Social care is a complex and rapidly changing landscape. Many people across the US have unmanaged medical conditions, face challenging social and personal barriers, and have fallen through the cracks despite the massive investments that healthcare organizations and government agencies have made in people, technology, and outreach. 

The Cost of Falling Through the Cracks

• + 59% total cost of care
• + 79% inpatient hospital admissions
• + 100% emergency department visits

Source: 2022 Impact Report

People with the most challenging social and healthcare needs usually reach out to the organizations and community groups they trust the most. Being able to request support in a secure, reliable, and efficient way makes sure those individuals can access the services and support they need, no matter which door they open.

The Power of an Assistance Request Form

That’s where Unite Us comes in. We partner with provider, health plan, government, and nonprofit organizations across the nation to launch Assistance Request Forms (ARF) that help individuals get connected to social care. 

How It Works

An Assistance Request Form is a public-facing form that enables people to quickly request the services they need, such as food support, housing, or employment assistance. In the form, they can securely share their own or a family member’s basic contact information in addition to the type of need, a short description of the need,  and their consent for this information to be shared with a secure network of providers who can help. The ARF is available in 35 languages to ensure that people can get connected to the care they need as seamlessly as possible.  

After the ARF is submitted, there are two options for what happens next: 

1. Direct response from community-based organizations (CBOs) – If CBOs on the Unite Us Platform have opted to directly respond to ARFs, then the submission will be sent to a recipient organization’s dashboard. At the receiving organization, the relevant users will be notified of the inbound requests for services, and they can reach out to the person directly to provide support.
2. Support from Unite Us Care Coordination Team – Another option that organizations can take is to loop in the Unite Us Care Coordination team. The Unite Us Care Coordination team serves as social care coordinators by identifying and executing appropriate client referrals, taking the onus off of in-house organization administrators. The Care Coordination team will reach out to the person who submitted the ARF form to gather more information as needed, and send a referral through the Unite Us Platform to a local organization that can help. 

Ultimately, in both scenarios, the person who submitted the ARF is seamlessly and securely connected to the care they need. 

Get Started 

Interested in learning more about how Assistance Request Forms can further your SDoH strategy? Request a demo to get started today. 

Request a demo

The post The Power of Assistance Request Forms in Connecting People to Social Care appeared first on uniteus.com.

With our proven track record of successfully facilitating secure closed-loop referrals and social care payments in New York and other Medicaid waiver states, Unite Us stands ready to support this important initiative.

Key Insights on Social Care Components

Social Care Networks (SCNs): 

SCNs, or contracted entities in each of the State’s nine regions, will be charged with establishing a network of social services and community providers to deliver eligible Medicaid beneficiaries with HRSN screenings and referral services. The State will reimburse selected HRSN services related to housing, food, and transportation.

Managed Care Plans: 

Managed care plans will contract with SCNs to deliver the selected HRSN services through two tiers of benefits. Level 1 services will be available to all Medicaid beneficiaries and will include referrals to existing public programs that are separate from the newly authorized HRSN services; Level 2 services will be provided to targeted beneficiaries who meet certain criteria. Subsequently, MCOs will be required to report data in order to evaluate the utilization and effectiveness of the HRSN services on health outcomes and equity of care.

Hospitals:  

Safety net hospitals located in Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens, and Westchester Counties can apply to participate in a Medicaid Hospital Global Budget Initiative that aims to help safety net hospitals transition to a global budget system. This initiative is designed to empower selected hospitals to prioritize population health and enhance quality of care in order to stabilize their financial situations and advance accountability and health equity.

Together, Driving Impact in New York

Building upon our ongoing collaborations with valued partners and community networks in New York, we are ready to deliver the solutions needed to successfully achieve the goals of the waiver while establishing a sustainable infrastructure for the continuous delivery of social care.

Leveraging Our Experience with State Medicaid Programs

We are proud to have established a reputation as the leading software solution for Medicaid programs addressing HRSNs across the country. Our cross-sector collaboration tools support a no-wrong-door system of social care, produce comprehensive insights to measure social need and community capacity at scale, and enable government leaders to strategically shift investments upstream to community-based partners, maximizing health benefits and better managing government spending. Like many Medicaid leaders, we know that social care coordination will improve outcomes, so we built our tools to collect structured social care data using a longitudinal care record. This allows states to measure real-time network performance and conduct integrated or longitudinal program evaluations over time, which will be critical in New York.

