therefore, data is often collected without much interest. The Village for Families and Children uses a creative
approach that has transformed the organization’s process of collecting and analyzing data from a “have to” to a “want to” mentality. The organization’s approach has also gathered attention from funders, managers, and clients. Applying this uniform system of data management agency-wide has allowed The Village for Families and Children to conduct intra- and inter-department comparisons, helping identify creative and interdisciplinary solutions for clients and the agency as a whole. This workshop demonstrates how the performance-based accountability approach has been used to measure quality, inform practice, and review outcomes.
Marie Mormile-Mehler, vice president, Toral Sanghavi, research associate, and Yvette Young, program director for Eagle House, The Village for Families and Children
Systematic Review of Data presentation

D8 Nonprofit Leadership Development: From Plan to Program
Nonprofits cannot afford to ignore the challenge of developing current and future leaders. This workshop will detail how Pressley Ridge met this challenge through a Leadership Development Enterprise Project. Presenters will guide attendees through the project, including the rollout of the finished product, utilization of senior leadership, training of new and future middle managers, and tactics to keep on course despite inevitable hurdles. Presenters will share Pressley Ridge’s leadership competencies, comprehensive talent management review process, professional development planning protocol, mentoring program, and training. Attendees will learn what these components of the Leadership Development Enterprise Project have meant to Pressley Ridge and be encouraged to think about what they can mean for their own organizations.
James Doncaster, senior director for organizational development, and Paul E. Tedesco, state senior director of treatment foster care and community-based services, Pressley Ridge
Leadership Development Quiz
Nonprofit Leadership Development presentation

D9 Building a Partnership to Improve Developmental and Behavioral Outcomes for Children and Families
An innovative partnership that was formed in Hartford, Conn., and includes the United Way of the Capital Area, Hartford Public Schools, Hartford Foundation of Teachers, The Village for Families and Children, and Boys Town is improving developmental and behavioral outcomes for children and families. This workshop will address partnership strategies used in the program that provide adults with ways to interact effectively with children to encourage positive behaviors, prevent problem behaviors from occurring, respond effectively when disruptive behaviors occur, and to de-escalate adults’ and children’s responses during emotionally intense situations. More specifically, attendees will learn about the partnership’s implementation and outcomes of “well-managed” classrooms in select Hartford public schools, as well as the accompanying “Common Sense Parenting” classes provided to parents in those schools.
Donna R. Campbell, chief operating officer, The Village for Families and Children; and Paula S. Gilberto, senior vice president, United Way of the Capital Area.

D10 Building and Sustaining the Stewardship of Board Members through the Partnership of the Board Chair and CEO
With each new cycle of leadership, both the board chair and CEO have the opportunity to challenge the confines of “business as usual” by asking how they can fully engage the board in its responsibility to help move the organization forward. With the constantly changing dynamics of board membership, monitoring and strengthening the social stewardship of board members is an ongoing challenge, yet it’s also a mandatory task. The partnership of the board chair and CEO is pivotal in assisting each board member feel a sense of ownership, responsibility, dedication, affection, and commitment to the organization and its mission. This session will present a board development model with four areas of focus that can be applied to building and maintaining stewardship of the board: identification, orientation, sustainability, and preservation. Presenters will share strategies and tools, and participants will have the opportunity to assess the board development needs of their respective nonprofit organizations while developing an action plan related to building and sustaining the stewardship of board members.
Gary Miller, chief executive officer, Jewish Family & Career Services; and Mindy R. Wetheimer, director of field education in the School of Social Work, Georgia State University
Stewardship of Boards presentation

Thursday: October 30, 2008

Session E  [TOP]

E1 Sanctuary® Longitudinal Study: Innovation, Collaboration, and Frustration
This workshop will present findings from a nationwide longitudinal study of the implementation of the Sanctuary® Model, a trauma-informed treatment and systems intervention approach. This innovative model marries treatment and organizational culture change to ensure that individuals who have experienced trauma, chronic stress, or other destabilizing events are not traumatized again by the same services and service providers who are there to help them recover. To this end, Sanctuary® also helps service providers build safer work environments in order to manage daily work stress, prevent potential vicarious trauma, and minimize other institutional stressors that can impact their own health as well as that of the individuals they are helping to heal.

