Our Performance

The Children’s Home

PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT  
PROGRAM
ANNUAL REPORT
 2008 – 2009

The report that follows summarizes the improvements that were accomplished within The Children’s Home programs and services during the past year.
Each program and support service department identifies the areas they want to see improved, collects data monthly, reviews the data and uses it to discuss ways to make their program/department more effective in serving youth and their families.

Pastoral Ministries. 2
Development Department 3
Food Services. 4
Human Resources. 6
Maintenance. 7
Medical 8
Nursing. 9
Residential 10
The Learning Center 12
Volunteers. 15

The Children’s Home, Inc.
2008 – 2009 Performance Improvement

Improvements initiated as a result of the PI work completed this year:

1. We significantly reduced our time frame in meeting new residents and orienting them to CHOC’s spiritual life program. (This year this often took place within a couple of hours of the new resident’s arrival.)
2. We added new items to the devotion packs we provide to new residents. New items include: music CD’s (sacred and secular), school supplies, diaries/journals, small audio items (blank CD’s and headphones).
3. We have revised the religious background forms to provide residents, families, and DCF workers with a clearer understanding of the voluntary nature of participating in CHOC’s Spiritual Life program.
4. We have increased our communication, discussion, and dialogue with clinical and residential staff regarding residents’ spiritual concerns and issues. The Chaplain’s presence has been requested and participation has been sought after in initial intake interviews, conflict resolution situations, and individual resident issues.
5. The recording studio (a.k.a. “Da Boof") has been used by residents and staff to produce 130 CD recordings of music, poetry, and drama. This year we also reached, and surpassed, the 400 CD plateau.
6.   Da Boof has resulted in the creation of two smaller recording studios on the Jordan and Nehemiah houses.
7. We have increased and expanded the content of our Chapel services to included guest ministers and presenters from eight different Christian denominations (Covenant, Catholic, Pentecostal, UCC, COGIC, Baptist, Episcopal, Methodist.).
8. We have increased the amount of functional and practical issues, topics, and subjects addressed and covered in Chapel, C.E. and BDG. Approximately one quarter of these topics were chosen and selected by the residents.
9. We have experienced an increase in the number of residents providing assistance with preparing for or participation in Chapel services. During this year more than 25 different residents helped set up chairs before, or offered up prayers or read scriptures during our Chapel services.
10. We have approved the participation of 8-10 residents from three houses to attend services at three different area ministries.
11. We have expanded our CHOC presentation outreach to 2 Christian academies, 2 public schools, and 3 civic organizations. Two of these have resulted in future missions projects with CHOC.

The Children’s Home, Inc.
2008 – 2009 Performance Improvement

Improvements initiated as a result of the PI work completed this year:

1. There has been an increased awareness among the staff about the function and purpose for fund development and donations.
2. Additional staff authorized a donation deduction from their payroll.
3. The Board of Directors has discussed and considered their roles in fundraising and donor cultivation.
4. The Board’s role in fund development has been added to the PI for FY 2010 as a result of their conversations.
5. The Capital campaign is within $150,000 of the goal of $2M just for the new Girls’ House.
6. The capital campaign activity, the fundraisers, and our own marketing efforts have brought us more than 10 volunteers to help with fundraising, graphic design, The WAY women’s group, photography, and many more projects.
7. This fiscal year through fund development efforts we have(partial list);
• created a biking, walking, skating path around our athletic field for the kids
• fully funded our summer camp and summer work-study programs
• provided music lessons for youth
• renovated our Culinary Arts Teaching Kitchen, complete with new equipment
• purchased a major piece of main dining room kitchen equipment
• built and opened our new Girls House
• re-designed and launched our new website
• provided more than $200,000 in in-kind donations of goods and services to care for our kids

The Children’s Home, Inc.
2008 – 2009 Performance Improvement

Improvements initiated as a result of the PI work completed this year:

1) The team in the Human Resources (HR) Department determined that substantial savings were realized for Recruitment/Hiring by switching from high priced print advertising ($31,800 expensed in FY 09) to use of Career Builder, Jobs Central and the agency website for recruitment. As a result, the amount budgeted for Recruitment/Hiring for FY 2010 is $22,500.  This is also lower than the amount expensed in FY 08 which was $25,800. 
2.  As a result of our success with Career Builder overall, we contracted with Career Builder for on-campus recruiting at colleges throughout the U.S. We secured 24 postings to be distributed electronically to college campuses, with a focus on New England schools, for $600 or $25/posting.This reduced the amount of time HR Assistants spent at college job fairs and the amount of time taken to send job postings out to individual colleges in New England. 
3.  We determined that it remains in the agency’s best interest to use specialized sites, e.g., The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, to supplement other media when recruiting for highly specialized positions like Psychiatrists.
4.  We were successful in reducing and maintaining employee turnover at 20% or less. Clinical remained stable at 8% and Medical declined from 14% to 0. In Residential, turnover increased from 2% to 9.5%, however, that is still below 20% and less than a year ago, and reflects the positive effect of increased wages. In The Children’s Home Community Services, Inc., turnover of direct care staff increased from 5% to 7.7%, still below the threshold of 20% and also an improvement over last year.
5.  The HR team determined that tracking and recording all resumes received from Career Builder, Job Central, the website and other sources is an unwieldy task and highly time consuming. Performing that task throughout FY 09 aided us in our decision to cease almost all print advertising. However, we will cease this tracking and recording in FY 2010 so that our time is spent on the achievement of other outputs and tasks.  

The Children’s Home, Inc.
2008 – 2009 Performance Improvement

Improvements initiated as a result of the PI work completed this year:

1. The buildings and grounds of the Children’s Home are safer, as evidenced by;
• A vehicle safety course was implemented for staff that drives our youth as a way to improve our safety program. 96% of all staff who transport our youth have received and passed this training
• Through routine maintenance of the agency vehicles, no major repairs were needed this year.
• All required fire drills were completed on time and all observations followed up on.
• No injuries were recorded from use of tools and equipment due to routine safety inspections.
• The number of safety issues reported by staff, as opposed to being found during safety inspections improved during the year. This improves safety as needed repairs are reported in a timelier manner.

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The Children’s Home, Inc.
2008 – 2009 Performance Improvement
             

Improvements initiated as a result of the PI work completed this year:

1. The improvement initiated as a result of the PI work completed this year is that the amount of medication refusals has dropped significantly. Moving forward, we anticipate that this will continue to improve.

The Children’s Home, Inc.
2008 – 2009 Performance Improvement
                         

Improvements initiated as a result of the PI work completed this year:

1. The improvement that have been initiated as a result of the PI work completed this year is that nursing was able to maintain awareness of any informational updates pertaining to medications administered to the residents.

The Children’s Home, Inc.
2008 – 2009 Performance Improvement

Improvements initiated as a result of the PI work completed this year:

1. Extensive Training has been provided to Staff with the goal of improving outcomes and decreasing Critical Incidents.  This included the addition of trainings through the College of Direct Support related to provision of services to youth with Developmental Disabilities and related to the implementation of Positive Behavioral Supports.
2. Our Consultant for Developmental Disability services has provided intensive training to members of the Jordan House Staff and has assisted in the implementation of Functional Behavioral Analysis and Behavioral Intervention Plans for each Resident of the Jordan House.
3. Leadership Coaching Training has been increased to twice per month and involves Directors of Boys and Girls Services, Coordinators of Boys and Girls Services, Clinicians, and House SRC2’s.  We have been able to determine Job Competencies and expectations for each of the primary roles in Residential Care.  This will ultimately lead to the development of competency based job descriptions and performance evaluations.  This process has focused on recognition of tenets that inform our Philosophy of Care (Risking Connection, TCI, and Restoration).
4. Developmental Asset Surveys are now consistently being completed on Admission and Discharge of each youth in Residential Care.  Our overall results have shown an improvement in at least 3 of 5 measured assets 83.4% of the time.  Assets measured were self-reports of youth regarding Personal Assets, Social Assets, Family Assets, School Assets, and Community Assets.
5. All Clinicians have consistently been provided with Individual and Group Supervision on a weekly basis and have been provided supervision necessary to complete licensure requirements.
6. In response to feedback from the Department of Children and Families regarding new interpretation of PNMI Standards, we have developed and implemented new formats for Master Treatment Plans, Psychosocial Assessments, Progress Notes, and Rounds/Treatment Team Review/ASO Review.  All Clinicians have been provided training regarding these documentation procedures internally and by the DCF Department of Quality Assurance at our request.  Each Clinician has been provided with a Clinical Checklist by which they may gauge their compliance with expectations.  This is reviewed weekly in their Clinical Supervision.
7. As a response to recommendations from our reviews, we have provided training to our Clinicians and Direct Care Staff regarding Gangs through cooperation with Juvenile Probation.  A manual was prepared and provided for all Clinicians in the Residential, School, and Group Home programs to assist these programs in recognizing and addressing gang related behaviors and activities.

The Children’s Home, Inc.
2008 – 2009 Performance Improvement

Improvements initiated as a result of the PI work completed this year:

1.  The use of SWIS data allowed staff to closely monitor the behavioral issues on a monthly basis.  When certain behaviors became problematic, staff would meet and discuss corrective action we could implement to improve the behavior of the students.
The monthly review of the data helped the administration and staff of the school quickly address any problematic behaviors as they surfaced.

2.  This was the first year the staff used the SRA Prescriptive Reading Program with the students.  We were not able to implement until November as we lacked all the necessary materials to begin in September.  Once all materials were received, the students were tested and placed into appropriate level groups.  Growth was evident on the results of the post-test administered prior to the end of the school year.
Materials have been ordered to replace those that were used this year.  The staff will be ready to begin using the program when school begins in September.

3.  We experienced a relatively high number of physical interventions this year and have taken measures to reduce the number significantly when school begins in September.
Training for staff will take place prior to the start of school and behavior plans will be developed more quickly so we can avoid using physical interventions with our students.
We purchased a social skills curriculum that works well with the PBS philosophy and began using it in November.  We will reinforce the appropriate behaviors with our student beginning in September.  We also plan to offer a training session in “Peer Mediation” for our students.  Hopefully this will help us to use the skills of these students to help their peers when they are experiencing a conflict.

4.  This year we tracked the number of individual behavioral plans that were created for the students.  At the start of the school year, only 53% of the students (day and residential) had either an ICMP developed for school or a written BIP (Behavior Intervention Plan).  As the year progressed, problematic behaviors were addressed more quickly to the point where almost 87% of the students were on some type of a plan.
The goal next year is to increase the number of students who have plans to almost 100%.
These plans will be developed by the teacher, clinician and student and modified on a regular basis.

The Children’s Home, Inc.
2009 – 2009 Performance Improvement

Improvements initiated as a result of the PI work completed this year:

1. Formal data collection for Volunteer Services to The Children's Home has been established as of May of 2009.  To date, roughly 5 years worth of statistics regarding Volunteer Program have been entered into the system. 
2. Although some of this data is estimated, I do note that there has been a general increase of about 75% in the number of Volunteers that are currently working for The Children's Home and it's affiliated Group Homes. 
3. Tracking of Volunteer Hours worked at the Home was informal until late 2007 but, it can generally be said that the number of hours worked by Volunteers has also increased significantly. 
4. The Volunteer Program has also effectively tripled in size over the past 5 years.  Volunteers also serve in more capacities and in more Departments at The Home than ever before.   
5. As stated above, data analysis has only begun in this area.  One improvement to the overall program is the tracking of data itself.  In the past, this was done less efficiently and the process was more time consuming.  The current tracking system will also be more useful in supplying statistics required for applications for grants and other funding for Volunteer Programming.