Stewards of Change has been privileged to work with a broad spectrum of clients from multiple sectors including the state, county and federal government agencies, nonprofit organizations, corporations and others. Over the past decade, SOC consultants have assisted child welfare and human services organizations in New York, California, Florida, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, and Maryland, and Washington DC.
We have delivered services to both established organizations and start-up ventures. Our consultants are frequently tapped to be expert presenters for conferences hosted by such national entities as the Child Welfare League of America, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, and the American Public Human Services Association
Stewards of Change’s recent technical assistance clients include: Annie E. Casey Foundation, the National Foster Care Month Partnership, Aspiranet, Casey Family Programs, Casey Family Services, New York State Office of Children and Family Services, Metropolitan Washington DC Council of Governments, Washington State Department of Early Learning and the New Jersey Department of Youth and Families.
A sampling of key projects follows:
Current Projects
Project Name: Information Portability Project
Client: Montgomery County, Pennsylvania; Human Services Administration
Period of Performance: January 1, 2009 – December 31st, 2009
Project Description: SOC is creating a detailed roadmap that will support building an integrated business process and technology framework and also provide the state with a model that can be transferred to other counties across the Commonwealth. SOC is working collaboratively with the University of Pennsylvania Field Center in addition to Microsoft Corporation and Motorola Corporation to produce this roadmap. This public and private partnership will provide the detailed conceptual and technical architecture to create interoperable, real-time technology systems that will link together all services within the County’s Human Services Administration as well as State systems as appropriate. An additional focus is to design, build and pilot mobile solutions to enable caseworkers and supervisors immediate access anywhere to critical information to improve the safety of abused and neglected children as well as worker productivity. Finally, the critical issues within SOC’s “Confidentiality/Sharing Information” driver are being intensively targeted with the objective being a national “proof of concept” or guide for other jurisdictions.
Project Name: Technical Assistance to Develop Cross-Cutting Approaches to Human Services Systems
Client: The HHS/Administration for Children and Families
Period of Performance: November 2009 – September 2010
Project Description: Stewards of Change in partnership with ICFI will introduce Human Services 2.0 – InterOptimability to the Administration for Children and Families (HHS/ACF).The primary objective of the Technical Assistance Project is to assist the administration in developing a cross-cutting leadership approach to support the effective administration of the ACF programs to achieve the best possible results for children, families and communities. Utilizing the tools and approaches from Human Services 2.0 – InterOptimability, we will help create a language and common vision among the senior leadership team of ACF. We will also work towards determining the level of effort required to create more interoperability within and across ACF.
Project Name: Organizational Assessment and Training To Support Service Integration Plan
Client: Montgomery County, MD; Department of Health and Human Services
Period of Performance: November 2009 – June 30th, 2010
Project Description: SOC will build off the phase one efforts in Montgomery County MD to lead the creation of a Change Vision roadmap and an organizational assessment for the Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services. The goal of the second phase of the project is to broaden the organizational assessment to incorporate the entire agency (approximately 1500 employee) In addition, SOC will begin organizational development efforts beginning with training among a small cadre of staff to promote and communicate the new Change Vision adopted by the Agency. Technical assistance and the Human Services 2.0 Theory of Change are being used to establish departmental priorities. (See project below for phase one details)
Completed Projects
Project Name: Organizational & Information Technology Assessment, and Service Integration Plan
Client: Montgomery County, MD
Period of Performance: January 1, 2009 – June 30th, 2009
Project Description: SOC lead the creation of a Change Vision roadmap and an organizational assessment for the Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services. The goal of the project was to create an initial road map to guide the department towards planning an integrated technology framework to support a customer-centric, family-focused, technology-enabled strategy for all business lines housed within the department. Technical assistance and the theory of change are being used to establish departmental priorities.
Project Name: Technology Assessment and Service Integration Plan
Client: State of Washington; Department of Early Learning
Period of Performance: February 2008 – August 2008
Project Description: This project was a Gates-foundation funded feasibility study to assess the most appropriate business processes and information technology systems needed by a newly created (merged) Cabinet-level agency focused on early childhood education, parent information, support and services, and child care licensing. Human Services 2.0 Theory of Change model was utilized as part of the overall project to frame the situation and assess the organizational and technical systems need to connect the business components together in new, efficient and flexible ways.
The overall recommendation focused on utilizing modern technology (Service Oriented Architecture) to build a system that could rapidly and cost effectively accommodate the new department’s current and emerging information requirements. This approach would provide a foundation for promoting innovative government practices because it is designed to share information, accommodate change, respond to the unique demands of the individual users and ultimately support accountability.
Project Name: An Integrated Approach for Recruiting and Retaining Foster Parents in New York City*
Client: The New York City Administration for Children Services
Period of Performance: 2001 – 2005
Project Description: The mission of the Administration for Children's Services (ACS) is to ensure the safety and wellbeing of New York City's children. For the past four years, True Insight/Stewards of Change consultants have worked with this $2,200,000,000 governmental agency and its contracted partners to effectively integrate resources and programs, increase staff knowledge and capability, leverage growth opportunities, and realize better outcomes for at-risk youth, families and communities.
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Project Name: National Foster Care Month
Client: The National Foster Care Coalition and Casey Family Programs
Period of Performance: 2004 - 2006
Project Description: Creating awareness for any issue on national scale requires careful planning, persistence, and a crystal clear media pitch. For the three years between 2004 – 2006 , True Insight (Stewards of Change) was selected to manage the marketing and PR for National Foster Care Month.
This annually returning event during the month of May is a partnership set up by fourteen child welfare organizations. By building on each year's experience, True Insight worked toward this year's ten-fold increase in visibility for the NFCM, driven by unprecedented exposure in national media such as Time magazine, Dr. Phil, and the Today Show.
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* Note: Prior to 2005 projects were conducted under True Insight Marketing, Ltd. As leadership began to understand the relevance and application of business practices and tools to the human services environment, Stewards of Change was formed to pursue system change on a thought leadership basis. Subsequently projects and personel were blended into Stewards of Change, Inc.