With networks in 44 states and partners leading the way in Medicaid transformation across the country, we’ve learned a lot about how we can support this critical work. Here are just a few examples:

We’re proud to support partners across the country in leveraging our solutions to support Medicaid waiver initiatives and advancing whole-person care. Interested in learning more about Unite Us solutions?

Get in Touch

The post Unite Us Celebrates the Approval of the New York State 1115 Medicaid Waiver: Improving Access to Care and Advancing Health Equity Together appeared first on uniteus.com.

“Hear Her”

Describing her prenatal care experience, Tonjanic, a Houston mom with twins stated, “They didn’t ask me how was I doing? How did I feel? Did I have any concerns? And that was a concern for me.” After experiencing a previous pregnancy loss, Tonjanic was placed on bed rest at 13 weeks and had to quit her job. She reported feeling “trapped” by her circumstances and anxious about her babies’ health. And like so many pregnant people in the United States (US) she felt her voice, her needs, and her priorities were not heard by the providers caring for her during her pregnancy.

In both clinical care and public health policy in the U.S. there remains a lack of recognition of lived experience as expertise. In other words, policies and medical decision making are often made for and about individuals and communities without their input. At the same time, inequities in maternal and infant mortality and birth outcomes have persisted for decades indicating that, simply put, we’re missing the mark. To address maternal and child health inequities, a focus on the importance of social and systemic drivers of maternal and child health inequities, grounded within an ecological framework that prioritizes lived expertise and community voice, is needed.

As more of the healthcare industry shifts focus toward community solutions to improve health outcomes (e.g. cross-sector collaboration and coordinated care) it has become clear that much of this work follows a top-down approach, perpetuating power dynamics that place “experts” above “community.” This dynamic makes it difficult to achieve broad and inclusive partnerships, as power imbalances often preclude trust. In this commentary, we will share strategies and early lessons learned from a unique non-profit-private partnership between March of Dimes’ Collective Impact initiatives and Unite Us’ cross-sector collaboration software, to help answer some of these questions.

March of Dimes Collective Impact Initiatives and Unite Us Partnership

March of Dimes is a national nonprofit leader in maternal and infant health. Their Local Collective Impact Initiatives mobilize cross-sector organizations and community members locally to address the underlying challenges impacting families while deploying strategies to improve rates of preterm birth and maternal mortality. Currently deployed across six communities in the US, this work is ongoing and follows the Tamarack Institute’s Collective Impact (CI) phases.

The March of Dimes partnered with Unite Us, a leading technology company that enables community-based organizations the ability to communicate with each other and local service providers to improve whole-person health and well-being, to provide the technical infrastructure to support care coordination for its Collective Impact Initiatives. In doing so, both organizations discovered they have similar approaches to engaging in community-based work.

Ecological Framework to Drive Systems Change

One of those approaches is employing an ecological framework that recognizes that individuals navigate between multiple, interconnected social, cultural, and economic contexts. These contexts are considered when developing multilevel community based interventions, and the literature consistently favors this approach. Integrating an ecological perspective of the community context, and a commitment to work in partnership with community members, groups, and settings in the local community, helps researchers and public health practitioners implement successful health promotion interventions. As the health care industry looks toward multilevel community-based interventions to drive better health outcomes, we are sharing those strategies that have proven successful for our respective organizations, both within and beyond the current Collective Impact partnership.

Strategies for Successful Community-Based Interventions

First, Listen. Spend time understanding history and context. March of Dimes’ Collective Impact Directors and Unite Us Community Engagement teams are afforded dedicated time to explore historical context and perspectives from community members, leaders, and organizations. Since much of our health is informed by structural and institutional policies, community beliefs, and cultural values, community interventions require local policy research, review of past and current “community health needs assessments,” and most importantly, conversations with community members (those closest to the issue). You cannot build community trust and ownership without clear insight into both the strengths and assets of a community and the historical barriers they face

Make a long term commitment and remain patient. This work takes years, not months. By its very nature, maternal health work is intergenerational and requires an intergenerational commitment to see real and lasting change. Simply “dropping” a program or tool into a community, then walking away, cannot be successful on its own. Communities must be co-owners to carry the work forward.

