WA211 CRS-DC Certification Preparation Package

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This package is designed to help anyone preparing to take the CRS-DC Certification test by reviewing the portions of the training manual and standards that the certification test is based on. Completion of this package does not guarantee a passing score on the test nor does it qualify as a replacement to taking the test and grant the user certification. This package is for study purposes only.

 

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  • Contains 10 Component(s), Includes Credits

    This course is best for beginners who are fulfilling a Database Curator role and want to learn more about the challenges of deciding what human service organizations and programs should be included in a resource database and which should be excluded, taking into account the practical reality of balancing the community needs of the resource database with the means available to effectively maintain it.

    Who’s in? And who’s out? These are the questions regularly asked of Database Curators who are responsible for the maintenance of human services databases in accordance with the Inform USA Standards for Professional Information and Referral. This course provides insight into how to make those decisions. It also provides important background information for Information & Referral (I&R) managers and for everyone within the I&R field who needs a better understanding and appreciation of the composition of resource databases. The course covers the challenges of deciding what human service organizations and programs should be included in a resource database and which should be excluded, taking into account the practical reality of balancing the community needs of the resource database with the means available to effectively maintain it.

  • Contains 17 Component(s), Includes Credits

    This course is best for beginners who are fulfilling a Database Curator role and who want to understand the structure of the Taxonomy, the different types of Taxonomy terms, and the principles of quality indexing.

    Although they sometimes have different titles in different agencies, within Information and Referral (I&R) organizations, there are two main categories of staff: (1) Community Resource Specialists who work directly with clients, and (2) Database Curators who provide the information needed by the Community Resource Specialists and other community partners. Both use the 211 LA County Taxonomy of Human Services. Database Curators use it to index database records, while Community Resource Specialists use it to retrieve database records to find accurate client referrals. The Taxonomy consists of over 11,000 fully-defined terms covering all aspects of human services. This course outlines the structure of the Taxonomy, the different types of Taxonomy terms, and the principles of quality indexing that facilitate information retrieval.

  • Contains 10 Component(s), Includes Credits

    This course is best for beginners in the role of Database Curator who will be responsible for the maintenance of resource databases.

    Database Curators in Information and Referral (I&R) programs create and maintain community databases that detail the information that helps bring people and services together. 

    This interactive course is for new staff at Information & Referral (I&R) organizations who will be responsible for the maintenance of resource databases. The course provides an overview of the activities of a Database Curator and an insight into some of the challenges of their position. Although they sometimes have different titles in different agencies, there are two main categories of staff within I&R organizations: Community Resources Specialists who work directly with clients, and Database Curators who provide the information needed by the Community Resources Specialists and other community partners. 

    Course Objectives

    When you have successfully completed this course, you will be able to:

    • Identify the functions and purposes of an I&R resource database.
    • Demonstrate how the Inform USA Standards outline the processes and methods for ensuring database quality.
    • Describe the primary activities and skills of an I&R Database Curator.

  • Contains 12 Component(s), Includes Credits

    This course is best for the beginner in the role of Database Curator and who wants to understand the structure of I&R database records and the data elements within that structure.

    Being able to convey information that is clear, concise, consistent, and relevant is one of the most critical skills required by Database Curators who are responsible for the maintenance of human services databases in accordance with the Inform USA Standards and Quality Indicators for Professional Information and Referral (I&R). This interactive course covers the structure of I&R database records and the data elements within that structure. It outlines the style considerations for many of those elements, while focusing on 2 of the most important yet challenging tasks confronted by a Database Curator: naming organizations and writing good service descriptions.

  • Contains 9 Component(s), Includes Credits

    This course is best for beginners who are fulfilling the role of Database Curators who want to better understand the resource database maintenance process, including ways of handling agencies that are not responsive to requests for information.

    An Information and Referral (I&R) resource database must be accurate and responsive to the creation of new programs and the closure of existing ones. Database maintenance is a standards-driven requirement for I&R services. This course describes the resource database maintenance process, including ways of handling agencies that are not responsive to requests for information. It outlines activities that help I&R services keep up-to-date on changes in the various sectors of health and human services, and stresses the importance of database security.

  • Contains 4 Component(s), Includes Credits

    This course will help you understand the Ethical Principles of a Community Resource Specialist and the values that Community Resource Specialists should display in information and referral (I&R).

    This course will help you understand the Ethical Principles of a Community Resource Specialist and the values that Community Resource Specialists should display in information and referral (I&R).

    The objectives of this course are:

    • Discuss what the Inform USA Standards say about how Comunity Resource Specialists perform their work.
    • Review the Ethical Principles for Community Resource Specialists
    • Review the values needed by Community Resource Specialists
    • Discuss why establishing professional boundaries is important in information and referral

    NOTE: This course was recently revised, and the portions about self-care and wellness were moved to a separate course.

