Forces for Good

good work canstockphoto7389237We can't vouch for all of the organizations on this list, but these folks at least appear to be working toward higher quality social services or they could be leveraged to do so. This is a starter list; it will grow as we learn more.

American Society of Public Administration.

ASQ, formerly the American Society for Quality.

ASTART, the Alliance for Safe Therapeutic Appropriate Residential Treatment.

Boardsource educates board members of nonprofit organizations.

CARF International is an accreditor of social service programs.

Children's Rights, an organization that sues states over poor child welfare services.

The College of Social Work, striving to be a center of excellence for the social work profession.

Council on Accreditation, known as COA in the field, is an accreditor of 2000 social service programs that was started by a number of social service and advocacy organizations. Some use accreditation standards as a signal for quality. Read about COA's standards.

The Council on Quality and Leadership is a little hard to define. They grew out of what is now the Joint Commission and they have some connections with several disability communities. They have their own certification processes, training programs, accreditation and more.

European Quality in Social Services, which grew out of a rehabilitation focused organization for persons with disabilities, publishes standards for social service agencies and accredits social service programs.

Models for Change, a program of the Macarthur Foundation designed to promote juvenile justice reform.

National Alliance on Mental Illness.

National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors.

National Association of Social Workers.

National Coalition for Mental Health Recovery.

National Federation of Families for Children's Mental Health.

Network for Social Work Managers.

NIATx is the real deal. They started teaching drug and alcohol treatment agencies about process improvement. Now they serve the behavioral health field. Their materials look great. They used known and valid tools. They are associated with the University of Wisconsin.

Skills for Care works on issues related to the social care workforce in the UK.

The Social Care Institute for Excellence works to get the word about about what works in social services.

SPARC, State Policy Advocacy and Reform Center, is funded by two of the Casey organizations, to pool resources for child welfare advocates.

 

 


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