Center Equity. Begin with a shared vision that represents all engaged partners. It is also critical when engaging in community work to intentionally shift the balance of power, placing community members in leadership positions, co-designing interventions and strategies at every step, and recognizing the need to offer stipends, honorariums, or other support (e.g. child care and transportation) that will enable authentic and accessible community participation.

Create a Culture of Learning. We don’t know what we don’t know. This work is about being open, actively seeking new information, and iteratively adapting. A core value for both March of Dimes and Unite Us is to lean into hard conversations. To do this effectively, March of Dimes Collective Impact Directors receive Results Based Facilitation (RBF) training to help them learn skills around effective meeting facilitation, developing meeting agendas to move teams to action, and navigating through conflict.

Improve equitable access to data and information. Understanding how many people are engaged, enter services or receive a social or health care referral is important information. However, if we are striving to see population level change we need to gain a better understanding of the quality of care and services provided, the outcomes of those services, and visibility into the entire care journey for each individual.

The Merits of Embedding Program Evaluation: Implications for Program Evaluation

Evaluation as a component to any public health intervention is perhaps as important to its success as program planning and design. Traditionally, program evaluation has been seen as an outside and objective activity, with evaluators positioned as experts and final decision-makers. Both March of Dimes and Unite Us use a developmental evaluation approach wherein the evaluator is seen as a part of the project team, incorporated into program design and implementation, and data are collectively gathered and interpreted as the program is iteratively modified. Program teams and community members, in addition to the evaluator, play a role in evaluation goal-setting and recommendations, with an emphasis on learning, innovation, change, and power-sharing. This is in line with the community-engaged approach outlined above, and is part of a paradigm shift in the broader evaluation community; moving from seeing evaluation as an outside, objective, bias-free activity, to understanding that “evaluations cannot be culture free” and traditional definitions of validity and rigor center dominant cultures.

Early Learnings

While we see strong value in community-centered models to address health inequities, we also recognize that implementing community-led systems change is not without its challenges. The strategies outlined in this commentary are meant to remind organizations, health systems, and providers that in order to spur and sustain improved intergenerational health, the work must begin locally. In the context of maternal and child health, this is perhaps even more critical as parenting and the role of “mother” places unique demands on individuals and their health. Their experiences, perspectives, and priorities must be front and center at all stages of program planning, implementation, and evaluation, to ensure those expected to benefit from the program, are co-designers.

Interested in learning more about how to bring Unite Us to your organization?

Get in Touch

The post A Collective Impact Model to Advance Maternal Health Equity appeared first on uniteus.com.

Our Power in Partnership series highlights our national and regional partners and the work they do to build healthier communities.

Tell us more about your organization.

The Rhode Island Office of Veterans Services (RIVETS) acts as the chief advocate in the State of Rhode Island for Veterans and military families. RIVETS works day in and day out to ensure Veterans are receiving the full measure of all benefits for which they are eligible – benefits that they’ve earned and deserve. We offer programs and services at three key locations: the Veteran Resource Center in Warwick, the Veterans Home in Bristol, and the Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Exeter.

What are the greatest needs of the individuals and families you serve?

As with many human service providers, families often come to us during challenging times in their lives. With that said, the greatest demand we see at our Veteran Resource Center is assistance with benefits navigation, followed closely by transportation.

What are the main programs or offerings that your organization provides?

While the Veterans Home and the Cemetery are large operations under our oversight, the Veterans Resource Center and the services we deliver there have really grown over the last few years. We have two VA-accredited Veterans Service Officers on staff providing individual in-person counseling and support to Veterans, active duty, guard, reserve, and military families. Just over the last few years, we saw the number of unique individuals served go from 294 in 2021 to 894 in 2022. From January 1 through September 30, 2023, we’ve assisted 1,593 unique clients.

How has working with Unite Us impacted the work that you do?

The insights the Unite Us system provides, including data tracking and analysis, have allowed us to implement new programs and services that are responsive to the needs of the Veterans and families we serve. The data was telling us that transportation was a huge unmet need. Many injured, ill, and disabled Veterans were identifying access to reliable transportation, including services to get them to and from VA health care appointments, as critical and important to reintegration efforts. In response to this, RIVETS launched our VetPass program to assist eligible Veterans.

