Washington, D.C. – Social Current, formerly the Alliance for Strong Families and Communities and Council on Accreditation, announced today a cooperative agreement with the Department of Justice’s Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) for Fostering Resilience and Hope: Bridging the Gap Between Law Enforcement and The Community. The agreement will support a three-year demonstration initiative that will infuse hope theory to assist law enforcement officers with addressing trauma and adversity in order to repair and rebuild relationships within the community. Social Current will receive $1 million to oversee technical assistance to two sites with the full grant totaling $4 million. Selected sites will be announced at a later date.

“The Department of Justice is committed to advancing work that promotes civil rights, increases access to justice, supports crime victims, protects the public from crime and evolving threats, and builds trust between law enforcement and the community,” commented Stacy Phillips, Victim Justice Program Specialist for the Office for Victims of Crime for the Department of Justice. “This program furthers the Department of Justice’s mission by advancing law enforcement policies and practices that promote justice and healing for all victims.”

“The award of this cooperative agreement reflects recognition of our expertise in helping support organizations in their equity, diversity, inclusion (EDI), and racial justice journeys, as well as our work in engaging victim-centered organizations in multidisciplinary, national scope technical assistance projects to accelerate innovation and knowledge,” commented Jody Levison-Johnson, president and CEO of Social Current. “The work of Social Current is to facilitate collaboration and innovation and advance policy and practice excellence within organizations and across systems. We believe this initiative will play a significant role by creating a learning community and building a body of knowledge around resilience and community engagement.”

“Building hope is about honoring, trusting, respecting, valuing, and amplifying opportunities within communities,” noted Dr. Chan Hellman, a respected expert in hope science and training and founder of Chan Hellman LLC. “We believe that hope may provide a simple shared language that can be useful to the community as they work to move past awareness status into actionable goals and pathways aimed to dismantle systemic oppression and racism.”

The initiative will include training, capacity development, advocacy, and outreach with a goal of repairing and rebuilding trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve and enhancing law enforcement officers’ ability to effectively engage with community members. Additionally, the effort is geared to increasing the likelihood that the community will assist in investigations to make communities safer and hold those responsible accountable. The goal is to increase the likelihood that crime victims will report their victimizations to the police, reducing the likelihood of re-victimization, and helping to build safer communities, where all residents thrive.

The program builds on a previous initiative known as the Healing Justice Alliance Initiative, which explored demonstrated strategies for implementing a trauma-informed and collaborative approach to build trust between communities of color and law enforcement agencies. Informed by young men of color who are survivors of violence, the project’s outcomes improved lives, by pointing to ways to manage trauma, and focusing on changing community conditions that produce trauma.

Romero Davis, senior program manager for Practice Excellence at Social Current will head the technical assistance team. He also serves as senior program manager for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion and Engagement at Social Current. Romero is a mentor; an award-winning leadership, professional development, and life coach; published author; and an advocate of safe communities and families. Romero has been active nationally working with agencies in areas such as poly-victimization; trauma in families; equity, diversity, and inclusion; juvenile justice; and domestic violence. Romero previously served as program manager for agencies focused on sexual assault and domestic violence.

Romero will be joined by Social Current colleagues Undraye Howard, Amy Templeman, Karen Johnson, Kelly Martin, Rehana Absar and Phyllis Richards who bring a range of expertise and experience to the team. They will be joined by a talented team with diverse expertise that includes Dr. Chan Hellman and T/Cpl Meghann Holloway.

Key elements of the technical assistance will include:

Media Notes: For more information or to request an interview, please contact Jennifer Devlin at 703-966-3241 or jdevlin@social-current.org.

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Negotiations continue in Washington on the large reconciliation bill that would advance parts of President Biden’s American Families Plan. President Biden continues to advocate for the key components of his economic plan, a plan that will require consensus across the Democratic party in order to advance in Congress. Though initially a $3.5 trillion package, press reports last week hint at a modified package between $1.9 and $2.2 trillion. These compromises are meant to address concerns by moderate Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) and Kristen Sinema (D-Ariz). However, progressive members in the House of Representatives are standing firm on the inclusion of key priorities like climate change provisions. Biden is pushing Congress to come up with an agreement before Oct. 30, though that is looking less certain.

