It has never been more imperative to create workspaces that promote human connection, self-awareness, and emotional intelligence. This session will  present  techniques to help you  perform efficiently while navigating the challenges associated with being effective in the workplace. It will also present  proven coaching techniques on how to make quality a priority, how to instill confidence, and how to make our work meaningful to those we serve.

Objectives:

• Identify stressors that diminish workplace performance and work through them by utilizing effective stress reduction techniques.
• Understand the importance of the services we provide to members of our communities, and how their lives are affected through our work.
• Use self-awareness and self-care practices to maintain work-life balance, and in so doing ensure the ability to meet performance expectations in the workplace.
• Use emotional intelligence to engage with others in the workplace and provide effective coaching to those under our supervision.

As lawmakers debate renewed federal legislation and Governor’s say  “call 211” in press conferences, 211s need tools to claim the resources intended for our jurisdictions. Who has time for advocacy when we are busy taking calls and managing our programs but renewed interest in 211 among elected officials is requiring us to step into the public policy spotlight? This workshop will explore how to legislate support for 211 in all levels of government.

Objectives:

• The difference between lobbying and educating.
• How to develop relationships with elected officials.
• How your bill can become a law (and other Schoolhouse Rock lessons).

Collaboration and innovation have been central to strategies employed by Aging Network I&R Leaders to meet the growing challenge of loneliness and social isolation as the COVID-19 pandemic persists. This workshop highlights why social engagement is so important to the mental and physical health of older adults and people with disabilities; how I&R programs can incorporate social isolation into their work on social determinants of health; and reviews collaborative and innovative best practices from the Federal, State and local perspectives. Join us to hear from your colleagues about what has worked and share your social engagement successes.

Objectives:

• Learn why social engagement is so important to the mental and physical health of older adults, people with disabilities and their caregivers and how I&R programs can incorporate social isolation into their work on social determinants of health
• Reflect on how I&R programs can foster connections in their communities as the hub of collaborative efforts around social engagement
• Envision how social engagement best practices could be replicated in your own organization
• Review Federal, State and local resources for increasing social engagement and supporting the work your organization is already doing
• Share your social engagement successes

Eighty seven percent of new employees are not fully committed to a new job for at least the first six months. Employees report that ineffective training, unclear guidelines about job responsibilities, lack of interaction or attention from co-workers and management are primary reasons for leaving an agency.

It is important to realize that the Onboarding process is ongoing and does not just conclude at the end of the first week. Some reports state that Onboarding may take months on average.

The difficulties and challenges may be compounded in a remote environment.

This was the case for our firm, Community Legal Services of Mid-Florida.

When new hires came aboard throughout the course of the pandemic we confronted this task of Remote Onboarding head on. Our goal was to create expectations but not compromise new hire experience while working remotely.

Most notably, we created and revitalized our Onboarding program by integrating new technologies and procedures to ensure that our attorneys, staff, and interns were trained properly. Through an eleven month process, we learned how to engage new hires differently and increased satisfaction overall.

Objectives:

• How to foster effective interaction with and between staff remotely
• Establish clear guidelines and expectations for job expectations remotely
• Reinforce training concepts effectively

Are you ready to utilize signature partnerships? Many of us in board leadership, management, or direct services turn to an auto-pilot mindset or we are stuck with the following question: ‘How do I move this program/project/resource forward creatively?’. Current partnerships become cumbersome, dry and obsolete. Come ready to view partnerships interactively from a fresh perspective! Learn how to identify, capture, engage, and sustain the right partnerships in your community and city, empowering and equipping you with sharper tools to yield greater results. Activate a strategic plan to advance your programs and projects and resources. Participants will receive a new vision for their desired outcomes.

Objectives:

• Participants will comprehend how signature partnerships can elevate direct services in your city
• Participants will understand the three cuts of partnerships in building a culture of strategic intersections
• Participants will learn the positive outcomes of a partnership-driven culture
• Participants will learn the artistry of partnership acceleration
• Participants will engage in the framework design of signature partnerships in their own city
• Participants will develop an activation and strategic plan of sustainable state, city and local intersections for change
• Participants will learn how to advance partnership engagement for future change and long-term transformation in our communities

Gold isn’t valuable in its raw state. First, it needs to be processed and manipulated into jewelry. Similarly, data is valueless when collected in isolation. By sharing data, we unlock additional value and accelerate innovation.

Data sharing is vital to promoting the health, education, and financial stability of every member of a community. It is essential because it can enhance decision-making capabilities, build learning organizations and finally, stimulate cultural change and innovation. Cross-sector data sharing enables communities to use individual and community-level information to understand acute community needs and lead to improved services, systems, and practices. Collaborative learning leads to developing innovative policies and interventions; and, ultimately, builds stronger communities.

Increasingly, local and state 211s and United Ways are embracing data sharing as a core function of their modern community impact work as they convene or partner on collective impact initiatives seeking to drive equitable, person-centered impact. Join this session to learn more about resources and collaboratives United Way Worldwide is supporting and how your organization can access them.

