In The News

A modern electronic document management system lays the foundation for fostering collaboration and information exchange so that human services caseworkers have everything they need to help clients keep moving forward on the path toward support and success.

Child welfare agencies have had to pivot multiple times over the past year to support and sustain a remote workforce, while enabling caseworkers and clients to connect in new and different ways. Now, agencies must have the right technology in place to mobilize case and client information so that workers can both make sense of it and use it to help others.

User-centric mobile technology should be designed to give a worker exactly what they need when they need it—no more, no less.

Trusted and efficient services for patients and families are the ultimate goal for health and human services (HHS) organizations. Explore Northwoods purpose-built human services solutions powered by AWS.

Organizational change management is often the riskiest aspect of buying and implementing technology, especially in an industry like human services. 

As human services agencies look to 2021, the need to automate routine tasks to keep up with increased service demand won’t be slowing down anytime soon. This is especially true in economic assistance. 

A phased project approach can help human services agencies modernize technology in a way that provides both quick results and footing for better outcomes in the future. Agencies incrementally implement the solution over time, starting with a small-scale project and limited group of users.

IT leaders have an opportunity to be the hero that HHS agencies need right now by providing immediate support, assistance, and relief to overburdened frontline workers so they can continue to impact those who need help today, while positioning agencies for continued success—no matter what tomorrow brings. 

COVID-19 physically separated caseworkers from clients, but it also created an opportunity to use modern technology to bring them back together. Doing so will require an entire spectrum of people—from policymakers and administrators to program directors and caseworkers—to embrace a new vision for how benefits are provided. The ideal solution puts the client at the center and opens up multiple access points to services.

Whether it's for improving the quality of social work or for developing new medicines, here are some companies using Artificial intelligence in exciting ways.

Hubbard County Department of Social Services (DSS) is investing in new technology to help staff telework during the COVID-19 pandemic and well into the future.

Our CEO is featured in this article sharing how Northwoods is helping Ohio Job and Family Services caseworkers manage cases remotely amid COVID-19. Over the last 10 weeks there have been more than a quarter of a million applications for services, but workers have been able to keep up.

In human services, coaching and technology should go hand in hand. To do this, you must invite three unique perspectives to the table — coaching professionals, human services agencies and a technology partner — to customize the implementation strategy to meet your specific needs and make sure the people using the new technology are successful.

Albeit slowly, a tectonic shift is happening in human services. We’re moving toward machine-assisted social work, where emerging tools like case discovery help workers connect the dots to understand a family’s whole story. In this future, workers won’t be required to sort through different systems, applications, or channels to find what they need; instead, the information that’s most timely and relevant will be presented to them through a single pane of glass.

Product Manager Lauren Johnson shares how insights from hundreds of hours in the field directly influenced the development of Traverse, Northwoods' solution for child welfare. Looking at six settings that provide a sample of how child welfare caseworkers could spend their days, Lauren explains how technology can meet them where they are in each place—both physically, and in terms of practice.

Turnover is a chronic problem in children and family services. While not all contributing factors can be controlled, one way to combat the problem is providing technology that lessens administrative burden. That’s why Jefferson County Department of Social Services has invested in technology to give caseworkers more time to do high-value work with children and families.

Fortune partnered with Great Place to Work to analyze anonymous survey feedback from respondents representing over 189,000 employees working in small- and medium-sized businesses in the United States. Evaluation is based on what employees say about their experiences of trust and reaching their full human potential as part of their organization, no matter who they are or what they do. 

When executing RFPs (requests for proposals), asking the right questions and evaluating the right criteria will differentiate a true partner in innovation from vendors offering "cookie cutter," one-size-fits-all solutions. Developing an RFP that accomplishes this goal considers common themes and practices. These will guide the entire process—from planning and writing the RFP to evaluating responses and ultimately awarding a contract.

Child welfare workers can utilize Northwoods' mobile platform to do their fieldwork, so that aiding families and at-risk children can be more of a priority and paperwork can be done more efficiently.