Still on the table in the negotiations are child care; pre-K; and home-based health care; climate provisions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. by 50 percent by 2030; a Medicare expansion for expanded dental, vision, and hearing coverage; funds for the Affordable Care Act; health-care gap closure; and a one- to two-year extension for the Child Tax Credit, initially included for five years. Other provisions on the table include four weeks of guaranteed paid family leave, public housing dollars, free community college, investments in racial equity programs, and more. With a looming deadline of Oct. 30, hopefully Congress will reach some agreements soon.

Federal Reserve Shares Survey Results of COVID-19 Impact on Nonprofits, Communities

Earlier this year, our organization partnered with the Federal Reserve to distribute an important survey to our network. This survey looks at the impact of the pandemic on nonprofit organizations, their financial health, and the communities they serve. The results and report, Perspectives from Main Street: The impact of COVID-19 on communities and the entities serving them, was released last week. The survey had some important findings. For example, 77% of survey respondents noted that conditions for children were worse than they were pre-pandemic. Across almost every category, half the respondents estimated it would take between one and three years to return to pre-pandemic conditions, while almost a quarter noted it would take at least four years for housing stability to return to pre-pandemic conditions. When asked how COVID-19 affected their organizations, almost 70% of respondents said demand for services increased, while almost half noted a decrease in their ability to serve their communities. Thank you to those of you who participated.

WIC Modernization Project Underway

The Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) received $390 million through the American Rescue Plan of 2021 to modernize the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) and the WIC Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program (WIC FMNP). FNS used these funds with two goals in mind: Boost enrollment and retention in these programs and increase equity in program delivery. In May and June, FNS held 27 listening sessions with state agency administrators, program participants, industry partners, scholars, and advocates. These stakeholders stressed the need for creating partnerships across sectors to reduce disparities and supporting technological innovation to improve accessibility. Coming out of the listening sessions, FNS decided on several action items. First, FNS will launch pilots to test innovative state-level outreach efforts for reaching underserved communities. Second, FNS will invest in a national assistance center that uses business and technology solutions to improve the certification process for new applicants. Third, FNS will work to move shopping and benefit transactions online, including at farmers markets. Finally, FNS will address disparities in service delivery by supporting evidence-based approaches, like building new local partnerships, to provide culturally sensitive and competent services.

Source: Food and Nutrition Service

Department of Education Announces Overhaul of Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program

The Department of Education (DOE) announced new actions it will take to immediately discharge federal student loans for 22,000 borrowers and potentially for 27,0000 more. The Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Program was created to recognize the contribution of individuals dedicated to public service – government workers, teachers, nurses, firefighters, and nonprofit employees – by canceling their student loans after 10 years of service. After receiving more than 48,000 public comments on PSLF, the DOE is issuing a time-limited waiver so that student borrowers can count payments from all federal loans programs towards forgiveness, even from programs that were not previously eligible. The waiver will also simplify the technical requirements around the payment plan, timing, and the amount of the payment. DOE states that this waiver will apply to over 550,000 borrowers. DOE has also vowed to enhance outreach and communications with PSLF-eligible borrowers and simplify the application process. Up until now, only 16,000 borrowers have ever received forgiveness under the program.

Source: Department of Education

CHAMPS Releases New Federal Policy Recommendations

The Children Need Amazing Parents (CHAMPS) campaign recently released its new set of policy recommendations, which are grounded in child development research and developed with a broad coalition including foster and adoptive families, kinship caregivers, birth families, and young people with lived experience in foster care. These recommendations focus around increasing stability and quality of family-based care and increased supports for kinship caregivers, spurring improvements to foster parent recruitment, having the Department of Health and Human Services produce annual data on trends on family-based and congregate care, and more. You can read more detail online.

A few days ago, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP), and Children’s Hospital Association declared a national emergency in children’s mental health, citing the serious toll of the COVID-19 pandemic on top of existing challenges.

Prior to the pandemic, suicide was the second leading cause of death for youths ages 10-24 years. Between March and October 2020, during the longest quarantine period, suspected suicide attempts increased nearly 51% among girls ages 12-17 years, according to the CDC.  Mental health-related emergency room visits rose by 24% for children ages 5-11 years and 31% for children ages 12-17 years.