“Unite Us has allowed us to serve more and more Veterans and military families due to the power of the network and the data we are able to extract from the system. Data helps to drive our priorities – the services and investments needed to care for Rhode Island’s Veterans and their families. Unite Us is a powerful tool that ensures every Veteran receives the services they’ve earned and deserve.” – Kasim Yarn, Director of Veterans Affairs for the State of Rhode Island

How does collaborating with other community-based organizations play a role in your work?

Our mantra is that we are committed to meeting Veterans and their families where they live, work, learn, age, and play. We continue to expand our network of partners and increase our engagement in the community – we’re at community resource fairs, partnering with the United Way 2-1-1 bus, attending pre-deployment events and transition assistance programs. Collaboration with community-based organizations is essential to our success and the Unite Us Platform has enabled us to do this work much more efficiently and effectively. We could not support our Veterans without the support we receive from our municipal, state, federal and community partners.

What’s next for RIVETS and Unite Us?

We look forward to adding more Veteran-serving organizations to the network and closely partner with Unite Us when onboarding a new organization. We know that speedy, accurate, and secure sharing of information only helps us to get Veterans the assistance they need – and that they deserve for defending our freedoms. We look forward to continued partnership resulting in constantly improving services for our nation’s heroes.

Interested in learning more about how to bring Unite Us to your organization?

Get in Touch

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Across the country, communities are facing significant challenges in meeting the growing needs for behavioral health care services. Healthcare and community-based organizations alike have seen that they cannot tackle this surge in demand alone.

In this webinar, discover the strategic and coordinated efforts that champion a comprehensive and proactive approach to mental wellness—leaving no individual or community behind.

You’ll learn: 

• The pivotal role of community-based organizations in enhancing mental health care delivery
• The importance of building networks that embrace diversity and cultural sensitivity
• Strategies for seamless collaboration between healthcare organizations and local community partners

The post Improving Behavioral Health: A Community Effort Webinar appeared first on uniteus.com.

Our goal? To provide a space where you can cultivate more meaningful connections with the people who care about your cause, gather new ideas and insights for scaling your impact, and help you build a stronger foundation no matter what’s next for you and your organization.

Still not convinced? Here are just some (of the many) reasons why it’s worth your time to join us at One Continuum Community.

1. There’s something for everyone.

With four different panels and 14 different speakers, you’re guaranteed to find a wide range of thought-provoking discussions, actionable best practices, and practical takeaways from your industry peers. Scope out your favorite sessions and build a customized learning track ahead of time to make sure you don’t miss a thing! Interested in what you missed at previous summits? Read about what we learned from the 2022 One Continuum Community Summit.

2. Celebrate your impact.

Each community knows their needs best, and you are the expert of your community’s strengths and capacities. While building relationships and strategies to improve health takes time and intention, sharing those experiences with others can inspire change and spark new ideas. Join the conversation and let us know what’s working for your organization, community, and network.

3. Make surprise connections.

What better way to expand your network (and your skill set) than to attend an event with other organizations who are champions in community outreach and committed to making an impact together?

4. Tap into fresh ideas and new perspectives.

We have some really incredible partners, and we’re excited to hand the virtual microphone over for some of them to celebrate their successes, share their insights, and lead important conversations. Whether it’s learning more about the power of collaboration or how your organization can better prepare for future funding opportunities, our hope is that you’ll leave with plenty of practical takeaways that you can bring back to the office.

5. It’s free!

The One Continuum Community experience is free and open to anyone looking to have a positive impact in their own community. You don’t have to leave your house, wait in line, get on a plane, or do anything at all other than open up your laptop in the comfort of your own home or office.

And make sure you don’t summit alone! Share this opportunity with your network or with anyone interested in learning how organizations are uniting to celebrate and inspire change.

What are you waiting for? Join us at the next One Continuum Community.

To watch replays of the discussions on-demand and learn more, visit our One Continuum page.

Watch Now

The post Five Reasons Why You Should Attend One Continuum Community Summit appeared first on uniteus.com.