Yuba County Health and Human Services (HHS) is investing in new technology—Traverse—that uses AI to surface key case information to help child welfare caseworkers make critical safety decisions.

Yuba County Health and Human Services (HHS) is investing in new technology—Traverse—that uses AI to surface key case information to help child welfare caseworkers make critical safety decisions.

Director of Implementation Services for Northwoods, Cindy Sheets, discusses focusing on what technology can offer to help others rather than innovation solely for the sake of innovation.

Northwoods developed Traverse, a system of engagement for child welfare caseworkers, that brings together all the case history into an easily digestible and interactive view. The company then wanted an integration platform that would allow the solution to easily integrate with customers' other data sources including case management and document management systems. Northwoods turned to TIBCO Cloud™ Integration.

The Jefferson County Department of Social Services is moving forward with acquiring a software program called Traverse that would allow caseworkers to handle much of their paperwork electronically.

CityPulse Columbus has recognized “Wonderful Workplaces for Young Professionals” in and around Columbus since 2013. Northwoods was recognized for the second year in a row in 2018 because the company "cultivates an environment where 'when people are hired, they don’t want to leave' with leadership programs 'open to all' and a place that 'feels like home.'”

A Next-Generation System of Engagement

Modernizing to the new Comprehensive Child Welfare Information System (CCWIS), or building new systems to meet CCWIS requirements, opens the door for child welfare organizations to better collect, view, share, and understand information, not just record it.

The Department of Administrative Services (DAS) and partner agencies, Ohio Department of Medicaid (ODM) and Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (JFS), are excited to announce on August 6, 2018 the team reached a key milestone in our Ohio Enterprise Document Management System (EDMS) journey, with all 88 counties now live with Medicaid/SNAP/TANF (MST) functionality. This is the culmination of an effort started in August 2017 and is an impressive accomplishment for a project of this scale to finish on time and under budget.

The Northwoods Foundation is one of many reasons why the organization ranked first in Columbus CEO’s Top Workplaces 2018 survey among midsized companies in central Ohio. The company, which describes its mission as “revolutionizing the delivery of services to vulnerable populations,” designs software for human services agencies.

Caseworkers in Mesa County will get a helping hand, thanks to technology. The Health and Human Services Department is buying a new Traverse-- or filing-- system. It lets caseworkers access thousands of files from an iPad. Normally, caseworkers have to file paperwork at the office.

Child-welfare workers in Mesa County later this year will have artificial intelligence on call when they're summoned to emergencies or other issues. Northwoods Consulting Partners' Traverse system will provide protective-services workers "a device they can take into the field that contains everything they need to confront any situation they walk into," said Rich Bowlen, vice president for protective services at Dublin, Ohio-based Northwoods.

The Columbus Young Professionals Club and the Human Resources Association of Central Ohio have released their fifth annual list of top workplaces for young professionals.

The county's department of Social Services is hoping to get new software that could make paperwork and interviews in the Child Protective Services unit less invasive and more efficient. Director of Community Services Ray Bizzari said a program created by Northwoods Consulting Partners would put all the office's records onto a database accessible via iPad. A caseworker could visit a home at either end of the county with the ability to pull up any and all paperwork needed.

What if child welfare organizations could use technology to surface trend data that could help them understand and address the opioid epidemic, and even prevent a future crisis?

The best predictor of future safety is a thorough understanding of the past. Traverse, a protective services case discovery platform from the AWS Public Sector Partner Program member Northwoods, uncovers dark data and uses it to present a comprehensive case story. It allows child and adult protective services agencies to leverage the power of big data and the information they already have to make well informed, more confident decisions. The tool helps to analyze years of information and volumes of case records to build connections that may have otherwise gone unnoticed.

Social workers, imagine if a child’s case file could talk to you. What would you ask it? What hidden secrets would you want it to tell you about the kids you care so much about? To help, we’ve figured out a way to use modern technology to make your case files answer your questions so you can uncover critical information to make informed, confident decisions.