In a statement, Jody Levison-Johnson, president and CEO of Social Current, noted:

“We agree with the AAP and others that behavioral health issues among teens and adolescents have been a significant concern for many years, but have reached previously unseen peaks during the trauma, loss and isolation of the pandemic. Current brain science tells us that relational health and positive childhood experiences mitigate the impact of toxic stress. As we respond to the current crisis, we can build equitable access to mental health services aligned with community needs, along with resources for families that promote strong relationships and resilience. We support the range of policy solutions advocated by the AAP. Now is the time for policymakers to act, partnering with the behavioral health community to tackle these pressing challenges.”

New organization unveiled during SPARK 2021 Conference

Washington, D.C. – The Alliance for Strong Families and Communities and Council on Accreditation (Alliance-COA), which earlier this year announced their intent to merge, today unveiled their new organization, including their name and brand. Social Current will represent a network of thousands of social-sector organizations working in partnership to activate the power and impact of the social sector. Social Current is headquartered in Washington, D.C.

The announcement comes after a nine-month integration process that began in January and follows a year-long exploration and due diligence process overseen by both organizations, which share a long history and vision, with the Alliance serving as one of the original founders of COA in 1977.

“We are incredibly excited to come together as Social Current with a mission to advocate for and implement equitable solutions to society’s toughest challenges through collaboration, innovation, policy, and practice excellence,” noted Social Current’s inaugural president and CEO Jody Levison-Johnson. “At a time in our history where the need to do more and do better have never been so clear, Social Current will ignite change and spark greater impact across the social sector. With Social Current, we will bring together a unified, intrepid, just, and purposeful network that fuels each other’s knowledge, expertise and experience to make real and lasting impact.”  

Social Current will engage a broad, multifaceted and larger network of organizations and partners with a diversified range of offerings that contribute to the reach and influence of the human and social services sector. Core service offerings include:

For more information go to www.social-current.org. Follow us on social media: 

People of color and those living in poverty face significant, long-standing barriers to accessing quality primary and mental health care. Among the most common barriers are the high cost of care, lack of adequate insurance coverage, and lack of quality and/or culturally competent care. These challenges directly lead to racial disparities in health and well-being outcomes and are compounded over generations, often blocking the pathway to economic mobility.

With racial equity, diversity, and inclusion as the guidepost, the Alliance for Strong Families and Communities/Council on Accreditation (Alliance/COA) is committed to pursuing sustainable systems change so that all people can realize their full potential through social and economic mobility (SEM). Realizing more equitable systems requires connecting and driving efforts to improve SEM, change policies, and empower families and children. Community leaders are swiftly mobilizing in adaptive ways to support their communities. Their responses have elevated opportunities for improving:

Community Assets

Community-based organizations that have established themselves as trusted, safe places for connections and resources are tremendous assets to their communities. They are often staffed and led by people who live in the community, allowing them to build deep relationships and align their mission with the community’s goals.

Asset-based community development asserts that neighbors can work together to build upon their strengths to improve their communities. Mutual aid efforts taking place all over the country and around the world are allowing people who are struggling to be active in creating solutions for themselves and their neighbors. The act of working together to build community assets and develop resources contributes to community strength in small and large ways, including building the cohesion and trust that are the foundations of collective efficacy. A unified community further yields increased political influence, representation, and accountability.

Racial Equity

As institutions, lawmakers, and organizations draft the changes that lead our society, there is an opportunity to embed racial equity into programs and policies to generate meaningful, systemic solutions that address institutional racism. Increased diversity and representation in different institutions, such as schools and hospitals, yield more effective programs, improved outcomes, and impact. 

Organizations must look internally and build talent pipelines that position people of color in leadership roles. Building a talent pipeline for people of color means addressing the systemic racial wealth and employment gaps. As the Alliance/COA continues its equity journey, we will identify programs and strategies that advance social and economic mobility and address racial health disparities through a racial equity lens.

Flexible Infrastructure

Funding, data, and technology are elements of foundational infrastructure necessary for community-based organizations working with communities to realize opportunities for social and economic mobility. The pandemic has heightened their importance. Flexible funding and adequate technology have become of paramount importance for both organizations and families adapting to the new reality. Many community-based organizations are creatively and innovatively adapting to challenges caused by the pandemic and educating their philanthropic partners.

Funding

Many community-based organizations are in a perilous financial position, facing challenges that plague the social sector at large. This contractual challenge reduces organizations’ ability to create flexible solutions because unrestricted funds must be used to plug program budget gaps.

