Archives for August 2014

We recently went to the 2014 Georgetown Institutes in Maryland. Every time we go to a conference, we get the opportunity to bring a youth who is involved with FAST TRAC. This year we brought Trent, who is in the Clermont TIP program. He has prepared a small article on what he did and learned while at the conference….

If I had to say one thing about the 2014 Training Institutes it would be that it is awesome and educational. I went to Washington, D.C. to attend the 2014 institutes. With that said I would like to share some of the things that happened. When I went to the workshops and institutes I learned a lot there about different things like, different youth services, how to make youth services better, and trusting and rebuilding relationships.  I even got to learn a little bit of kick boxing, which was my favorite part. I got to meet two guys named Kevin.  They shared some of their stories, which were very inspirational to me. On the other hand, we got to stay in the nicest looking hotel I have ever stayed in. I did a lot of fun things with the people I was with. For example, I went to the space museum with Danny from the TIP program, saw the Washington Monument, saw the Capitol Building, ate at the best tasting restaurants, and rode the water taxi. Overall I had the best experience at Washington, D.C.

I have two children with special needs. Christopher, age 20, who is now a graduate of Amelia High School and working full time with Smyth Automotive. I supported him in getting his driver’s license, as well as, securing job opportunities and independent living arrangements. He now lives on his own in a one bedroom apartment. William, age 11, just finished elementary at Holly Hill Elementary School and started middle school in August. I worked through the system to ensure he was able to secure special financing to have specialized day care in my home.

I have been involved in my children’s education and advocating for them so they can be successful in life beyond school. I feel the success of Christopher’s growth to independence.

A bit about me: I am married and live in Amelia with my husband, son and three dogs! I earned my Bachelor’s of Science in accounting from University of Cincinnati, and a Masters of Business from Xavier University. I have been employed for 16 years as tax accountant for Roto Rooter Services.

I have attended numerous trainings/seminars through FAST TRAC, as well as, others offered throughout the region.  I became a Board member of Families Connected in 2013. I had been asked to attend a System of Care conference in the past but was unable to do so. This year I was honored to attend the System of Care Conference (SOC) in Washington in July, 2014.  It was a wonderful experience. There were several good workshops and the information was easy to apply as a parent, as well as, an advocate to help children with mental health and behavioral challenges.

Thank you for the opportunity.

Patty Wilson, Parent/Advocate for children

Over the past five years the UC Evaluation Team’s efforts have evolved from determining which outcomes are important and how to capture necessary data, to assuring that the data that are collected from programs are accurate and meaningful, to refining our data collection methods and the ways in which we analyze data and share the results with stakeholders, to developing a plan for how FAST TRAC can use this data in order to sustain services. To this end, our Team spent the spring and summer months examining data, tools, and resources from the perspective of sustainability Considerable effort has been directed towards obtaining data related to service costs that we anticipate will help explain the financial benefits of FAST TRAC services to key decision-makers. Recently, our team engaged in a technical assistance process with the University of Washington related specifically to sustaining Wraparound services. By the end of summer we hope to have a solid plan about how best to achieve sustainability for all FAST TRAC programs as we approach the final year of the grant.

In April, much of our efforts went into preparing for the May 8^th Evaluation Workgroup meeting in which we presented findings from our evaluation of the Transition to Independence Process (TIP) program. Results indicated TIP participants improvement in physical wellbeing, mental health symptom management, and securing independent housing after receiving services. Last fall FAST TRAC purchased a new data system that will be helpful for future data processing, analysis, and report-writing. The UC Evaluation Team has been learning this new system in our effort to assist FAST TRAC to identify efficient and effective ways to use the system for ongoing program evaluation. By June, we began working with the School-based Mental Health Services program and provided them with technical assistance for developing strategies about how best to analyze and present their data for the August Evaluation workgroup meeting. All of this has been in addition to creating our usual Evaluation Briefs, meeting and presenting information to FAST TRAC stakeholders, and presenting our work at national conferences and workshops including the Georgetown Institutes in Washington, D.C. (Jonathan Sutter) and the Childhood Mental Health Initiative’s national “Evaluation Talk” webinar (Rachel Smith).

Another MAJOR success worth mentioning is that the national longitudinal study reached its goal over the summer of recruiting 220 families. These data will continue to be critical in our evaluation of FAST TRAC services and, equally as important, published findings based on these data will serve to advance the science of children’s mental health prevention.

As always, FAST TRAC Evaluation Briefs describing FAST TRAC evaluation results are available for download at http://clermontfasttrac.org/category/evaluation.

From your UC Evaluation Team… have a wonderful Fall season!