Objectives:

• Understand the key roles involved in data sharing collaboratives and where many 211s connect and bolster these initiatives
• Create data sharing plans and policies with equity at the forefront of design
• Know how to use dis-aggregated data, to better understand issues, advance narratives that focus on the systemic causes of current disparities, and to inform solutions
• Be able to access resources and engage colleagues to support local development of data sharing collaboratives

Managing resource data is hard enough – managing resource data that’s being used by multiple organizations for multiple purposes is even more complex! And yet this kind of multilateral resource data management is increasingly important for I&Rs. This panel will take a deeper look into unsolved problems for managing resource data that is used by (or even contributed by) multiple partners – and engage participants in discussing tactical approaches and strategic opportunities to find new kinds of solutions.

Objectives:

• How can we manage multiple vocabularies for categorizing services, in situations where partners use different taxonomies?
• How can we accommodate different inclusion and exclusion criteria as required by different partners, without having to create different databases?
• How can we share updates to records that are also managed by other partners – can we do better than email?
• And more

We talk about I&R as a matched pair, but let’s be honest, our work can spend a lot of time working on the R, specifically in regards to our database of community resources. In this presentation 2 CRS-DC’s will discuss how they have approached incorporating a focus on the I, and how they have included the I into their database to ensure a well rounded connection to information for both staff and public users of the resource database.

Objectives:

• History of the “I” at our 2 agencies (E-Library or HelpSheet)
• How-to’s
  • Process for creating content
  • Process for posting the information (both internally and externally)
  • Process for annual update
• Other examples of increasing the “I”
• Internal reference information
• Contract information
• Data on usage
  • Internal and external

While we are still deep in the turbulent times of the pandemic many employees are enjoying the freedom and benefits of working from home. But when the pandemic ends and we are all clear to come back to the office, many employees will prefer not to. In this presentation I will go over the practices you need to have in place to be able to support (or not support) that decision to go from an employee that works from home to a full time remote worker.

Objectives:

• Be able to identify employees that are well suited for remote work
• Gain knowledge on what to expect (and not expect) of remote workers
• Be prepared to have the vision, tools and techniques to support distributed teams while ensuring high productivity

Go beyond traditional diversity, equity, and inclusion practices to boldly create a lasting impact in your workforce, team, and community. Make connections with others, be inspired, build a playbook of implementable strategies to transform business workplaces and community culture into one of real inclusion. This "Cultural Awareness Tool" is not about asking people to change their values or core beliefs. Instead, the conversation of diversity, equity, and inclusion is about holding space for difficult-but-necessary conversations and being open to ideas, perspectives, and experiences outside of your own.

Objectives:

• Define and explain the benefits of diversity and inclusion in the workplace.
• Recognize one’s own dimensions of diversity and what influences those dimensions.
• Influence others by demonstrating diverse and inclusive behaviors to increase awareness and community impact.
• Recognize other dimensions of diversity and explore how they influence your perception of the world and how the world sees you.
• Appreciate and have empathy for others dimensions of diversity and how this informs relationship building.
• Recognize opportunities for inclusive practices among all areas of opportunity in business and community.

Knoxville's Center for Service Innovation 311/211 premiered a chatbot in March 2020 to provide basic information about the U.S. Census and, soon after, the COVID-19 pandemic. The chatbot also links users to TN211.org if they are seeking community resources like assistance with rent, housing and utilities.

To mark National 211 Day on Feb. 11, the City’s 311 Center for Service Innovation will reveal a Spanish-language option for its online chatbot. When users initiate a chat, they are asked “What is your preferred language? / Cual es tu idioma preferido?” and can choose between English and Espanol to navigate the bot through frequently asked questions about COVID-19 and other social services.

The chatbot is available 24 hours a day, making it accessible when 311/211 representatives are unavailable after office hours or due to an increase in the volume of calls.

Objectives:

• Demonstrate  how collaborations in problem solving across spectrums can address barriers to assistance.
• Learn how an environment of innovation and support from leadership can improve overall services.

Virtual and remote environments have become a new way of performing outreach and education about 211 service during the COVID-19 response. Our COVID-19 dashboard reports improved outreach efforts and led to new opportunities for partnerships such as with county and elected officials, a newly formed Social Determinants of Health project, and funding from OneStar Foundation. Most importantly, outreach influenced social service agencies receiving CARES Act Funding on how to decide funding priority and eligibility for clients affected by COVID-19. Disaster outreach related to COVID-19 increased dramatically with new opportunities due to COVID-19 response.

Objectives:

• Identify ways to continue outreach in virtual environment using remote work technology
• Understand the importance of data dashboard reports using platforms such as PowerBI; 211 Counts as outreach during disasters (COVID-19, 2020 Hurricane response, STEAR for COVID-19 vaccines)
• Utilize new opportunities for outreach during COVID-19 such as Virtual Health or Community Fairs, drive thru events and online training for 211texas.org
• Turning new resources for COVID-19 into outreach opportunities