Related to this, very few federal funding opportunities reflect the interconnected nature of SEM; many have narrow eligibility requirements and limited program and service options. Organizations are adept at braiding resources from multiple funding sources to create the flexible, multisystem supports that empower families. However, these structural challenges put a significant burden on the organization, with the result that many needs go unmet.

Data

Donors often fund community-based organizations based on data on outputs. While it accounts for activity, it eclipses the nuanced story of community needs and agency and the ultimate goal of impact. Disaggregated data and human-centered design illuminate disparities and illustrate the need to fund and pilot equitable solutions. They also

Technology

Technology is vital for connectivity and SEM, especially with the need for social distancing. Students and families often need internet access and several computers for school and remote work. While many community-based organizations are now offering virtual telehealth services, the community can only utilize them if they have the appropriate technology. Many organizations have worked with businesses and philanthropy to provide laptops, tablets, and Wi-Fi where needed.

In some cases, technology may be an emerging opportunity for client connection and community service provision. A virtual opportunity may open more doors for some, where barriers such as health or work prohibited them from in-person attendance.

Mental Health Awareness

Many communities endure great uncertainty in daily life. That uncertainty puts an extra toll on staff and providers’ work. Mental health support is a foundation for all the pathways to social and economic mobility, both for the community and for the staff members who work with them. When considering ways to sustain the energy behind the human service sector and our network, stakeholders emphasized providers’ and leaders’ opportunities to connect and share relief and encouragement. 

The Alliance/COA is committed to providing space for the network to share their struggles and build off one another’s strengths. The sector must capitalize on the expanding awareness of systemic inequities – including racial health disparities – lead efforts to learn from our communities, and build sustainable pathways to SEM.

The holiday is both a celebration of Black culture and an opportunity to take specific actions to advance equity.

Juneteenth (sometimes known as Freedom Day, Jubilee Day, or Emancipation Day) is a celebration of Black culture and freedom that has carried great significance since it was first proclaimed a holiday in 1865. The June 19 date commemorates the end of slavery in the U.S.

As our country wrestles with its deep history of racism, the holiday is gaining more traction and meaning. In the wake of the conviction of Derek Chauvin for George Floyd’s murder and other police-involved killings of Black people, our country is reckoning with systemic and institutional racism and the lasting effects of white supremacy. 

“Systemic racism and implicit bias are infused across too many of our systems,” says Jody Levison-Johnson, president and CEO of Social Current. “While we recognize the work that has taken place thus far to increase equity and opportunity, we must continue to build on it, and acknowledge that the road ahead of us is long, and that we must work toward change at the individual, organizational, community, and system levels.”

Juneteenth provides the opportunity to reflect and engage in several ways:

“There is much work to be done, but community-based organizations, because of their deep legacies and connectedness with their neighbors have a great opportunity to amplify the observance and recognition of Black culture and its contribution to the building of America,” says Undraye Howard, senior director of equity, diversity, and inclusion and engagement. “Nonprofits, public agencies, and businesses working to help all families thrive must look to move the needle on the adoption of equitable practices and policies on a systemic level.”

The History of Juneteenth

President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation Sept. 22, 1862, and it became official Jan. 1, 1863. However, it took two-and-a-half years for Union soldiers, led by Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger, to arrive in Galveston, Texas, with news that enslaved people had been freed. Historians are still examining that period in history and have identified a few possible reasons, all grounded in racism, that allowed slavery to continue past its official end.

Gen. Granger read the following proclamation, General Order Number 3, to the people in Texas:

“The people of Texas are informed that in accordance with a Proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired laborer.”

This declaration of freedom was significant, even if the realities for formerly enslaved people were still brutal and uncertain. A wave of migration began, to reunify families torn apart and to relocate to the industrialized North. 

According to the National Registry of Juneteenth Organizations & Supporters, Juneteenth first became a major celebration and gathering of families in Texas, with many formerly enslaved people journeying back to Galveston in the decades following the proclamation. The color red became associated with Juneteenth, to represent the resilience of formerly enslaved people. Juneteenth celebrations were often held on church property; they were often banned from taking place in public areas controlled by white people.

Juneteenth Today

Today, Juneteenth is recognized and commemorated in communities across the country. It is an opportunity for organizations across the social sector to educate, advocate, and celebrate. Here are some ideas for marking Juneteenth at your organization, based on recommendations from the National Registry of Juneteenth Organizations & Supporters:

Examples from Organizations 

What Happens Beyond Juneteenth?

