First 5 Riverside County

Harnessing Data and Technology to Power Partnerships that Increase Family Resilience

Who is First 5 Riverside County?   

First 5 Riverside County is a multi-service child advocacy organization that invests in programs and partnerships that promote, support and enhance the safety, health and early development of young children, families and communities in Riverside County, California.

WHY FIRST 5 RIVERSIDE COUNTY NEEDED A NEW PARTNER IN ITS MISSION

The organization had recently taken on new family resource programming from the Department of Social Services and needed a new way to effectively navigate case management and referral workloads.

This led to the exploration of a new database system, which included taking an intentional approach to coordinate services around prevention, crisis intervention and supporting families.

OVERCOMING CHALLENGES

The agency’s data management system required considerable manual intervention, which led to data entry errors that made accurate reporting challenging. It would take multiple business days to review data and reports, slowing productivity.

Additionally, their previous data system could not produce integrated views of a family across multiple services, limiting staff’s abilities to optimally assess client information.

A MISSION-FOCUSED SOLUTION

Apricot 360 from Social Solutions provides the technological platform for First 5 Riverside County to dramatically increase efficiency and effectiveness around data, analytics and reporting. Apricot 360 provides more than a database and has enabled First 5 Riverside County to increase collaboration across service providers for the benefit of children and families.

Supporting Families with a Centralized Model

When you speak with Piera Causley, Regional Manager, Family Resource Centers & Resilient Families and Jennifer Gomez, Program Coordinator at First 5 Riverside County, you can’t help but feel a sense of excitement about the ways the agency is enhancing and expanding its work to support families in Riverside County.

“In the past, there was a sense that true prevention wasn’t possible and that crisis intervention was what the agency could realistically provide with the bandwidth we have. We’re in the midst of changing this mindset and redefining the work we do as intentional, bi-directional, cross-system and coordinated for prevention,” explains Piera.

First 5 Riverside County invests significantly in Family Resource Centers and home visiting, as well as in health and early learning programming. As the agency is expanding its program portfolio, it is positioned to provide more coordinated, collaborative services to families and children under a centralized model.

Powering the Agency’s Revolution with Apricot 360

When First 5 Riverside County discovered Social Solutions and Apricot 360, the team knew they had found a technology solution that could support their vision for creating new connections to drive cross-system integration and impact for families.

“The transition to Apricot 360 has been great,” Jennifer explains. “Apricot 360 has simplified and streamlined the ability to refer families and see who is using which services. This is giving us a cleaner platform with greater ability to see any false positives or errors, and we are seeing higher quality in our reporting.”

Leadership at First 5 Riverside County is already seeing the benefits from gaining efficiencies on the front end with data entry, and now staff members have a much more streamlined workflow.

“Social Solutions is not just a vendor providing a software system. They’re a partner in how we’re evolving our work.”

PIERA CAUSLEY, Regional Manager, Family Resource Centers & Resilient Families

“Apricot 360 is the connective tissue of data and reporting across the services we provide and fund,” says Piera. “The work is moving so quickly in human services, so for us, it’s about building an amazing framework with ideas and vision, and we are able to create this with Social Solutions. They are a partner in how we’re evolving our work, and we see Social Solutions as playing a key role in bringing our vision to reality.”