Our Power in Partnership series highlights our national and regional partners and the work they do to build healthier communities.

Tell us more about your organization.

San Joaquin County Public Health Services (PHS) is the local health jurisdiction for San Joaquin County. Through various health programs, our goal is to protect, promote, and improve health and the conditions that impact well-being for San Joaquin County residents.

What are the greatest needs of the individuals and families you serve?

Since we started using Unite Us, we have served over 300 constituents and have made over 620 referrals through our program. The greatest needs of the people we serve include benefits navigation, food assistance, housing and shelter, and individual and family support. Through our partnership with Unite Us, we are able to easily find these critical resources for clients and ensure their needs are met. 

What are the main programs or offerings that your organization provides?

In addition to our ongoing health offerings that primarily focus on encouraging healthy lifestyles and disease prevention, one of our newer initiatives is a Community Health Worker (CHW) program designed to address high risk residents’ vaccine and testing hesitancy, improve access to preventive health care services, increase management of underlying health conditions, and improve social determinants that serve as life barriers to care. To kick off this effort, PHS received a large grant from the CDC in 2021 to fund CHWs throughout the county. So far, 35 CHWs across 13 health and community-based organizations have been trained on the core competencies of this work. Another 35 will be trained in the third year of our program, as we continue to build our CHW network.

We have also worked closely with the Unite Us technical assistance team to train program staff. Many of the organizations in this program already utilize and are familiar with Unite Us. In addition, we have onboarded and trained six community and faith-based organizations to the network and continue to use the Unite Us dashboard daily to securely send and receive referrals. 

How has working with Unite Us impacted the work that you do?

Unite Us has become a one-stop shop for PHS and our sub-contracting organizations, as well as many other organizations in San Joaquin County. PHS is one of the first local health jurisdictions in California to become part of the Unite Us network. Because the platform is so user-friendly, our CHWs are able to send and receive referrals connecting clients to services in a timely manner. Thanks to Unite Us’ closed loop referral capability, we are able to track client progress and, ultimately, drive toward better population outcomes. 

“Unite Us provides client-centered care coordination and a quicker and more efficient connection to the services clients need. Their client-centered approach gives a sense of importance to the clients because organizations/agencies are reaching out to them, instead of them reaching or calling the organizations for their needs.” – Maria Argayosa, Community Health Worker at San Joaquin County Public Health Services

The Unite Us staff who we have worked with have been amazing. They are very attentive, responsive, and easy to work with. 

Our program CHWs continue to go above and beyond for their clients, ensuring their needs are being met. The best thing about Unite Us is that it makes it so much easier for our community health workers to do what they do best. 

How does collaborating with other community-based organizations play a role in your work?

Community and faith-based organizations play a huge role in the work PHS does. Over 80 organizations are using Unite Us in San Joaquin County. Each of our partners plays an essential role in connecting our most vulnerable community members to free services and resources via the platform. They are continually helping us reduce social and health disparities and address social determinants of health to improve our community members’ overall well-being. 

What’s next for PHS and Unite Us?

We are excited to continue onboarding the many different PHS programs and services onto Unite Us. As of right now, we have worked to onboard five different departments within PHS but will continue to add more in the near future. This will ultimately help raise awareness of PHS resources and connect residents to services.

Interested in learning more about how to bring Unite Us to your organization?

Get in Touch

The post Power in Partnership: San Joaquin County Public Health Services appeared first on uniteus.com.

Our Power in Partnership series highlights our national and regional partners and the work they do to build healthier communities.

Tell us more about your organization.

The Catherine McAuley Center (CMC) is a nonprofit organization in Cedar Rapids, Iowa serving refugees and immigrants, adult learners, and women healing from trauma. CMC’s mission is to offer hope and opportunity through educational and supportive services that promote stability, skill-building, and connection. While CMC’s programs serve distinct populations, services are united by a common purpose of promoting the well-being and dignity of those in need and empowering individuals to achieve greater stability, self-sufficiency, community inclusion, and improved quality of life for themselves, their families, and the community as a whole.

What are the greatest needs of the individuals and families you serve?