The goal of Juneteenth is to commemorate the historical emancipation of enslaved people, but also to advance equity for Black Americans, who still do not experience true freedom as they encounter barriers to safety, health, and well-being. Opportunities abound for making equity a year-round commitment for your organization.

This article was originally published June 3, 2021. Updated June 11, 2023.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Alliance for Strong Families and Communities’ Change in Mind Institute announced today the 10 sites selected for its Texas Learning Collaborative on applying brain science. The Texas sites selected include: the Association for the Advancement of Mexican Americans, the Austin Public Education Foundation, Bastrop County Cares, the Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Houston, the Children’s Museum Houston, Family Service Center of Galveston County, Fort Bend County, New Hope Housing, Inc., Santa Maria Hostel, Inc. and the Texas Center for Child and Family Studies.

The Change in Mind Institute received more than $727,000 each from both the Powell Foundation and the Episcopal Health Foundation for the new initiative, which will launch next month.

Through their engagement in the Change in Mind learning collaborative experience, participating organizations will determine their own paths for creating the transformation best suited to their unique needs. The process of embedding brain science principles will lead to improved outcomes for children and families. In addition, it will further enhance their organizational cultures and leadership ability to work collaboratively with partners to build better service systems and policies.

“We are thrilled to lead this collaborative learning process in partnership with these 10 sites,” says Jody Levison-Johnson, president and CEO of the newly merged Alliance for Strong Families and Communities and Council on Accreditation. “As we’ve seen with our previous learning collaborative, understanding and embedding the core story of brain development can have a profound positive impact on an organization’s internal operations as well as its work to build resilience in children and families.”

“Supporting early childhood brain development is a key part of the Episcopal Health Foundation’s strategic plan to improve health, not just healthcare in Texas,” noted Elena Marks, president and CEO of Episcopal Health Foundation. “In 2020, EHF invested more than $3 million in similar early brain-building projects and programs across the state and we are honored to support this ground-breaking initiative to expand on that work.”

“The Powell Foundation is focused on ensuring that children enter school with a strong foundation of skills that will jump start their success and benefit them throughout their education, career, and lifetime,” says Nicole Tritter Ellis, Powell Foundation Program Officer. “We know that supporting the systems that foster healthy environments for children’s development and education is key to building these skills, which is why we are pleased to support Alliance’s Texas Change in Mind Learning Collaborative.”

About the Alliance for Strong Families and Communities and Council on Accreditation (COA)
The merging Alliance and COA and resulting new organization will convene and catalyze a dynamic, inclusive, multifaceted network of human/social services organizations that leverages the collective experience of the field and research to spark a current in the sector and drive continuous evolution and improvement. Our goal is to activate the power of the social sector and create a unified, intrepid, just, and purposeful network that propels our field forward so all people can thrive. The new organization will provide a range of offerings and learnings to actively shape the future of the sector through policy, advocacy, knowledge exchange, certification, accreditation, connection, and ongoing iterative and reflective interactions. The Change in Mind Institute is a program of the Alliance for Strong Families and Communities.

About the Episcopal Health Foundation
By providing millions of dollars in grants, working with congregations and community partners, and providing important research, the Episcopal Health Foundation (EHF)  supports solutions that address the underlying causes of poor health in Texas. EHF is based in Houston, has more than $1 billion in estimated assets, and operates as a supporting organization of the Episcopal Diocese of Texas. #HealthNotJustHealthcare

About the Powell Foundation
The Powell Foundation is a private, family foundation based in Houston, Texas and focused on improving the lives of Harris, Travis and Walker County residents. The Foundation seeks to foster community wellbeing by empowering children, families, and individuals with the conditions, supports and skills necessary to thrive. It is particularly focused on ensuring that children achieve college and career readiness by supporting the entire education continuum, from early childhood development through post-secondary education completion. Visit powellfoundation.org for more information.

Three-Strategies-Organizations-Can-Use-to-Address-Race-And-EconomicsWe have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy.  — Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (more…)

In 2016, COA began our 2020 strategic planning process. We talked with and surveyed our network on their reasons for seeking COA accreditation and how we could provide even more value to their experience. One recurring theme was the need for data. Our organizations employ sophisticated quality improvement systems to manage their success, but respondents noted a lack of quality external benchmark data to complement their internal data.