Presenters will discuss innovations and challenges in conducting the research; data and findings regarding changes in staff experiences, outcomes, and cultural shifts; and implications for future research on culture change in mental health services and service research. Through learning about this study, attendees will discover new ways to think about and conduct systems research.
Dawn Besemer, director of behavioral health and research, Mercy First; Jaimie Siler, project coordinator, and Lorelei Vargas, director of policy, planning and research, Andrus Children’s Center


E2 An Agency-Academic Partnership for Generating Practice Evidence
Drawing on examples from an ongoing agency university partnership, this workshop tackles both the steps organizations should take and those that should be avoided while developing partnerships between academic researchers and service providers. Specifically, two problems will be addressed in detail: How to build practice based on evidence when tested service models are not available or when those that are available are not appropriate to a specific agency; and how to develop the research capability to engage in this program development when an agency does not have the resources for an internal research unit or an external contract. Workshop participants will develop an implementation checklist tailored to their own contexts.
David E. Duffee, professor emeritus, University at Albany; and Bill Wolff, executive director, LaSalle School
An Agency-Academic Partnership
Agency Academic Partnership handouts

E3 Innovative Supportive Housing for Aging-Out Youth: Financing, Construction, and Program Design
As has been documented, many young people who age out of the foster care system are ill-prepared to fend for themselves. To help with the difficult transition, Robins’ Nest developed a supportive permanent housing program for aging-out and homeless youth at Life Link Homes. The first portion of this workshop will address how to finance projects like this by utilizing multiple funding streams. Presenters will provide an overview of numerous funding options and describe how Robins’ Nest put a capital budget package together using the 4 percent tax credit program, the New Jersey Special Needs Housing Trust Fund, bond financing, private foundation grants, and other capital funding sources. The second portion will discuss the service components of the project, including lessons learned and the challenges Robins’ Nest encountered.
Anthony DiFabio, chief executive officer, and Ruth London, chief operating officer, Robins’ Nest; Angela Estes, chief executive officer, Life Link
Innovative Supportive Housing
Life Link Homes handout

E4 How to Maximize and Extend Your Volunteer Resources to Grow Your Programs
The foundational building blocks you will need for a successful volunteer program—recruitment, selection, orientation, training, retention, and recognition—will be examined in detail during this interactive workshop. Presenters will provide executives and senior leaders with ideas for maximizing human resources, while also teaching attendees how to design job descriptions, get staff on board, provide supervision, and recognize volunteers of all ages. The presenters will share examples of volunteer applications, job descriptions, orientation manuals, and video clips from volunteer recognition events. The speakers, who manage a successful program that involves 525 volunteers who assist 450 employees at 32 service locations, will provide information about their agency’s unique and successful approach.
Shannon Gonzalez, quality services and staff development director, and Kathy Knox, volunteer coordinator, Family Service Association
Maximize & Extend Your Volunteer Resources presentation

E5 Creating a Culture of Safety: What You Need to Know About Preventing Abuse in Your Organization
Nothing can be more devastating to an organization than an incident or allegation of abuse to a child or vulnerable adult in care—but organizations can protect themselves from the effects of an allegation of abuse. This workshop, which is designed for management staff and administrators, will teach attendees about specific skills and strategies that they can quickly implement in their organizations to help prevent children and vulnerable adults from abuse, staff from false allegations, and organizations from financial and legal liability. Through the presentation of Praesidium Safety Equation®, which is Praesidium’s proprietary model for preventing abuse, attendees will learn cutting-edge risk management techniques based on years of extensive research, including an analysis of more than 4,000 cases of organizational abuse.

