Grantee Franklin County Sheriff's Office in Massachusetts contacted COSSUP for TTA. The request detailed the need for a second in-person support to hold a 1-2 day meeting with members of their CONNECT deflection team. They wanted to convene the group to create shared agreements to address the complex intersection of law enforcement, child welfare, and peer recovery in our post-opioid overdose response.
The CONNECT 2024 Onsite TTA served as an opportunity for CONNECT’s project partners to discuss the challenges it faced following the 2023 Onsite TTA, rebuild and strengthen collaborative relationships between partners, share updates and celebrate successes, examine and reaffirm CONNECT goals and commitments, and ultimately identify actionable steps to help project partners collaboratively accomplish those goals.
The Franklin County and North Quabbin CONNECT program and several of their individual stakeholder and partner organizations experienced substantial changes in staffing and leadership between July 2023 and 2024. This and communication delays following the 2023 CONNECT Leadership Onsite TTA disrupted collaborative efforts and exacerbated existing challenges between CONNECT partner organizations.
To discuss concerns, determine the next steps, and address other resource needs through the project’s ongoing transition period, the CONNECT leadership team at the Opioid Task Force of Franklin County and North Quabbin Region (OTF) and TASC’s Center for Health and Justice (CHJ) organized an in-person working onsite TTA for project stakeholders and partners in July 2024.
Onsite TTA Goal & Objectives
The 2024 CONNECT Onsite TTA aimed to strengthen the CONNECT structure by enhancing existing collaborative relationships and supporting the expansion of CONNECT services. There was also a strong focus on creating specific and measurable actions, such as reconnecting with current and new partners in person. Kelley Research Associates also provided a three-year overview of CONNECT’s impact since it launched on July 1, 2021. The Franklin County/North Quabbin CONNECT Program Data Overview. Additionally, the CONNECT Onsite TTA reviewed the 2023 Action Plan to assess its current relevance and determine necessary refinements or deletions. An intended outcome of the 2024 CONNECT Onsite TTA was developing an updated Action Plan to guide the group’s activities for the following year.
CONNECT Action Planning
The primary focus of the Onsite TTA was to develop actionable steps for CONNECT to implement changes and improvements in their programming. Through small group discussions and report-outs to the entire group, the six action steps developed in 2023 and three suggested actions were reviewed. The group was asked to consider each item through the framework of “keep, refine, remove.” For the action items from 2023, the group voted to keep and refine all of them. For the three suggested plans, all were kept and expanded on. The Action Step Worksheets are included as part of this report.
Overall Key Themes
Over the two days of group activities, several key themes emerged as areas for CONNECT to focus on over the next year.
• Improve role clarity and awareness of services offered by partner organizations
• Create a feedback loop to provide information on program activities to frontline staff
• Provide regular training on topics recommended by the group
• Return to regularly scheduled meetings
• Continue to celebrate CONNECT’s commitment to saving and changing lives
Recommendations & Next Steps
Based on the 2024 Onsite TTA and CHJ’s technical assistance, there are several recommendations for next steps.
• Continue development of an action plan to guide the CONNECT leadership (Implementation Team) activities for the next year
• Establish a calendar for Implementation and Outreach meetings for the next year
• Schedule the semi-annual Implementation Team convening, with the purpose to review progress based on the action plan developed at the 2024 Onsite TTA
• Schedule the next annual Implementation Team convening, again with the purpose to review progress based on the action plan developed at the 2024 Onsite TTA, discuss additional action steps, and reassess CONNECT’s critical elements score
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- The organizational and/or community needs specific to the request for TTA services.
- The benefits or anticipated outcomes from the receipt of TTA services.
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