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Annual General Meeting Report
:: Management Report - Anna Glait “To accomplish great things, we must dream as well as act.” - Anatole France Much has happened at Alternate Shelter Society in the past year. Financially it has been a difficult year due to the expenses associated with Accreditation, contract cutbacks, moving head office and staff shortages which led to overtime costs. We received notice in May 2006 to vacate our office as they were tearing the building down. It was extremely difficult to find an affordable office to rent as we were only paying $749.00[all inclusive] per month and quickly found that what limited office space there was available for rent was at least twice that amount. We were able to find an office for $1336.00 per month but that does not include utilities. This definitely puts a strain on Administration’s already stretched budget. The Murrayville contract was reduced by $3000.00 per month in April 2006 by the Ministry of Children and Family Development. They originally wanted a larger reduction but backed down when told that we were unable and unwilling to continue the contract. It would be difficult enough to maintain the contract with a $3000.00 per month reduction. We experienced severe staff shortages for almost the entire year. Without the promised funds to increase wages in the non union sector it made it difficult to compete with union wages. Our only option to maintain staffing for the programs was to pay overtime which impacted the budget for both programs. The government finally agreed in February to provide the funds for wage increases in the non union sector. The increase will be retroactive from April 1, 2006 to March 31, 2007. While this increase is not on par with union sector wages we are hopeful it will make the recruitment and retention of staff easier. The costs associated with Accreditation are daunting. While we do not have to pay for the actual survey, the preparation for the survey is costly. The Vermeulen Group, our auditors for the past 15 years have informed us that they will no longer be auditing non profit agencies. Apparently the new auditing regulations imposed by the government for non profit agencies require a more in depth audit. This would take more time and would not be worthwhile for the auditors. They recommended three new auditors that Management contacted but none of them are taking on new non profit agency clients. Management will continue to research possible new auditors. We are hopefully optimistic that we will achieve another three year Accreditation. It has been a phenomenal amount of work to prepare for the upcoming survey. This could not have been done without the hard work and cooperation of the staff team. Once Accreditation is completed the Agency must focus on future growth and development. The Agency cannot continue to rely on funding from the government alone. We must implement our Strategic Plan in order to obtain other sources of funding. This will help to ensure more financial stability as well as maintaining the qualities that keep us unique as an Agency. Management would like to thank all staff for their commitment and dedication to the youth and the Agency. Many thanks also to the Board of Directors who volunteer their time to be on our board. Their support and enthusiasm is greatly appreciated. :: Performance Analysis Newsletter - Risë Eaton Alternate Shelter Society is committed to performance improvement through an annual analysis of the Agency’s performance. This analysis provides a glimpse as to how effective our services are for the population we serve. A first look at the youth the Agency served over the past twelve months, reveals the following characteristics of the population served: Total number of youth served: 58 Gender: Total number of females: 34 Total number of males: 24 Average age of the youth served: 15.0 Range of age of youth served: 12-18 The youth we served come from a variety of cultural backgrounds, including Caucasian, Fijian, First Nations, Metis, Philippino, Polish, East Indian, African, German, Chilean, East Indian and El Salvadoran. Data Collection Data is collected through the Hull Outcomes Management Evaluation System, or HOMES database. This is a secure online database that compiles the data we have on the youth we serve and provides the information required to create a performance report. Our data is collected to reflect certain indicators as specified by the Commission CARF, our accrediting body. These indicators are as follows: 1. Effectiveness 2. Efficiency 3. Access 4. Satisfaction For each indicator there is an established goal, or set of goals, which are measured at set intervals during service delivery. These intervals are as follows: upon intake, every two weeks during service delivery, upon discharge, and 1 month after discharge. Efficiency This indicator measures progress on the goals that individual youth have identified as service goals they want to achieve through their stay at Valley House. Goals where youth have shown improvement: - Cause and Effect Management - Interpersonal Relationship Skills - Family and Social Relationships Objectives - Trigger Identification - Multiple self-care skills Goals identified as still requiring improvement: - Addictions Management - Attending School Regularly - Stabilization - Other Basic Social Skills As a result of this analysis, staff will focus their service delivery on improving the above goals for the individual youth that require this. Effectiveness 1. To increase staff accountability in Outcomes Management reporting. Since we are required to collect client data in the HOMES database; staff continue to be solely responsible for assessing individual progress at set time intervals for each youth in our care. Staff participation in outcomes reporting is therefore mandatory. Implementing the system into the staff routine has been a difficult task. Many of our staff continue to have difficulty using the program, and many are resistant to using it. To aid the staff in this task however, training workshops are held regularly to familiarize new staff with the system, and to follow up with all staff's progress in it. In addition, support is offered to staff through the office, and is also available 24 hours through email. Continuous monitoring of the system and staff progress within it occurs regularly by the Outcomes Management Support Worker to ensure it is accurate and up-to-date. Access 1. To decrease AWOPs by 10%. Valley House A previous analysis indicated that there were 199 occurrences where youth were AWOP from the Valley House program within a 12 month period. Over the past year however, the number of AWOP occurrences for Valley House has reached 274. As a result, we did not reach our performance goal as we have exceeded last year’s count by 27%. Future staff training in the following areas have been identified as necessary to create staff awareness around behaviours that youth exhibit: - Understanding the triggers for, meaning behind, purpose of, and how to effectively work with acting out behaviours exhibited by the youth. - Building effective coping strategies - Stress management techniques Our review of Reportable Incidences addresses this issue and we have developed recommendations to reduce the number of AWOPs. This plan is as follows: When a youth does not