History

COA’s pilot benchmarking program launched in the summer of 2016 as part of COA’s Maintenance of Accreditation (MOA) process. It was based on two years of research and replaced our old, narrative-driven MOA process. In the old process, organizations would write an extensive overview of their PQI activities in the past 12 months, and COA would review these narratives and provide feedback. It was a time- and resource-intensive process, and at the end of the day provided little value to COA or our accredited organizations.

We wanted to create a system which had 360-degree value for our network, and this idea was the genesis of the pilot benchmarking program. By collecting, aggregating, and sharing data, we created a system which provided value to all parties:

  1. COA can better understand our network;
  2. Organizations are monitoring basic key performance indicators to understand their performance; and
  3. Our network, as a whole, is enriched with comparative benchmark data.

We started with five measures of organizational health and sustainability: days cash on hand, staff retention rate, management retention rate, average staff tenure, and rate of substantiated grievances. Organizations resoundingly preferred this system and, based on feedback from our network, it surfaced again and again as a priority for us during our strategic planning process for 2020. Based on feedback from our network, we’re enhancing this system to collect and share back even more benchmark performance data.

Goals

We had three primary goals for refining our benchmarking program:

  1. Universal measures: COA accredits over 60 services and works with a plethora of organizations within the human and social services space. When selecting new measures for this program, we stuck with measures of organization health and sustainability because these are applicable to human and social service organizations of any size or purpose.
  2. Unlike any other benchmarking services available to our network: we knew we needed a unique benchmarking program which provided:
    • Multifaceted measures which gave a holistic view of an organization’s performance          
    • Segmentation logic. Much of the benchmark data available to our sector is not specific to human and social service organizations. Many times, data is collected from all tax-exempt entities. But, it’s just not valuable for our network to be compared to animal welfare organizations, arts nonprofits, and similar entities. Our program is focused solely on human and social service organizations. In addition, we’re using all of our data to create very narrow segments or clusters of organization for even more valuable comparisons. In future iterations, we hope to roll out custom segmentation for our end-users.
  3. Improved data collection methodology: as a part of the new MOA process, we’re collecting benchmark data from our network annually and associating it with a discrete fiscal year. This ensures we have a consistent and reliable flow of data to share back with our network.

New Benchmarking Program

Starting in 2020, all organizations accredited under COA’s Private and Canadian organization accreditation will provide data via an Annual Report. This report is due 60 days after the start of your fiscal year and collects data on your prior fiscal year. It is part of our Maintenance of Accreditation process, and organizations must complete this report to maintain their accredited status. Here’s how the process will work:

  1. COA will notify your organization’s primary contact 60 days before the Annual Report is due. This should land around the first day of your new fiscal year.
    • Once this notification is received, organizations can access their Annual Report cycle via their MyCOA Portal.
    • The MyCOA Portal has step-by-step instructions for gathering and inputting the requested data.

Step-by-step guide to completing the Annual Report

Around the start of your fiscal year, your organization’s primary contact will receive an email inviting you to complete your Annual Report. It will list the due date and steps for completing the report.

Email invitation for annual report

Next, log in to your MyCOA Portal. Use the Pick a Cycle link to navigate to the correct cycle. In this example, the organization’s Annual Report is currently due. In addition, the organization has 2 Maintenance Fee cycles in 2020 and 2021; for these cycles, only the Maintenance Fee is due. To complete the Annual Report, select “2020 Annual Report.”

Picking an annual report cycle

On this page, the timeline will show when the Annual Report is due – in this case, on 12/31/2020. Select “Continue.”

Annual Report due date

This page gives a step-by-step overview of how to complete the Annual Report.

Step-by-step annual report instructions

Step 1

If you’d like, you can review the Annual Report requirements and FAQs using the links in Step 1.

Step 2

COA understands that, oftentimes, only one or two staff have access to the MyCOA Portal. So, we created the Annual Report Prep Tool to help you gather your data before inputting it into the MyCOA Portal. Click the DOWNLOAD button in step 2; COA will merge any data we may already have into this document so you’re not doing duplicative work. Share the Prep Tool with relevant staff to gather your data. Please note the completion of the Prep Tool is optional. The Prep Tool is for internal records only and does not need to be submitted to COA.

