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Crisis Services Resources

Building National Models

  • Youth Villages grew from the merger of two residential treatment campuses in 1986. It “has grown to offer a complete continuum of programs and services and to become a nationally recognized leader in the field of children’s mental health.” In 2003, Youth Villages launched the Specialized Crisis Services program statewide in Tennessee. Youth Villages’ 13 offices in Tennessee and satellite locations in 11 states plus Washington, D.C. allow faster response times for calls that require face-to-face crisis assessments.
  • Through research and innovation, the Vera Institute of Justice works to strengthen national cross-sector systems for justice and safety. Vera’s Center on Victimization and Safety (CVS) partners with government and nonprofit organizations to prevent and address interpersonal violence and related crimes. CVS’s Accessing Safety Initiative “promotes collaborations between disability and victim service organizations and enhances organizational capacity to serve Deaf survivors and survivors with disabilities.” Their website offers useful and specific tools to assist their network of collaboratives to create change; understand disability and the deaf culture and promote accessibility; and understand and respond to violence.

Successful Mergers

  • Youth Alternatives Ingraham (YAI) serves communities throughout Maine, delivering a full spectrum of social services and mental health care to people of all ages. YAI was profiled inThe Chronicle of Philanthropy as a“model of service delivery in hard economic times”. The article “cites the merger of Youth Alternatives with Ingraham, two of Maine’s most prominent social services and mental health care providers, as an innovative tactic for thriving in an economic downturn. The partnership, which joined the two groups under the name YAI Youth Alternatives Ingraham, combined two $12-million charities into a single $23-million organization.” For more information on this topic, visit our Resource Collection section on Mergers.
  • In 2008, the Brewster Center Domestic Violence Services and Tucson Centers for Women and Children came together to form Emerge! Center Against Domestic Abuse. Emerge! is now the largest domestic abuse shelter and provider of domestic abuse prevention services and programs in Southern Arizona. In the article From two agencies, Emerge! is one stronger voice against domestic abuse the author writes “Organizational mergers are complicated and expensive for agencies, but in the non-profit world they can be a gift to a community.” She adds that “the merger has clarified where people can go for issues of domestic abuse in the Tucson community as well as fully energized those involved as to the vision and direction of the agency.” For more information on this topic, visit our Resource Collection section on Mergers.

Building Capacity From Within

  • In the 1970′s, Prince George’s County Hotline was started as a program of the Mental Health Association. Since then it has grown dramatically to become Community Crisis Services, Inc. (CCSI), a one-stop calling center for information and assistance for those in crisis. From that single-service beginning, offered in one county, CCSI today offers a Crisis Service Hotline; Information and Referral; Suicide Prevention; Homeless Services; Protective Services; and Training and Outreach. Some services are offered only in Prince George’s County, while ’2-1-1 Maryland’ is the provider for information and referral for the southern Maryland/DC Metropolitan area. CCSI’s vision is to “provide comprehensive crisis services that are efficient, accessible, responsive, and fully integrated into the community”.
  • Frontier Healthis their region’s largest provider of behavioral health, mental health, substance abuse, vocational rehabilitation and other services. They offer a complete continuum of care, with more than 85 programs in two states (northeast Tennessee and southwest Virginia). In 2008 they served more than 76,000 individuals. Frontier Health “continuously develops service offerings; new programs are implemented; others are relocated or expanded to provide greater access to care.” The Mobile Crisis Response service responds to emergencies. They offer crisis intervention, critical incident stress debriefing, emergency assessment, and other services through locations in regional medical centers, community service agencies, physician’s offices and detention centers. Through Crisis Response, Frontier Health also offers the Crisis Stabilization Unit, a 15-bed Short Stay Facility.
  • Family Crisis Services works to end abuse in Cumberland and Sagadahoc Counties in Maine. Their three-fold mission is to provide programs on individual advocacy and safety for battered women and their children; work for institutional change to assign responsibility for battering to the perpetrators; and change cultural values which perpetuate the abuse of women through community education. Since their founding in 1977 they have expanded their services to serve all those battered in intimate relationships. Some of their funding is provided by two United Way agencies and the Maine Department of Human Services.
  • Crisis Services is the most comprehensive crisis center in upstate New York. It began operation in 1968 “after two years of strategic planning by the Mental Health Association, the Psychological Association of WNY, the Community Welfare Council, and the Erie County Department of Mental Health.” The community needed an innovative unit that would explore new methods of assisting people in emotional crisis, while providing training and educational programs and conducting ongoing research. In response, Crisis Services offers a comprehensive package of services clustered in eight areas, and has adapted its service delivery over the years to current social needs and available funding. “Crisis Services has more than fulfilled the aspirations and proposals set forth many years ago. It has grown and developed to be an important link in the network of critical services provided by Erie County.”

Howard County

  • The Howard County Department of Citizen Services serves as the human service agency for county government. Working in partnership with others, Howard County offers a wide range of services to meet the needs of residents. It also offers Citizen Services Reports with valuable information about current needs in Howard County, such as the Human Services Master Plan 2005-2010 (PDF). This Master Plan provides the framework needed to identify the major unmet needs and future challenges facing the community. The September 2009 report, Building Capacity to Serve (PDF), was the outcome of a project launched by the Department as “the next step in advancing the priorities identified in the Human Services Master Plan”.
  • The Association of Community Services offers a variety of education and training programs, including Hot Topics, the Back-Office Group, and Board Development Programs.
  • The Columbia Foundation has a vision for Howard County’s nonprofits: “Relevant and well supported organizations cooperating and collaborating, keeping duplication to a minimum and clearly demonstrating they improve lives and the community.” Among their Core Operating Values is this important statement: “We are an inclusive and welcoming partner. We hold our doors open to join with all people, organizations and business that comprise the tapestry of Howard County and that want to work with us to further our mission. We build respectful partnerships and foster common understanding through regular information gathering and sharing with the community.”

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