NEST
The Northwest Executive Steering Team, the NEST, consists of a family representative, the chair and co-chair, and select representatives of the voting membership. This group is critical to the Advisory Council in vetting contract language, making report requests and report format decisions, and moving the business of implementing the SAMHSA grant. The NEST meets one time per month.
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SOC Voting Council
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SOC Advisory Council
The Advisory Council is the group overseeing the regional system of care collaboration in the 15 counties of Northwest Georgia (Paulding, Haralson, Polk, Bartow, Gordon, Floyd, Whitfield, Murray, Chattooga, Walker, Dade, Catoosa, Fannin, Gilmer and Pickens Counties). This system of care collaboration includes multiple components and subsystems serving youth with mental health needs across multiple agencies such as WIN Georgia, CBAY, and other provider networks (i.e. LIPT, RIAT, etc).
The Advisory Council will serve as an advisory body to recipients of grants that support the Council’s mission and are consistent with the Memorandum of Understanding. The Council may provide consultation and technical assistance to fiscal agents and service providers. The Council will not serve as a fiscal agent, but will maintain a collaborative partnership with grantors, fiscal agents and respective service providers.
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Work Groups
Family and Youth Involvement Workgroup
Plans with professionals to improve or change policies that benefit youth and their families. Educates parents on how to interact with the system of care. Educates professionals on what true parent involvement means in a system of care. Provides youth an opportunity to voice their concerns about what works and what does not; and makes recommendations to improve policy. Membership includes parents currently or previously involved with the system of care and who have a desire or passion to participate in advocacy; youth who have engaged with the system of care; youth who graduated or aged out of the system; and professional staff who work within the system of care. The Workgroup is responsible for nominating the family and youth representatives to the Council.
Contacts / Chairperson
Angie Robinson – Arrobinson@dhr.state.ga.us
Phylis Roberson – Proberson81@yahoo.com
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Community Capacity Building Workgroup
Responsible for assessing specific service needs, identifying barriers to services and recommending solutions to the Council or applicable service providers. Responsible for Resource Mapping, Gap Analysis and other areas in the Strategic Plan related to Community Capacity Building and growing the relationships between regional Providers, Partners and Families. Time limited work groups may be used to accomplish tasks. The workgroup is responsible for providing linkage of information, technical assistance and advocacy to community system of care committees who are responsible for service linkage and delivery in the community.
Contacts / Chairperson
Heather Stanley – HeatherS@lmcs.org
Mary Elliott – MaryElliot@djj.state.ga.us
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Evaluation/Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) Workgroup
Responsible for development of an evaluation system including the collection of process and short, intermediate and long-term outcome data at the population and system level including service availability and effectiveness. Provides accountability feedback to the Council on service outcomes and recommends strategies for communities to positively influence service planning and delivery.
Contacts / Chairperson
Charles Fetner – Cafetner@dhr.state.ga.us
Tom Ford – TomF@lmcs.org
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Social Marketing/Communication/Training Workgroup
Responsible for development and implementation of a social marketing plan. Develops and implements a media protocol for opportunities and crises. Responsible for the development and implementation of communication and social marketing to inform the public and professionals on system of care activities, concerns and successes on both a regional and community level. The plan is to educate the public about strategies and activities that support system of care values and principles and promote the Council’s mission and vision.
The workgroup is also responsible for the development of training and continuing education opportunities for agency employees, family members, youth and the public. Maintains a regional training calendar to be included in the monthly meeting agenda and notes.
This group is responsible for many areas of the Strategic Plan and may require several sub-groups responsible for the various duties assigned to the group to be developed.
Contacts / Chairperson
Teresa Towery – tetowery@dhr.state.ga.us
Margaret Cawood – MargaretCawood@djj.state.ga.us
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Cultural and Linguistic Proficiency Workgroup
The CLP Committee provides leadership and coordination of the development, implementation, and monitoring of the Cultural and Linguistic Proficiency Plan and is responsible for areas of the Strategic Plan. The group will provide guidance toward achieving and maintaining cultural and linguistic proficiency in policies, procedures and service delivery.
Members will assist the CLP Coordinator as a bridge between system of care and cultural communities, resources, families and youth, providers, community agencies and other stakeholders. Assists in presenting the SOC principles and practices to potential cultural partners to encourage involvement in the SOC. Promotes language access and identification of resources. Provides guidance on the development and implementation of strategies to promote accountability for the movement of the system of care on cultural and linguistic competence. Works collaboratively with the evaluation team to integrate CLP evaluation criteria and evaluation instruments related to the assessment of CLP outcomes.
Contacts / Chairperson
Belisa Urbina – renovacionconyugalgeorgia@yahoo.com
Velma Tilley – Vctilley1@yahoo.com
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Sustainability
The NEST is responsible for identifying and implementing system of care sustainability efforts. Since sustainability is an extension of resource development, the workgroup will facilitate local and regional resource mapping and work in conjunction with state sustainability efforts to prepare a sustainability plan for Council approval and implementation.
Contacts / Chairperson
Judge Velma Tilley – vctilley1@yahoo.com
Kathy Floyd – krfloyd@dhr.state.ga.us
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Birth to Six Expansion Planning Workgroup
The workgroup is responsible for planning the expansion of the population of focus of the Northwest System of Care to include children age birth to six, and their families. Planning will include reviewing available baseline data to support defining potential populations of focus and making recommendations to the Northwest Executive Steering Team (NEST), expansion of high-fidelity wraparound among agencies and organizations serving the population of focus identified, implementation of Positive Behavior Supports (PBS), and other evidence-based and evidence-informed practices. Workgroup will also review potential tools to support evaluation such as the Parenting Stress Index and the Child Behavior Checklist and will support modification of the Northwest System of Care logic model to reflect the expanded System of Care.
Contacts / Chairperson
Rhonda Heuer – Rhonda@polkcouncil.com
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School Systems Workgroup
Responsible for integrating the system of care philosophy and best practices into school systems and other educational settings (childcare and preschools to post-secondary). We have to offer ourselves and our data for support to these systems.
Contacts / Chairperson
Bryant Henry – Bnh871@gmail.com
Allison Oxford – allison.oxford@murray.k12.ga.us
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Substance Abuse Treatment and Recovery Workgroup
Kathy Floyd – krfloyd@dhr.state.ga.us
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