Step 3

In order to complete the Annual Report, all data must be submitted electronically in your MyCOA portal. Hover over the MAINTENANCE tab in the top toolbar, and select “Annual Report from the dropdown menu.

Maintenance drop-down menu

This will open the Annual Report electronic submission form.

Annual Report electronic submission form

If you used the Prep Tool, copy the information from the Prep Tool into this form. You’ll notice that the questions are in the exact same order as in the Prep Tool. You can save at any time by click the “Save my progress and resume later” checkbox in the top right corner and then the Save button.

Once all information is entered, click the Submit button at the bottom of the form.

On the following page, confirm the accuracy of your data. Then, click Confirm to fully submit your data. At this point, you can also select “Print this page” to print a copy of your report for your records.

Confirmation button

Once the data is submitted, the card on your Milestone Timeline will indicate the completion date and you are done with your submission! Please note: If you would like to make any changes to your submission, please submit a Support Ticket in the MyCOA portal.

Completed annual report

The Benchmark Report – available Q1 2021

Once COA receives all data from accredited organizations for a particular fiscal year, we’ll unlock the benchmark report and allow you to access it from within your MyCOA Portal. Download a sample benchmark report here.

Segmentation Logic

The benchmark report uses segmentation logic to create a comparison group of organizations like yours; we then use this group to calculate your benchmark figures. We use data on your business type (nonprofit or for–profit), services provided, revenue, and geographic location to construct this group and ensure an apples-to-apples comparison. We want to provide you with data which has the utmost “comparison integrity” so you can be confident the benchmarks are meaningful to you.

Comparison integrity chart

The cover page indicates the fiscal year to which the report pertains, describes the group of organizations against which your organization is compared, and lists the publication date – the date on which the report was generated.

The characteristics of your organization are used to generate the comparison group. The sample organization receiving this report is a nonprofit organization accredited under COA’s Private Organization Accreditation program and provides foster care services with a revenue between $5-10M. When generating your benchmark data, then, we pulled data only from organizations which fit these characteristics. This ensures the comparisons made in this document are valuable to the sample organization.

The following pages organize all benchmark metrics into their domains. First, we have the FINANCIAL HEALTH BENCHMARKS: each metric is given a title, a description of what it is and why it is important, and a chart comparing the sample organization’s data to the average value of its comparison group. In this top metric, Months of Liquid Unrestricted Net Assets or LUNA, the sample organization and its comparison group had 6 months of LUNA, so the sample organization can be confident that its liquidity – as measured by LUNA – is within normal range for their type of organization.

Each subsequent page lists measures belonging to a particular performance domain, and follows the same structure: title, description, and a chart comparing your data against your comparison group.

Scrolling down, the ADDITIONAL DATA page shows all of the sample organization’s data and the comparison figures in one view. We also provide the Percent Rank for each metric. The Percent Rank locates your organization within the comparison dataset. For example, the sample organization’s Months of Liquid Unrestricted Net Assets has a percent rank of 33.3%. This means that the organization’s Months of LUNA was higher than a third of organizations but lower than two-thirds of organizations in the comparison dataset. Percent rank is just another way of showing you how you compare to similar organizations.

The final page lists some FAQs. As your questions come in, we’ll update this page with more information for reading and understanding your benchmark report.

Additional information

We have created a custom website with further information about COA’s benchmarking program at www.coameasures.org.

If you missed our benchmarking webinars, please feel free to view the recording here.

If you have any further questions about changes to the maintenance of accreditation process, please feel free to contact Ingrid Zamudio, Data Science Manager. For questions specific to your organization, please submit a support ticket in your MyCOA portal.

Protect your clients, protect your staff, protect your organization, protect your community.

As the virus that causes COVID-19 continues to have a significant impact on our lives, accredited and in-process organizations have asked us how the standards can help them be ready and respond.  In this post we will make a few big-picture recommendations about where to start with your preparations, then point out the key standards that might inform your response.

A few quick recommendations

Before we look at specific standards, we have a few recommendations.  First, pull your senior staff and members of your governing body together to think about what your organization needs to do be prepared for and respond to the virus.  We strongly recommend that you review the CDC’s Interim Guidance for Administrators and Leaders of Community- and Faith-Based Organizations to Plan, Prepare, and Respond to Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19).  This resource is the single best resource we have seen to help you prepare your organization for the inevitable arrival of the coronavirus in your community.  The guidance provided is specific and clear and is continually updated as new information emerges.

