National Center for Juvenile Intervention

Top 4 Programs Your Facility Can Implement at Almost No Cost Within 21 Days

to Lock-in New Funding

Whether you work in family re-integration, or research, or juvenile detention, there is an underlying need to produce products and services at a reduced cost. Many of the clients you work with will be of limited means, which means that in order to increase the revenue available for your program you need to find an alternative income to supplement them.

Many of our clients are affiliated with government. Most are from rehabilitation services contracted through government agencies. However, the underlying principles in program implementation are the same. The best way for any organization to acquire new funding is to prove that what you are already doing works.

1. Build an effective data tracking system. Most organizations feel as though the work they do is effective, but many can’t prove that they do it better than anyone else. But, building an effective data tracking system is critical to acquiring new funding because it opens doors to more than just new grant funding. While grant funding is important to most medium-sized organizations, good data tracking can also build your program’s reputation whether you seek grants or not.

You’ll want to cover all of the bases you can and make certain that you quantify everything you do. If it is too costly for your organization to use or develop its own professional diagnostics, be sure to at least track critical information. Beyond simple numbers of clients, you’ll want to track important details that show what works, and how well. Does the child present with this or that issue? How much so? Finding a way to quantify how far along a given scale a child’s behaviors are and then tracking their success through your program will aid in developing your cache of data.

In a recent consult with a juvenile detention facility, researchers were able to take the existing data that had been collected by the facility and put it into a format that conveyed the effectiveness of their program. They had recently added a new mental health component to their program, but were not certain if the program was effective. They had tracked the number of times the residents were placed on confinement, but there didn’t seem to be an improvement in the figures with the new program. By looking at how the program functioned more closely, they were able to determine that what needed to be tracked was the number of hours residents remained on confinement after intervention from mental health personnel. The resulting change in data analysis showed a 50% decrease in the amount of time misbehaviors persisted with the program, even if the number of confinements didn’t decrease. What’s more, an analysis of the impact on detention staff showed that turnover had also decreased significantly since the program’s inception.

2. Establish a strong follow-up program. Akin to tracking the data in your program, it is also relatively inexpensive to establish a strong follow-up program to your services. This serves two purposes: it continues to feed data into your program which you can use to strengthen the evidence of your program’s performance, and it allows you an opportunity to develop some simple follow-on products that could be used to generate additional revenue. The idea behind a follow-up program is that you want to help clients feel as if there is a failsafe available should they encounter and bumps in their recovery after your program. At the same time, you don’t want a full-blown program as a follow-on that will detract from what you already do.

In a counseling setting, many therapists do follow-ups by simply reducing the number of times they see a certain client. However, there are often cases where therapists report having to end sessions with a client sooner than the client wants due to insurance or time limits imposed by the organization. In these cases, a strong follow-on curriculum that the client can follow on their own can be very effective. By investing in the development of a follow-on curriculum that marries your unique program techniques to a self-help format, you can generate additional income for the program while freeing up time and easing client transition.

3. Provide pre-intervention programs. On the opposite side, programs with significant cost barriers to some clients can offset that cost by providing an inexpensive pre-enrollment curriculum. Developing such a program adds value to your services in that it can help other potential clients determine whether or not your program is right for them. At the same time, your curriculum will generate initial income from the process.

With certain residential programs that have limited occupancy, we have developed an intake syllabus that generated income for the program from clients that could not be fit into the program. These clients were placed in the pre-intervention plans for two reasons: either because there was limited space or because their issues were outside the range of the program’s existing capabilities. The result was a steady feeder-program for their residential services and a larger pool of candidates for the program to select from. In addition, the program generated increased revenue from the curriculum without any increase in time loss.

4. Outsourcing and Affiliates. While many of the functions you perform in your organization are essential, how you implement them can have a big impact on the bottom line. Outsourcing certain programs and services you provide can still be a good source of cost shaving and streamline performance. Contract out where you can. If it's not a daily full time contact function of your organization, such as counseling services or case management, you can contract it out on a per-use basis rather than keeping them as salaried employees. But outsourcing doesn’t always have to translate into sending away programs you have, it can also mean adding programs you don’t.

Consider ways you can expand your program by outsourcing programs you don’t currently provide but would be of benefit to your clients and your program. If your program could benefit from having a pre-intervention style curriculum but doesn’t have one, consider collaborating with an organization that has a product and offer it to your clients as an affiliate. You gain the added services with no cost to yourself and you gain a portion of the proceeds from the add-on program. There is no effort on your part except to refer clients to whatever the pre-intervention curriculum is and collect the added revenue.