Attendees will learn specialized techniques to screen out potential offenders, how to implement policies and administrative standards specifically designed to prevent abuse, and how to prevent drift from standards. The latest trends in litigation and insurance will also be introduced. This interactive presentation will utilize a variety of methods, including role-playing, videos, and real-life examples to help illustrate and communicate these important risk management techniques.
Aaron Lundberg, director of the social service division, Praesidium

E6 Tangible Benefits to Benchmarking: Identifying Evidence-Based Best Practices
Process benchmarking is an innovative technique that uses benchmarking data as a vehicle to the identification of potential best practices. Following a brief introduction to the concepts and methods of benchmarking, this workshop will feature a hands-on process benchmarking exercise that seeks to uncover potential best practices in a key domain of organizational performance. Practical recommendations for implementing best practices will be shared. Participants will leave with a ranked listing of new strategies for improvement and an understanding of how to conduct process benchmarking exercises in their own settings. This is not a repeat of the benchmarking workshop presented at the 2007 Alliance National Conference, and those who attended that workshop last year are encouraged to attend this new presentation.
Paul M. Lefkovitz, president, Behavioral Pathway Systems

E7 Metropolitan Family Services’ Governance Review Process : A Look at Best Practice, Transparency, and Other Issues
Across the country, questions are being raised about governance policies and practices of tax-exempt organizations. For example, the Internal Revenue Service recently expanded the information requirements of Form 990, the Council on Accreditation introduced new guidelines, and newspaper articles are questioning board oversight when nonprofit agencies fail. Presenters from Metropolitan Family Services will discuss their organization’s governance review process and how their process relates to these questions. Specifically, they will discuss their framework and process, covering
topics such as committee membership, pro bono assistance, helpful resources, surprise challenges, work plans, and best governance principles, practices and processes.
Eileen Scudder, partner (retired), Deloitte and Touche; and Suzanne
Strassberger, vice president of government affairs and strategic initiatives, Metropolitan Family Services
Governance Review Process presentation

E8 Engaging Noncustodial, Nonresident Fathers in the Parenting Process
Children born out of wedlock often suffer due to infrequent and limited interaction with the noncustodial parent. Specifically, literature suggests that the lack of frequent and consistent participation by the father results in various problems, including an increased likelihood to engage in deviant behavior. For the noncustodial father, lack of involvement can lead to feelings of disconnection from the parenting process. Presenters will discuss findings from a recent study of factors that impact parental involvement among African American unwed fathers. They also will describe the Child Access and Visitation Program, which helps noncustodial parents legalize their children and obtain visitation rights. Presenters will share how this program serves as an outstanding starting point for increasing parental involvement, strengthening parent-child bonds, and improving child support payment behavior, thus producing healthier and more well-balanced children.
Gerry L. White, director of program development and research, and Freddie Wilson, program manager for Parenting Time Visitation Program, Families First

E9 The 12 Biggest Myths of Cause Marketing
This entertaining and no-holds-barred workshop explores the myths that so many nonprofit marketers blindly follow—from the so-called “importance of testing” to the perceived “stupidity of consumers,” from the value of “playing it safe,” to the myth that “you need a lot of money” for your message to be heard. This discussion is chock-full of entertaining nonprofit advertising and guerilla marketing examples that challenge the status quo. Along the way, you will laugh, you will cry, you’ll cringe, and you’ll smile. The presenter will even make the case that nonprofit marketers can learn more from studying the principles that went into creating the latest Wonder Bra campaign
than they can from studying other causes.
Gary Mueller, executive vice president and creative director at BVK Advertising and founder of Serve Marketing

E10 Growth Through Mergers and Acquisitions: A Case Study of Success
In 10 years, Hillside Family of Agencies grew from a single provider with revenues of $35 million to a diversified system of eight corporations with a collective revenue of more than $120 million. Its growth was facilitated by a series of merger, affiliation, and purchase arrangements with six other regional service providers. This workshop will present a real-life case study of how Hillside expanded and thrived through a well-conceived and implemented plan of structural growth. The focus will be on how to select and evaluate potential partners, how to design an appropriate structure, how to work through technical and political issues, and how to manage the resulting expansion.
Clyde Comstock, chief operating officer, Hillside Family of Agencies; and Eric Stonehill, managing director of health and human services, HB Solutions
Growth through Mergers
Mergers Article Part I-IV

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Any questions?  Please contact Hillary Hanson, meetings assistant.