Second, review and update your emergency preparedness plan and other relevant polices and procedures.  COA has several standards that address key preparedness and response issues that accredited organizations will already have in place.  These fall under the broad standards categories of human resources management, safety and security, and emergency preparedness.  More about these below.

With regard to service delivery: Depending on the types of services you provide and the populations you serve, you are very likely to get multiple communications from federal, state, and county oversight entities, as well as others with specific directives and/or guidance that will directly effect your work at the program level.  You will want to merge these varying sources of guidance– some of these will be mandatory–into a form that staff can understand and follow. 

It is important also to make this information easily accessible. One organization that serves the homeless mentally ill in upstate New York has been receiving updated virus-related directives from multiple sources almost every other day.  Every time one of these is received, the CEO merges the new information into updated procedures and then walks around and replaces the old documents, which have been posted all over the facility, with the newest version.  Staff are very busy and aren’t always able to stop what they are doing and check their email to see if new updates have been made to the online procedure manual.  So put such critical information right in front of them.

Third, communicate clearly and openly with the people you serve, your staff, and the public.  The situation in your locale may be changing quickly.  Your clients and staff will be looking to you for guidance.  Wild Apricot has a very good blog entry titled How to Create a Crisis Communications Plan for Your Nonprofit that you may find useful.

Communication also includes ensuring that staff know who to go to for answers in rapidly evolving situations.  Anticipate that some staff who have decision making authority may become sick. Plan for that eventuality, and make sure that staff know who to go to in their place. This is especially important in larger, multiservice organizations who may provide a variety of different services in multiple locations.

Now lets take a look at some of the key COA standards.  Currently accredited organizations will have policies and procedures related to these standards already in place.  For these organizations, your task it to review these and update them where necessary. 

Review and update your emergency response plan and procedures

Pull out your emergency response plan and procedures (ASE 6.01, ASE 6.02, ASE 6.03) and review them with COVID-19 in mind.  If you are like many other organizations, you may not have anticipated a fast-moving pandemic when your plan was developed.  Emergency response plans and procedures for multiservice organizations and those providing services at different sites may need to include location-specific guidance for each program site. 

Things to consider:

Review and update safety and security measures

The standards in ASE 5: Safety and Security address the safety and security of your staff and persons served at your program and administrative sites.  Review your most recent safety assessment and any measures that were implemented to address identified issues.  Then conduct a new COVID-19 assessment if time permits. 

Things to consider:

Review and update human resource management policies

By the time you read this, many of you will already be under restrictions mandating the closure of all non-essential businesses.  Although most of our accredited organizations will be not be subject to those restrictions, most have staff that do not necessarily need to be on-site to perform their jobs.  Many of you are scrambling to put human resource policies in place to reflect this new reality.  The standard HR 3.02 broadly addresses what may go into an HR policies and procedure manual.

Things to consider:

Again, the CDC has good, comprehensive, practical guidance for employers:  Interim Guidance for Businesses and Employers to Plan and Respond to Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19).

Review and update technology and information security for remote working

Remote working is as much a technological issue as it is a human resources management issue.  The policies and procedures required for RPM 4: Technology and Information Management, and RPM 5: Security of Information should be reviewed and updated if you will be requiring some of your staff to work at home. 

Things to consider:

Review and update policies and procedures for technology-based service delivery

The coronavirus has rapidly pushed technology-based service delivery from the periphery to becoming a core intervention modality for many kinds of social and human services.  If you are already employing technology-based interventions, take this time to review new rules and guidance coming for the federal government on its use.  Then review the standards in PRG 4: Technology-based Service Delivery to ensure that your current practices continue to meet the requirements of the standards. 

If you are thinking about employing technology-based interventions for the first time, you need to understand that there are many important factors to consider, including confidentially, security, data collection and  transmission, acceptable technologies, licensure, how to work with clients through electronic means, and more.  A review of the standards in PRG 4 will give you a frame of reference for what such services look like.

We hope this post helps to bring some of the most important questions into focus for you as you prepare for the coronavirus.  The function of accreditation is to build organization’s capacity and resilience through a careful and thorough review of its administration and service-delivery practices.  It does this by having you look at what you are doing and how you are doing it, thinking about how you can do things better, and, finally looking ahead so you can be ready for what is coming, both seen and unforeseen. 

Be safe.