CMC has been serving refugees and immigrants for more than two decades, and now serves more than 700 people from over 50 countries each year, including substantial populations from Central Africa, Latin America, East Asia, and Afghanistan. For newcomers seeking a better life for themselves and their families, some of the greatest obstacles involve unfamiliarity with complex U.S. systems; transportation constraints; difficulty finding housing, child care, and employment; and the ongoing complexities of cultural differences and learning to navigate a new community. Compounding all of this is the language barrier that makes it even more challenging to adjust to life in the United States and connect to community resources. Despite these obstacles, refugees and immigrants are resilient and resourceful, and the Catherine McAuley Center’s doors are always open to welcome newcomers and walk alongside them on their journey to a brighter future. 

What are the main programs or offerings that your organization provides?

For over 30 years, the Catherine McAuley Center has been a place of welcome where our neighbors find the safety and support to learn and grow. Consisting of several programs, CMC offers three core service areas: Education Services; Refugee & Immigrant Services; and Women’s Services. 

Through its Education Services and Refugee & Immigrant Services programming, CMC provides a wide range of services for refugees and immigrants, including refugee resettlement, English tutoring and group classes, employment and career readiness, child care business training, U.S. citizenship and civics classes, and cultural orientation. CMC also assists newcomers in navigating complex community resources such as housing, health care, transportation, public benefits, and financial services, ensuring that families can access the critical resources they need to make progress towards economic self-sufficiency.

Women’s Services provides transitional and supportive housing, aftercare, and a day center, all uniquely tailored to the needs of women experiencing homelessness, recovering from substance abuse, and healing from trauma. The goal of the program is to help women access safe housing, therapeutic services, basic needs, and to build the skills to maintain long-term mental health, housing, and financial stability. 

Initially founded in 1989 to provide education to women pursuing their general education diploma, CMC quickly incorporated transitional housing for women and later added on-site mental health and substance abuse services. A few years later, CMC expanded its education program to include English classes, English as a Second Language tutoring, and U.S. citizenship exam preparation. As the demand for services grew, CMC launched additional programs for immigrants and refugees in 2017, becoming an affiliate resettlement site of the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI). By 2018, CMC was serving more than 600 clients in a building that had far exceeded its capacity, leading to the launch of A Place of Welcome: The Campaign to Expand the Catherine McAuley Center. 

Since moving into CMC’s current facility in 2020, offering four times the amount of space, CMC has introduced many new programs including the addition of online classes, an afterschool program for refugee and immigrant youth, onsite child care for clients accessing services, prenatal health classes, a supportive housing program and day center for women, and so much more.

How has working with Unite Us impacted the work that you do?

Unite Us provides an invaluable platform to securely receive and respond to referrals. It has greatly strengthened the way that community agencies and providers serve refugee and immigrant communities and non-native English speakers. With Unite Us, providers can utilize the Catherine McAuley Center as the go-to intermediary, facilitating communication and understanding between refugee and immigrant clients and other service providers. 

As the only agency providing resettlement services in Eastern Iowa and the largest provider of services specifically oriented to the needs of refugees and immigrants in Linn County, providers often refer their clients to our services through the Unite Us Platform because our staff is multilingual and some share similar stories as those we serve. Providers know language barriers often hinder a client’s ability to access or understand how to access those services directly. With our staff team speaking more than 20 languages, many who also arrived in the U.S. as refugees or immigrants, CMC has translators, interpreters, and case managers readily available with the cultural understanding to effectively communicate with clients, understand their needs, and guide them through the steps to access the appropriate services, both at CMC and in the wider community. As a result, CMC has been bridging the gap between these individuals and the services they need.

Through this streamlined process, case managers and resource navigators can act swiftly to connect with clients. Depending on their unique situations, they can enroll in CMC’s long-term supportive programs, healthcare navigation, employment services, English classes, or other appropriate services within the organization; and CMC can help them get connected to additional services in the community, ensuring that interpreters and transportation will be available. 

The Unite Us Platform has been instrumental in enhancing collaboration between CMC’s case managers and the community’s extensive network.

How does collaborating with other community-based organizations play a role in your work?

Nearly every aspect of the Catherine McAuley Center’s mission relies on strong collaboration with other community organizations and partners. To develop and improve programming, coordinate services, and identify and develop solutions for larger systemic issues faced by refugees, immigrants, and those living in poverty, CMC actively partners with a large network of partners, including other nonprofits and government agencies, community groups, employers, healthcare and mental health providers, social services agencies, public transportation providers, housing agencies, education programs, and many others.