Yesterday, Northwoods announced availability of Traverse, a text analytics solution for child welfare social workers. The solution is designed to allow case workers to focus more on a child’s needs rather than needlessly reviewing case documents. Traverse sifts through a case’s thousands of documents to give case workers quick insights into the people and key topics related to the child. This allows the case worker to focus on the child’s future safety rather than researching the case.

As I’ve been looking for out-of-the-box solutions that heavily rely on content, I’ve come to realize that these Back Office Content Solutions are everywhere. My real surprise was in human services benefits administration. Northwoods offers document management and workflow with an out-of-the-box solution to work social services related to children.

The Robeson County Department of Social Services will roll out a program that uses new technology to enable child welfare and adult services workers to spend more time with their clients and less time doing paperwork at the office.

Most large IT projects fail because of one preventable issue: poor user adoption. By following two key tenets of a coach model approach to training, human services staff can ensure user acceptance, and ultimately, better service delivery.

An app introduced last September for Crow Wing County Community Services social workers is improving communication with the families they serve, according to a new study released by Northwoods, the app developer.

Align your core business competencies with social causes. This is a natural way to bring solutions to social issues. An excellent example is Northwoods, which provides technology to help state and county human services agencies be more productive.

The Chemung County Department of Social Services is going paperless! The department is the first New York County to give caseworkers a mobile tool to help them protect abused and neglected children.

Crow Wing County Community Services has implemented social service software to streamline processes for staff and assist them in effectively managing increased caseloads.

A company focused on helping public agencies update their filing systems sounds like just the place to benefit from a young, tech-savvy work force. And Northwoods Consulting Partners Inc. has been doing just that, said president and CEO Gary Heinze.

A recently released case study shows software Beaufort County's Department of Social Services switched to several years ago is saving them a lot of money. The software, called Northwoods, places an emphasis on electronic filing, which saves the DSS money on things like training and office supplies. All together, the DSS says they're saving about $100,000 a year.

Every day, protective service agencies send social workers into homes, schools, and long-term care facilities to ensure the safety of children, the elderly, and others. But skyrocketing caseloads coupled with time-consuming paperwork requirements cut into the amount of quality time social workers can spend with their clients. Innovative child and adult protective service agencies have started embracing mobile technology to tackle these challenges head on.

In four weeks, Bowlen wrote the application and paper for the competition that outlined Northwoods’ “Compass CoPilot” program, a proposal to integrate data collection and reporting at state and county human services agencies.

Burke County Department of Social Services will get a majority of the money needed to contract with Northwoods Consulting Partners Inc.

A new, high-tech addition to Winona County Community Services is changing the face of social work in Minnesota.

As of August last year, Winona County Community Services became among the first social services agencies in the country to go mobile with Compass CoPilot software for iPad.

Sorting and scanning documents is a big part of how social workers input and gather information for child abuse investigations in Cabarrus County. But soon, a group of investigators will be able access to those critical files and more with a few taps on an iPad.

Drowning in paperwork, the Fairfield County Child and Adult Protective Services (CPS) in Lancaster, Ohio worked to create a truly mobile social worker. That move is saving up to two days per week per social worker, empowering workers to create stronger relationships with families and achieve better outcomes.

Cabarrus County, N.C., has approved the use of a mobile application to help social workers manage child protection cases.

Social workers across the country are trading in their notepads for tablets. A handful of the state's counties have gone digital and now Cabarrus County is looking to join their ranks.

Getting an abused child out of a dangerous situation can mean the difference between life and death, and that’s why Child Protective Services Director Derrick Heath said his department needs better technology now.

Dane County Child Protection Services using new app to help victims.

A new interactive program is helping social workers to spend more time with victims by cutting down on paperwork.

As technology continues to improve its application within social work and healthcare are proving to be infinite. Most recently, the emergence of a system utilizing tablets has helped case workers to save time and increase productivity exponentially.

Beaufort County’s Department of Social Services has earned an award from the National Association of Counties.

Few employees have to be on the move as much as a government case worker in a county child protective or family services office. Unfortunately, many of these offices still use physical files that require the worker to return to the office up to several times a day to keep them up to date. Those offices that have partly moved to electronic files are not always equipped to handle workers making updates remotely.