community health fund

   

Contra Costa Crisis Center: Contra Costa Services Network

contra costa crisis center

In 2019, the CHF and the Contra Costa Crisis Center began discussions about ways the Crisis Center could better track client outcomes post-referral to various support services. By early 2020, CHF and Crisis Center staff had broadened these exploratory discussions to include the Contra Costa Regional Health Foundation, which led to a $50,000 funding partnership that allowed the Crisis Center and Health Leads to lead a 4-month community planning process in hopes of establishing a Community Information Network. Ultimately, the CHF followed up with a $15,000 executive director discretionary grant for the Crisis Center to contract with La Piana Consulting to develop a vision for a Contra Costa Services Network (CCSN), a secure online information resource system from which local nonprofit service providers could make immediate client referrals to other programs and agencies, as well as follow up at a glance to measure outcomes and improve case management.

Having already developed and piloted this type of information-sharing platform – in partnership with La Piana, La Clínica de La Raza and First 5 Contra Costa – the Crisis Center went on and ascertained that there was indeed interest from its other nonprofit partners, particularly those in East Contra Costa County.

Consequently, the CHF has awarded $75,000 to the Crisis Center for a Phase I implementation and launch of its network. During this phase, nonprofit partners will have direct access to the Center’s secure platform to provide immediate client referrals and track outcomes, which will significantly improve their ability to manage clients and communicate with other nonprofit organizations that may be serving the same clients. Key activities and expected outcomes for year-1 include:

  • Recruit and hire a CCSN Provider Services Manager
  • Assign and train internal support staff
  • Develop internal programmatic structure and fee schedule
  • Continue education, outreach and CCSN demonstrations
  • Recruit, onboard and train 5-8 new network agencies