EIP Excitement!

The Early Intervention and Prevention (EIP) Team at MCCOY has had a very busy day! John Brandon and I had two meetings with community partners about our Integrated Database Project and our Co-location of Services Project. Both are so exciting and if we can pull them off successfully, we think that they can be among the very best in the nation! Both projects are still in the planning stages, so we are “thinking big” and have high ambitions.

With the Integrated Database, we hope to create a portal that will pull social services information from several different databases and present the information in one clean interface. This project is not about creating a new database, but creating a way to link the existing information together to better serve the needs of the community.

While the Integrated Database will improve the connectivity of the city, the Co-location of Services Project will increase the efficiency of nonprofit service delivery. We know that when people need to traipse back and forth across the county to access early intervention and prevention resources, that programs are not as well-utilized as they could be. By offering several social services at a single neighborhood-based delivery point, we reduce the barriers that people have to finding help. Co-location of services is an integral part of a thriving community.

I think that both of these projects are cutting-edge, innovative, and exciting! If you would like to be involved in this work, please come to the next Early Intervention and Prevention Initiative Task Force Meeting on Wednesday March 23^rd at 10:30am, on the first floor of the United Way building. For more information visit: http://www.mccoyouth.org/our-impact.aspx?id=156&sid=0&pid=2