come home for curfew, it is usually an indicator that he or she is engaging in acting out behaviours. This is evident through the greater amount of Reportable Incidents that occur while the youth is residing at Valley House that centre on acting out behaviours, such as property damage, possessing a weapon, aggression, theft and returning home under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol. Improvement in this area needs to focus on redirecting the youth’s acting out behaviours. At Alternate Shelter Society, we believe that acting out behaviours can be seen as a positive sign, as this indicates that youth are attempting to work on their issues, and as a result, are utilizing the coping strategies they are familiar with. These coping strategies are expressed in the form of the behaviours mentioned above. Thus, in order to reduce the number of AWOPs, we believe that by helping the youth build more positive coping strategies, we can help the youth engage in more constructive behaviours. This would lead to a reduction in the number of AWOPs as the youth would be able to utilize internal supports, such as their sense of self, sense of humour, or newly developed skill set, to cope with life stressors, instead of negative external ones, such as substance misuse and aggression. Murrayville Our previous analysis indicated that there were 40 AWOP occurrences where the youth was AWOP from the Murrayville program within a 12 month period. Within the last year, however, Murrayville has had only 11 AWOP occurrences. This shows an decrease in the number of AWOPs by 27.5%. This may be due to the discharge of the older youth in the resource who turned 19 in March of 2006. 2. To increase the follow-up contact we have with youth no longer in our care by 25% For the previous period, we were able to conduct only 5 follow up surveys. For this one year period, we have been able to conduct 28 surveys. We have increased our follow up contact by 560%, thereby far exceeding our goal of 25%. Historically, contact with youth who were previously in our care occurred only when the youth contacted the Agency, or at special occasions, such as the Christmas Party, where the staff would contact these youth. Currently however, Alternate Shelter Society conducts follow-up surveys with youth who were previously in our care. This involves contacting the youth at their current home and/or placement, and conducting a structured interview with them regarding their current well-being. Staff attempt to contact youth at one month and three month intervals after they have left our care. This gives the staff an opportunity to reconnect with the youth, as well as provide the youth with support once they have left our programs. The response rate to the follow-up survey for this one year period was 28 participants. This is significant considering the demographic we are trying to contact. Due to the volatile nature of the youth we serve, it is difficult to contact some of them once they have left our care. However, we believe any connection we can make with the youth is positive, and the value of the follow-up survey goes beyond evaluating our services. It reinforces a further support system to those youth who may need it most. Satisfaction Satisfaction surveys are available to youth at both Valley House and Murrayville, as well as to all Alternate Shelter Society Stakeholders. The following action plans are designed from the tabulation of responses to the surveys. Valley House Each area of improvement identified by youth at Valley House focuses around the youth wanting to engage in more useful and enjoyable activities. These activities include household chores, recreational activities and other areas, particularly life skills. One area for improvement in our service delivery could thus focus on providing the youth with more chores and activities relevant to their individualized needs. While we try to provide youth with a variety of skills, some may feel that they are not receiving enough attention on the particular skills they want to develop. We also recommend focusing on the Program Service Plan in greater detail for each youth, outlining what kinds of chores and activities they wish to engage in while at Valley house. This will also provide the youth with greater input into their service delivery, thus meeting another area that needs attention: the amount of say the youth has when decisions are made regarding their care (e.g. program service plan). As a final note, we continue with our ongoing efforts at engage youth in our programs/activities. Often youth do not want to engage in Valley House's activities due to their street entrenchment, substance misuse, and so forth. Murrayville Areas for improvement for Murrayville centre on the ongoing creation of a safe and secure living environment where the youth feels that his/her needs are met at an appropriate level. This can be accomplished through addressing how the youth does not feel safe, whether this is an emotional or a physical safety she is concerned about. Once this area has been identified, staff can continue to attempt to create an environment where the youth feels safer. The youth needs should be discussed on a regular basis including within the youth's service delivery plan and directly with the youth to ensure that he/she feels their needs are being met. This should continue to occur throughout the youth's stay. These youth will probably never really feel safe due to previous abuse issues. He/she often feels the need to reject caregivers, thus creating unsafe feelings. Therefore, we will modify the satisfaction survey to include a question on what makes the youth feel unsafe. Stakeholders Overall, we received a very positive response from the stakeholders regarding our services. The areas they indicated that require attention however, focus on changing or providing more services and creating more resources (e.g. life skills and semi-independent living programs). The main area that the stakeholders would like to see change is in one-to-one care. However, over the past year, the Agency has experienced a great deal of changes due to staff turnover and continued accreditation implementation, and as a result this has taken away somewhat from direct client contact. As staff are becoming more familiar with the changes, Alternate Shelter Society is optimistic that the time of one-to-one contact between staff and youth will increase as a result. Alternate Shelter Society will therefore strive to provide more one-to-one hours to the youth. This may be difficult due to ongoing changes mentioned above and to funding limitations, but the potential benefit of providing such services is great. This may be obtained through the youth’s key-worker, who can focus on providing the youth with more opportunities to discuss their service delivery and any other areas of concern. For more information, please contact Alternate Shelter Society at: #2 – 2661 E. Hastings Street Vancouver, BC, V5K 1Z5 Phone: 604-879-0244 Fax: 604-879-0247 Email: info@alternateshelter.com Website: www.alternateshelter.com :: Board of Directors Denise Wells - President Renee Greening - Vice President Rhonda Peters - Treasurer Penny McDonald - Secretary Nancy Beal - Member at Large :: Management Team Anna Glait - Managing Director Risë Eaton - Program Director
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