LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to look at creating an academy to train more nonprofits to be community-based mental health treatment providers.
Supervisor Janice Hahn recommended creating an “incubation academy” to better connect small agencies with funding opportunities.
“Delivering mental health services is done best by organizations that are embedded in the communities they serve, speak the same language as their clients, and can deliver tailored, culturally-competent care,” Hahn said.
“Unfortunately, many of these smaller nonprofits have been shut out of contracting and funding opportunities,” she said, because smaller agencies often lack the staffing and structure to compete for county contracts.
Training could include sessions on revenue and expense management, internal controls and using data to track services and outcomes.
As envisioned by Hahn, the academy might also offer access to public-private funding.
The board directed the county’s chief executive officer to work with the relevant departments and report back in 60 days with recommendations on selecting participants, designing curriculum and developing grant requirements for a related fund.
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Andrew says
As a national speaker on sexual assault along with being a local service provider in the AV, this is a very positive article to read for a smaller agency like mine.
Smaller agencies often have difficulty competing for the state and federal funding to address violence against women issues. Especially in the AV, where we have one of the nation’s highest rates of domestic violence & sexual assault.
http://www.sexualassaultawareness.org