Technology developed by the UW School of Social Work-affiliated Partners for Our Children to improve service delivery in child welfare, foster care and homeless youth systems will soon be expanded to other states through $5 million in new funding. The grant will allow a social service management solution called Oliver to be expanded to five communities in Washington, Oregon and California.
The funds include a $2.4 million grant from the Social Innovation Fund, a program of the federal Corporation for National and Community Service, plus $2.6 million in matching funds from the UW, with $2.4 million of that from Connie and Steve Ballmer, who provided funding to create Partners for Our Children in 2006.
“This was a very competitive process,” said Benjamin de Haan, executive director of Partners for Our Children. “We were extremely pleased to be selected.”
The Social Innovation Fund grant was awarded to Third Sector, a San Francisco-based nonprofit that works to channel government resources toward evidence-based initiatives in areas such as child welfare, homelessness and poverty. The organization is collaborating with Partners for Our Children to establish five “performance hubs” at research universities that will work with local government and providers to use Oliver to improve data collection and service delivery.
The universities will provide technical assistance, analyze data and evaluate the effectiveness of the technology platform in helping to meet clients’ needs. Partners for Our Children and Third Sector will put out a call for proposals for grantees in early 2017. “This project will help communities create essential ecosystems to provide for effective and efficient service delivery to vulnerable groups that need consistent, high-quality attention,” said Caroline Whistler, president of Third Sector.