  • Contains 2 Component(s), Includes Credits

    In April of 2021, ​the Administration for Community Living (ACL) announced Phase 1 winners of the Social Care Referrals Challenge competition. Launched in March of 2020, the challenge will awarded prizes for developing and optimizing interoperable and scalable technology solutions that foster connections between community-based organizations and health care systems in support of holistic health and social care for older adults and people with disabilities. Among the awardees were Inform USA members United Way of Salt Lake, United Way of Southeastern Michigan and the VIA (Visually Impaired Advancement) of Western New York. We are thrilled to have representatives from these organizations serve as panelists in a conversation about the necessary technology solutions they are incorporating to make true community work around the social determinants of health a reality.

    In April of 2021, the Administration for Community Living (ACL) announced Phase 1 winners of the Social Care Referrals Challenge competition. Launched in March of 2020, the challenge will awarded prizes for developing and optimizing interoperable and scalable technology solutions that foster connections between community-based organizations and health care systems in support of holistic health and social care for older adults and people with disabilities.

    Among the awardees were Inform USA members United Way of Salt Lake, United Way of Southeastern Michigan and the VIA (Visually Impaired Advancement) of Western New York. We are thrilled to have representatives from these organizations serve as panelists in a conversation about the necessary technology solutions they are incorporating to make true community work around the social determinants of health a reality. 

    Kelly Dodd

    Director of Contact Center Services

    VIA Visually Impaired Advancement

    Kelly Dodd is the Director of Contact Center Services at VIA Visually Impaired Advancement, provider of 211 WNY. Kelly has been with 2-1-1WNY since it was launched in western New York in 2007 and holds an AIRS certification as a Resource Specialist – Data Curator.

    Prior work experiences include Fair Housing Inspector, Cast Member at Big Thunder Mountain Railroad in the Magic Kingdom, proofreading the phonebook, and working at a roadside farm stand selling sweet corn. She graduated from Onondaga Community College with an associate’s degree in Humanities, and University at Buffalo with a bachelor’s degree in Linguistics.

    Kelly is active in the WNY community serving on the boards of the WNY Coalition for the Homeless, New York State Alliance of Information & Referral Systems Inc., Erie County Disaster Preparedness Advisory Board, and volunteering as a free tax preparer.

    Lily Doher, MNSP, RD

    Manager, CIE Network Engagement

    United Way for Southeastern Michigan

    Lily Doher is the manager of CIE network engagement at United Way for Southeastern Michigan.  Prior to coming to United Way, Lily was a Registered Dietitian in the outpatient and acute care settings. She has spent the past five years at United Way managing nutrition and health-related initiatives. Lily holds a bachelor’s in dietetics from Michigan State University and a master’s in nutrition policy from Tufts.  While working as a Registered Dietitian, Lily saw first-hand the impacts social determinants of health have on a person's well-being and the difficulty community members have in navigating access to services. She is excited to participate in a project that will enable better access to the care and supports communities need to improve their health.  Lily enjoys cycling and backcountry camping.

    Caitlin Schneider

    Senior Network Director

    United Way of Salt Lake

    Caitlin Schneider is a Senior Network Director at United Way of Salt Lake in Salt Lake City, Utah. She is responsible for providing backbone support, facilitation, and maintaining progress to achieve results for the Governor’s One Utah Roadmap priority area of the Social Determinants of Health and the Promise Partnership Health and Prenatal-5 networks at United Way. She has a Master of Public Health degree from the University of Nebraska Medical Center and previously worked at a local health department for four years prior to joining United Way. As a Utah transplant, she enjoys hiking and skiing, but stays also stays busy keeping up with her 16-month-old little girl!

     

    Gloria Castaneda

    Coordination Center Manager

    United Way of Salt Lake

    Gloria Castaneda is currently a coordination center manager at Utah 211. In this role, she assists in managing the navigation of patients/client to services across the community. During her 10 years with the Utah 211 program, she has worked in other capacities and feels fortunate to align her work and passion to ensure underprivileged communities have access to basic needs and safety. Gloria holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Westminster College, and a Master’s in International Affairs and Global Enterprise with emphasis in NGO’s. Her drive for community engagement and learning has led her to be part of the Utah Pride Center’s Board of Directors. When there is no pandemics in sight, she enjoys swimming, horses, and friend gatherings.

  • Contains 3 Component(s), Includes Credits

    Your information about community services is valuable. Shared with others, it is exponentially more so. Indeed, now we expect data will flow frictionlessly between an ever-expanding network of agencies and organizations. This workshop will be an intensive primer on all methods of data exchange, key standards to understand, how to talk to partners about their data exchange needs, and how not to be taken for a ride.

    Your information about community services is valuable. Shared with others, it is exponentially more so. Indeed, now we expect data will flow frictionlessly between an ever-expanding network of agencies and organizations. This workshop will be an intensive primer on all methods of data exchange, key standards to understand, how to talk to partners about their data exchange needs, and how not to be taken for a ride.

    Objectives:

    • Understand when imports, exports, APIs, and other forms of connectivity are appropriate to different use cases and expectations.
    • Be able to describe 5 key data standards and how they are used, and why each can be good or bad for your organization.
    • Learn the 7 key questions to ask as you begin a data exchange discussion so you can scope, price, and deliver results--instead of living with never ending headaches.
    • Learn about the costs that go into data exchange, and how to price the value of your information, as part of expanding exchanges of which you are a part.
    • Take away a number of documents and a slide deck to use this to inform their own work, and to share with colleagues not at the conference.

