Learning Opportunity

(expenses paid!!) Training Opportunity in Performance Measurement and Quality Improvement

Partnerships to Advance Quality Services (PAQS)

The University of Chicago

School of Social Service Administration

August 17 through August 20, 2015

We are seeking academic and agency teams interested in performance management and quality improvement in private social service agencies for an expenses free training experience. The team will  include a social service agency employee whose job responsibilities include performance management and/or quality improvement and a faculty member from a school or department of social work.SSA_large

These teams will come together for joint training in Chicago in August 2015 for a 3.5 day training event, with expenses (tuition, travel, hotel, meals) paid. The training will focus on how to create workable performance measurement systems in social service agencies (what to measure, how to measure, how to use these measurements for good) and how to improve services when quality problems become known.

From applicants, we will choose 7 teams, with preference to:

  • small to mid-sized social service agencies;
  • teams where there is an existing relationship between the social service agency and the academic partner that is ripe for deeper ties;
  • agencies that are not satisfied with the current agency approach to monitoring and improving service delivery; and
  • where the social work academic partner may be interested in teaching performance measurement and quality improvement in the future.

The aim of PAQS is to capitalize upon academic and social service agency partnerships to increase the capacity of organizations to continuously improve their services to vulnerable clients. The project will create concrete opportunities for program improvement on a small scale, reinforce academic/social service agency partnerships for sustainable change and to create research/evaluation opportunities for developing knowledge specific to quality improvement in human services. We also hope to encourage social work faculty to teach performance management and quality improvement courses in their social work programs. Funding from the Center for Health Administration Studies at the University of Chicago will support the development, implementation, and evaluation of this pilot.

Successful applicants will participate in a 4 day program conducted by expert trainers. Content will focus on both performance measurement and quality improvement in social services. The final day will be devoted to developing improvement projects tailored to the individual programs. Each project will target a problem in service delivery identified by the faculty-agency partners, with specific steps toward resolution and evaluation of efforts to be carried out subsequent to the training. Follow-up consultation will be provided to assist program teams in implementation and evaluation over a one year period. Academic partners will be given curriculum materials to use at their home institution, if they so choose. Travel and lodging expenses will be covered as will many meals.

 Application procedures

The application should include the following components.

  1. Names and contact information of the two applicant trainees.
  2. Agency description; please include the agency's website url.
  3. Description of the agency's history with performance measurement and quality improvement.
  4. Description of the relationship between the agency and the academic faculty partner.(sections 1-4 should be no longer than 3 pages single spaced)
  5. Letter of support from agency representative (e.g., CEO or COO)
  6. Letter of support from academic faculty partner.

Send a single .pdf document of the entire application to:

Dr. Tina Rzepnicki, t-rzepnicki@uchicago.edu

Applications are due May 31 2015 at 5 pm

 Faculty

We are negotiating with training faculty now. They will include the following.

MichaelC

Michael Cull, MSN, Ph.D. Tennessee Dept of Children's Services

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

nateisrael

Nathaniel Israel, Ph.D. Chapin Hall

 

 

 

 

McMillen, JCurtis 2

Curtis McMillen, Ph.D. University of Chicago

 

Yolanda Green-Rogers, MSW, PMP Chapin Hall

Yolanda Green-Rogers, MSW, PMP
Chapin Hall

 

 

 

 

 

rzepnicki

Tina Rzepnicki, Ph.D. University of Chicago

Fotena Zirps, Ph.D. University of Florida

Fotena Zirps, Ph.D.
Florida State University

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


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