		© 2005-2010 National Center for Juvenile Intervention JAN/FEB 2010 Top 4 Programs Your Facility Can Implement at Almost No Cost Within 21 Days to Lock-in New Funding Whether you work in family re-integration, or research, or juvenile detention, there is an underlying need to produce products and services at a reduced cost. Many of the clients you work with will be of limited means, which means that in order to increase the revenue available for your program you need to find an alternative income to supplement them. Many of our clients are affiliated with government. Most are from rehabilitation services contracted through government agencies. However, the underlying principles in program implementation are the same. The best way for any organization to acquire new funding is to prove that what you are already doing works. 1. Build an effective data tracking system. Most organizations feel as though the work they do is effective, but many can’t prove that they do it better than anyone else. But, building an effective data tracking system is critical to acquiring new funding because it opens doors to more than just new grant funding. While grant funding is important to most medium-sized organizations, good data tracking can also build your program’s reputation whether you seek grants or not. You’ll want to cover all of the bases you can and make certain that you quantify everything you do. If it is too costly for your organization to use or develop its own professional diagnostics, be sure to at least track critical information. Beyond simple numbers of clients, you’ll want to track important details that show what works, and how well. Does the child present with this or that issue? How much so? Finding a way to quantify how far along a given scale a child’s behaviors are and then tracking their success through your program will aid in developing your cache of data. In a recent consult with a juvenile detention facility, researchers were able to take the existing data that had been collected by the facility and put it into a format that conveyed the effectiveness of their program. They had recently added a new mental health component to their program, but were not certain if the program was effective. They had tracked the number of times the residents were placed on confinement, but there didn’t seem to be an improvement in the figures with the new program. By looking at how the program functioned more closely, they were able to determine that what needed to be tracked was the number of hours residents remained on confinement after intervention from mental health personnel. The resulting change in data analysis showed a 50% decrease in the amount of time misbehaviors persisted with the program, even if the number of confinements didn’t decrease. What’s more, an analysis of the impact on detention staff showed that turnover had also decreased significantly since the program’s inception. 2. Establish a strong follow-up program. Akin to tracking the data in your program, it is also relatively inexpensive to establish a strong follow-up program to your services. This serves two purposes: it continues to feed data into your program which you can use to strengthen the evidence of your program’s performance, and it allows you an opportunity to develop some simple follow-on products that could be used to generate additional revenue. The idea behind a follow-up program is that you want to help clients feel as if there is a failsafe available should they encounter and bumps in their recovery after your program. At the same time, you don’t want a full-blown program as a follow-on that will detract from what you already do. In a counseling setting, many therapists do follow-ups by simply reducing the number of times they see a certain client. However, there are often cases where therapists report having to end sessions with a client sooner than the client wants due to insurance or time limits imposed by the organization. In these cases, a strong follow-on curriculum that the client can follow on their own can be very effective. By investing in the development of a follow-on curriculum that marries your unique program techniques to a self-help format, you can generate additional income for the program while freeing up time and easing client transition. 3. Provide pre-intervention programs. On the opposite side, programs with significant cost barriers to some clients can offset that cost by providing an inexpensive pre-enrollment curriculum. Developing such a program adds value to your services in that it can help other potential clients determine whether or not your program is right for them. At the same time, your curriculum will generate initial income from the process. With certain residential programs that have limited occupancy, we have developed an intake syllabus that generated income for the program from clients that could not be fit into the program. These clients were placed in the pre-intervention plans for two reasons: either because there was limited space or because their issues were outside the range of the program’s existing capabilities. The result was a steady feeder-program for their residential services and a larger pool of candidates for the program to select from. In addition, the program generated increased revenue from the curriculum without any increase in time loss. 4. Outsourcing and Affiliates. While many of the functions you perform in your organization are essential, how you implement them can have a big impact on the bottom line. Outsourcing certain programs and services you provide can still be a good source of cost shaving and streamline performance. Contract out where you can. If it's not a daily full time contact function of your organization, such as counseling services or case management, you can contract it out on a per-use basis rather than keeping them as salaried employees. But outsourcing doesn’t always have to translate into sending away programs you have, it can also mean adding programs you don’t. Consider ways you can expand your program by outsourcing programs you don’t currently provide but would be of benefit to your clients and your program. If your program could benefit from having a pre-intervention style curriculum but doesn’t have one, consider collaborating with an organization that has a product and offer it to your clients as an affiliate. You gain the added services with no cost to yourself and you gain a portion of the proceeds from the add-on program. There is no effort on your part except to refer clients to whatever the pre-intervention curriculum is and collect the added revenue.