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Updates from FSC

March 2022

Hello Members, Partners and Stakeholders,

We are excited to welcome two new staff members to team FSC, and now with COVID restrictions lifting, we have been out and about in the community! We are visiting our member agencies and attending events and hoping to see more of you soon!

An FSC focus is supporting our members through training, technical assistance and ensuring we are making data-informed and community-driven decisions. We heard from our members last year in their training requests, and this month we are excited to offer our Trauma-Informed Care: Building Family Resiliency, as well as a new training, Outputs v. Outcomes - How to Identify and Measure Outcomes for your Organization. We are excited to be able to provide these trainings to our FSC members, free of charge.

Also, FSC is seeking a new Central Service Planning Area Family Access Point! Information can be found below, as well as details on how to request the Request for Qualifications application.

Thank you for all you do for supporting families in the OC!

For the families,

Nikki Buckstead, Executive Director

Family Solutions Collaborative

March Member Agency Spotlight

FAM Family Assistance Ministries

FAM is one of our faith-based members and serves as a family Access Points located in the South Service Planning area and participate in our Family Shelter Network System.

We asked FAM to share an innovative approaches they use to prevent and solve family homelessness - here is what they said:
”FAM believes in a client-centered approach to support families in resolving their homeless episodes. Through a diversion perspective, the Homeward Bound program began five years ago. It is designed to connect families to their natural support system by providing mediation service to reconnect the family or friends and provide transportation cost assistance if their support system agrees to provide them with a place to stay while they increase income to maintain a rental unit of their own. They create this plan with the family to quickly exit them from the streets and bridge them to a longer-term solution.”

They are an active and engaged member, promote data-informed decisions for their programs and services. Thank you FAM, for all you do to help support families in the OC!

FSC Training Series: FSC Members Only

Outputs v. Outcomes - How to Identify and Measure Outcomes

The work of the FSC and our member agencies is to ensure best-practice, system-level programs and services that are data-informed and community-driven.

Who should attend - FSC Members: Development Managers and Coordinators, Grant Managers, Advancement Officers, Data and Evaluation staff. Anyone interested in learning more about outcomes and outputs within their organization.

Workshop Description: This workshop will help your organization better understand how to identify and measure outcomes. Too often organizations focus on their outputs, which demonstrate the reach of their program but do not examine how participants and the community have changed as a result of the program. In order to understand these important outcomes, you need to not only be able to identify them but select the appropriate tool for measurement.

In this workshop, you will learn to identify the difference between an output and outcome, define indicators of these outcomes, and best practices for measuring them. You will learn how to best highlight your impact to your funders and potentially increase revenue.

Please email info@oc-fsc.org if staff from your FSC Member agency and would like to RSVP/attend.

Date/Time: May 12, 2022 ~ 9:00-10:00 AM ~ Location: Zoom

Illumination Foundation Presents

Yes We Can: Solutions to Address Health Equity

This consortium provides the most up to date solutions, trends and best-practices for serving vulnerable groups. You will leave with ideas from industry leaders of how you can best promote health equity in your field and community.

NEW Family Access Point

FSC is seeking a new Central Service Planning Area Family Access Point. Minimum qualifications include:

• Must be a current member of the Family Solutions Collaborative for at least one year

• Currently has or will have a full-time physical office location located in the Central Service Planning Area (Preferred locations: Garden Grove, Huntington Beach, Westminster)

• Will dedicate and designate at least one Family Service Navigator at the Access Point to serve as the main point of contact

• Have the ability to meet/communicate with families in-person, telephone and email.

Interested members can email info@oc-fsc.org and request a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) application which will include additional details and instructions for submission.

New FSC Staff Members

We are excited to announce two new staff members of the FSC team! Elizabeth Hernandez (left) as our new Family System Specialist and Rachel Berge as our new Community Engagement Coordinator. Welcome to the team!

Local and regional leaders meet up!

FSC Executive Director, Nikki Buckstead, had an opportunity to meet with Acting Director, Region IX, Bonnie Preston from US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Helene Schneider, Regional Coordinator from the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) to discuss family homeless and the work of the FSC in the OC. We are looking forward to future collaborations!

Member Site Visit

South County Outreach is one of the FSC Family Access Points located in the South service planning area. In March, we met with their team, toured their facility and walked their food pantry.

South County Outreach envisions an Orange County community where no one goes to bed hungry or without a place to call home. Thank you to their team for the warm welcome and for all of the goodies!

FSC Marketing and Messaging Committee has launched!

The FSC held our first Marketing and Messaging Committee meeting the first week in March. LaVal Brewer, President and CEO of South County Outreach and Committee Chair guided the meeting as we identified our priorities for the next year.

Thank you to Families Forward, WTLC, Inc., HomeAid Orange County, South County Outreach and Pathways of Hope and Casa Teresa for your participation on the Committee!

Family Solutions Collaborative Member Agencies