The Boone County Children Services Fund hopes to increase access to mental health services, according to a report released Thursday morning.
The organization intends to accomplish this by creating new funding initiatives, according to the report. The report includes data-based recommendations for improving future children’s services in Boone County.
The organization hired Central Missouri Community Action, which is subcontracted out with Partner for Better, to conduct a study and analysis of the Children’s Services Fun, said Joanne Nelson, the director of the Boone County Community Services Department.
“There’s a number of key recommendations,” Nelson said. “So that would include infant and early childhood recommendations, school based recommendations, youth and family support treatment, community support and basic needs.”
These recommendations come analysis of data from the Children’s Services Fund, meetings with affected families, and funded and non-funded programs to gather thoughts on the fund.
“We reached out to the nonprofits and asked them how they think we are doing, how things are going, how is the application process, how are the services being delivered,” Nelson said. “They asked a whole array of questions to get feedback from those nonprofits.”
Among those funded organizations is Heart of Missouri Court Appointed Special Advocates. Kelly Hill, CASA’s executive director, says CASA participated in the report in multiple ways.
“They did a survey, so we participated in the survey and sent it to our staff and our board,” Hill said. “We participated in the focus group. They did focus groups with the organizations.”
After studying data and feedback from the focus groups and surveys, the Children’s Services Fund developed final recommendations in key areas. Nelson said one important recommendation from the board is targeted funding initiatives.
“We are looking at setting up targeted RFPs that focus in those areas that are recommended on in the report,” Nelson said.
One of the areas included in those recommendations is to “increase access to mental health services,” which Hill said would help a variety of children’s services.
“For us, I think having better access or increased access to mental health services is a huge need,” Hill said. “We see that in foster care for sure. It takes a long time to get to those services that they need.”
The overarching goal of the completed report aims to “create a more equitable funding landscape that meets the diverse needs of Boone County residents.”
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