CMC coordinates the Refugee Alliance of Linn County, which provides a forum for immigrants, refugees, service providers, health and human services agencies, and city government to meet regularly and collaborate to build a more welcoming, supportive community for refugees and immigrants. Additionally, CMC coordinates the monthly Immigrant Concerns Group that connects refugees and immigrants to a variety of social services, resources, and programs available throughout the community. 

For needs specific to women experiencing homelessness, CMC participates in the Iowa Council on Homelessness, the Linn County Continuum of Care (CoC), and in several CoC subcommittees—through which homeless service providers communicate, collaborate, and work cooperatively to meet the needs of the local homeless community, fill gaps in resources, and avoid duplication of services. 

What’s next for The Catherine McAuley Center?

The Catherine McAuley Center has experienced rapid growth and an increased demand for services in the last several years due to both global crises and local events. To meet this need, CMC seeks insight from the communities we serve about the challenges they’re facing and the types of solutions or support that would reduce those barriers. Current needs help shape new services, programs, and collaboration with other community providers. 

Of the many new and upcoming initiatives we are excited about, CMC’s Education Services program has started to implement its Community Orientation & Engagement classes—a series of nine classes and community-based learning opportunities to deepen refugees’ and immigrants’ understanding of and connection to community and public services. Recognizing that newcomers often feel overwhelmed during their initial resettlement period, the program expands on CMC’s existing cultural orientation provided to refugees within their first 90 days of arrival.

Through interactive group learning sessions and off-site visits to community agencies—such as public safety departments, city offices, educational agencies, employment readiness programs, healthcare providers, and financial institutions—the goal is to foster stronger relationships between service providers and refugee and immigrant communities, promoting cross-cultural dialogue, building trust, increasing the utilization of essential services, and encouraging civic participation. 

Classes include Cultural Adjustment, Employment, Transportation, Parenting & Family, Education, Housing, Health & Hygiene, and U.S. Laws & Immigration. Developed based on client and partner feedback and extensive experience with refugee populations, this initiative hopes to empower newcomers to use their voices and experiences to shape decision-making processes and become actively engaged members of the Greater Cedar Rapids community.

What are some exciting achievements you’re proud of?

Since utilizing Unite Us to receive referrals, case managers can easily connect with clients to learn about their needs and develop a service plan outlining the supports they need to receive at the Center, and the resources to get connected to in the wider community. This typically involves a combination of services, though CMC’s English classes are consistently the most requested. We have enrolled many English language learners in our one-on-one tutoring and small group classes after receiving referrals through Unite Us. 

After increasing class offerings and adding more drop-in group English classes, CMC recently reached a historical milestone. More than 500 adult learners are currently enrolled in classes—the highest number of active students in CMC’s history! 

CMC is grateful for the support of our community, partners, volunteers, and staff who are always stepping up to ensure that our programs are easily accessible to the communities we serve.

Interested in learning more about how to bring Unite Us to your organization?

Get in Touch

The post Power in Partnership: Catherine McAuley Center appeared first on uniteus.com.

More than 600,000 people come home from prison every year. With a job and support, they have a chance to succeed. This is the mission of the Center for Employment Opportunities (CEO), a national partner of Unite Us. CEO provides immediate, effective, and comprehensive employment services to individuals who have recently returned home from incarceration.

Unite Us shares CEO’s vision that everyone, regardless of whether they have had involvement with the justice system, should have the preparation and support needed to find a job and stay connected to the labor force. We believe that all individuals deserve the chance to shape a stronger future for themselves, their family, and their communities.

The Unite Us partnership has greatly strengthened how CEO’s program has been able to assist their participants, including by successfully integrating our software with their Salesforce instance. This integration has enabled CEO to work more efficiently and connect program participants across the country to community partners seamlessly. These direct connections to community-based organizations, agencies, and programs have helped CEO better support participants in navigating the barriers they face during their reentry process.

For this series, we asked the CEO team about our work together and their vision of how cross-sector collaboration creates lasting change for justice-involved individuals.