    Dr. W. Douglas Zimmerman

    VisionLink, Boulder, Colorado


    Dr. W. Douglas Zimmerman is the President and CEO of Visionlink, one of the leading providers of community services, disaster relief, and data exchange solutions. His staff deploy systems that move 100's of millions of pieces of data every week, between different systems, using different standards, different technology, and different security standards. Zimmerman is most passionate about building systems of systems, and when done well, helping leaders and stakeholders create interoperable networks of data flows that reduce workloads, and leverage better outcomes. Zimmerman hails from Colorado, loves the mountains and skiing, and is happy his two kids are finally out of college!

  • Contains 2 Component(s), Includes Credits

    You may have the raw data to answer questions but unsure how to display that data for your leadership or partners. In this session, we will review some basic principles of data analysis as well as some of the popular analysis tools available including Excel or Sheets, Power BI, and Tableau. Increase your skills and comfort in talking about data of all kinds!

    Laura "LJ" James

    Director or Resource Strategy and Technology Integration

    United Way of North Carolina, Cary, North Carolina

    Laura James is the Director or Resource Strategy and Technology Integration for United Way of North Carolina. She has previously been the Resource Director for 211LA and holds both the Certified Community Resource Specialist and Database Curator certifications. She holds an MBA and Masters or Human Resources from Keller Graduate School of Management. She is a self-proclaimed resource nerd and after time spent as in the payments industry as well as corporate training, she has found her niche in the resource world, particularly in helping other people learn about tools and topics around all things resource.

  • Contains 2 Component(s), Includes Credits

    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 multi-lateral resource data management is increasingly important for I&Rs. This panel will take a deeper look into unsolved problems of managing resource data used by (or even maintained by) multiple partners and engage participants in discussing tactical approaches and strategic opportunities to find new solutions.

    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 multi-lateral resource data management is increasingly important for I&Rs. This panel will take a deeper look into unsolved problems of managing resource data used by (or even maintained by) multiple partners and engage participants in discussing tactical approaches and strategic opportunities to find new solutions.

    Key Takeaways:

    • How can we best 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 creating different databases?
    • How can we share updates to records managed by other partners – can we do better than email?
    • To what extent should these challenges be addressed by policies and practices, and to what extent do we want or need technology functionality to support such collaboration?

    Greg Bloom

    Founder

    Open Referral, Miami Beach, Florida


    Greg Bloom is the founder of the Open Referral Initiative, a community of practice that fosters open access to information about the health, human, and social services available to people in need. He is a visiting scholar at Indiana University’s Ostrom Workshop on the Commons. He also sits on the Technology Advisory Committee for the Gravity Project, which is facilitating the development of interoperability for client information exchange among healthcare and human service providers. Previously, Greg managed communications for Bread for the City in DC.

    Tim Sullivan

    Director

    Washington 2-1-1 Network, Seattle, Washington


    Tim Sullivan is the statewide director for Washington 211, the lead organization that administers the 211 information and referral system for the State of Washington. Tim received his Bachelors of Science degree from Central Washington University in 1992 and shortly after started his career in social services working for the Yakima County Gang Prevention Intervention Coalition as a program manager.  In 1995, Tim was hired by the United Way of Central Washington, where he worked as the Community Impact Director for 15 years. 

    In 2004, Tim became involved in the issue of homelessness and helped establish the Homeless Network of Yakima County, a coalition that developed and implemented Yakima County’s first 10 Year Plan to End Homelessness. In 2006, Tim was contracted by Yakima County to develop the County’s first housing and homeless programs and later became a Senior Manager for Yakima County Human Services. In August 2016, Tim became the Statewide Director for Washington 211. 

    Tim is a member of the 2-1-1 National Steering Committee and chairs the SDOH Taskforce. Tim is also a founding board member of Justice Housing Yakima, a non-profit organization that is dedicated to building permanent housing for chronically homeless individuals using tiny homes. Tim makes his home in Yakima, WA with his wife Michelle of 27 years and his two children, Jessica age 22 and Ian age 13. 

    Kate Lambacher

    CEO

    KCL Software Solutions Inc, Burlington, Ontario

    Kate Lambacher has been providing software development services to Information and Referral providers and Volunteer Centres in Canada since 1997, most notably as the developer of the software behind the OpenCIOC I&R and Volunteer Matching software project since 2002. For more than 15 years she has been assisting I&R providers to navigate successful data exchanges across systems, develop multi-tenant data maintenance systems, and create and manage data sharing agreements between many sizes and types of organizations. In addition to her work with the I&R and Volunteer Services sectors, Kate serves as a board member for the Canadian Mental Health Association Halton Region branch.

    Hannah Newton

    Resource Center Manager​

    King County 211, Seattle, Washington

    Hannah Newton is the Resource Center Manager for King County 211 and the statewide database coordinator for Washington state. She has been a certified database curator since 2006. She maintains the knowledge base for the COVID-19 hotline in Washington state and is an AIRS database reviewer.  Currently, she is trying not to kill all the flowers she planted since COVID as well as taking care of three cats and two children.