As we reflect on a decade bringing sectors together through technology to ensure people’s needs are met, what do you think has changed the most for your organization since the start of our partnership?

Since the beginning of our partnership, CEO has continually appreciated how technology can help us more comprehensively support people returning home from incarceration. It is critical we provide returning citizens with digital skills training, facilitate housing support, make referrals to mental health professionals, and foster connections to other local supportive services. Our partnership with Unite Us has strengthened our ability to meet these needs at scale—which is no small feat given that CEO operates in 31 local communities.

How does CEO think about or approach collaboration with other sectors? What are the benefits to your participants?

Because CEO focuses on the intersection of economic mobility and criminal legal system reform, our work would not be possible without strong partnerships. First and foremost, we rely heavily on collaboration with community-based partners in all CEO locations, especially organizations led by BIPOC individuals and individuals impacted by the criminal legal system. This ensures our model complements and strengthens the network of support that has long helped people return home successfully to their local communities. We also work with local and national employers who value hiring people with convictions and investing in them as high-impact talent. And finally, we rely on government agencies. This includes probation and parole, who can identify people who might benefit from CEO’s services, as well as state departments of transportation, housing authorities, and other government stakeholders who collaborate with CEO to provide participants with transitional jobs. Partners like Unite Us allow us to focus on our strengths and work more efficiently to support CEO participants and advance our overall mission.

Are there any upcoming programs or initiatives related to drivers of health and community health at CEO that you are excited about?

Food security is absolutely essential to individual and community health. This is why we’re supporting the introduction of bipartisan federal legislation that ensures no one has to choose between job training and putting food on the table. Under current law, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients risk losing their food security because of temporary wages they earn in job training or work-based learning programs. The newly introduced Training and Nutrition Stability Act (TNSA), H.R. 3087, aims to remedy this “catch-22.”  The bill would allow them to maintain their nutrition supports—leading to better training opportunities, permanent employment, and food security. CEO led the development of this 2023 legislation, which has the support of over 100 organizations. CEO has been proud to work alongside Reps. Adriano Espaillat (D-NY), Max Miller (R-OH), Alma Adams (D-NC), and Marcus Molinaro (R-NY) to make this change to the Farm Bill so that thousands of justice-impacted individuals get the support they need during their reentry journey. 

Looking another 10 years into the future, what is your biggest hope for cross-sector collaboration to improve community health?

Of the many risks revealed by the COVID crisis, we are hopeful that there is greater attention paid to the impact of financial well-being on community health. We know that returning home from incarceration presents a financial struggle to hundreds of thousands of people across the country. Typically, people are released from incarceration with almost nonexistent support: anywhere from $0 to a few hundred dollars in “gate money.” Most returning citizens are ineligible for many safety-net programs or face disparate barriers to accessing them. During COVID, these challenges were compounded by employer layoffs and strained social safety nets. 

CEO worked to meet the increased immediate needs for people returning home by setting up something new—an ambitious cash transfer program that ultimately distributed more than $24 million to over 10,000 people. Recipients received amounts ranging from $1,000 to $2,750 in their first few months post-release, which provided a substantially enhanced safety net to support their reentry. CEO envisions a future where this kind of cash assistance is a permanent feature of people’s reentry, and we are advocating for legislation toward that goal. We feel strongly that giving people the right resources promotes autonomy, economic resilience, and healthier communities.

What thoughts would you share with Unite Us leadership as they look out on the next 10 years?

As technology continues to advance and create economic growth, it’s important that disadvantaged community members are not excluded from these gains. Low-skilled workers often are less likely to prioritize building new skills and learning new technologies as they juggle other priorities with limited support– this is especially important given the rapid evolution of generative AI. It has been essential for CEO’s program to emphasize digital skills that help CEO participants catch up on the rapid technological changes that occurred during their incarceration. Even someone who serves a short sentence will come home to significant shifts in technology. And for those who serve longer sentences, these adjustments to technology can be even more jarring. We believe this is a signal and call to action to revitalize how we connect justice-impacted workers to the jobs of the future. We will also need to listen to directly impacted people about economic barriers they face due to automation, artificial intelligence, and other technological disruptions. We look forward to partnering with Unite Us in this mission over the next decade.

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