CONNECTIONS INDIVIDUAL AND FAMILY SERVICES INC
"Empowering youth, Connecting families, Building futures."
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
The agency's mission speaks to the heart of the damaging long-term negative mental and physical health effects of family violence, child abuse, and trauma. There is growing evidence that the physical growth and development of children is negatively impacted by distress, anxiety, and trauma. In fact, a task force through the Attorney General's Office found that 60% of children nationwide will have their lives touched by violence, crime, abuse, and psychological trauma in a given year (December 2012). Texas state child abuse and family violence statistics highlight the presence of significant risk factors that jeopardize the safety, current well being, and current success of children. In fact, child abuse rates are higher than the state average in many communities the agency serves. Without positive family guidance and support during childhood, future physical and mental health, financial stability, safety, and relationships are threatened.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Counseling Services, including FAYS (Family and Youth Success) and counseling for crime victims
On-site counseling services in 11 Texas rural/suburban counties, including Comal, Guadalupe, Bastrop, Caldwell, Lee, Gonzales, Wilson, Karnes, Atascosa, Frio, and Zavala Counties. Most services focus on children, teens, and their families and are at no cost to those seeking help. Services are provided at office sites, virtually, at schools, and at family homes if transportation is a financial barrier.
Youth Emergency Shelters
Connections operates two emergency shelters for youth ages 5-17 who are in the midst of a crisis and need a safe place to stay. The program accepts youth ages 10 to 17 referred due to runaway behaviors, family conflict, abuse and neglect, or homelessness; this includes youth who are part of the state’s foster care system (Texas Department of Family and Protective Services). The program also accepts youth ages 5-9 who are in the state’s foster care system or are experiencing a family crisis that requires a brief placement.
Transitional Living Program
Long-term residential program for older youth ages 15-21 years old who are preparing to exit the foster care system. Program is designed to teach and strengthen life skills, to assist with trauma recovery and improved coping skills, to complete high school and prepare for pursuing advanced academic or vocational education or career opportunities.
Substance Abuse/Misuse Prevention and Education
Provides curriculum-based education for school-age youth and activities. information, and referrals for any age. Program utilizes nationally-recognized evidence-based curriculum, such as Positive Action and Curriculum Based Support group (Kids Connection/Youth Connection). All prevention efforts are designed to prevent underage drinking and use of substances that can negatively impact healthy living, family relationships, academics or employment, or effective coping skills. Primary substances targeted are: alcohol (underage drinking), opioid misuse/abuse, tobacco use, marijuana use, and prescription drug misuse.
Community Coalition Program
Program designed to engage key community stakeholders on addressing underage drinking and substance misuse in the effort to improve healthy lifestyles in the community and protect children and teens from substance addiction and its negative impacts to health, relationships, self-sufficiency, and overall lifespan. Program designed to engage the community to improve the overall health of the community through improved community awareness and action to prevent substance misuse and underage drinking.
Where we work
Awards
Steve Wick Award for Innovative Program Development 2008
The Texas Network of Youth Services (TNOYS)
Affiliations & memberships
National Network for Youth 2010
National Safe Place 2010
United Way Member Agency 2010
Texas network of Youth Services 2020
External reviews
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Evaluation documents
Download evaluation reportsNumber of participants counseled
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Children and youth, Families
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
These numbers include services to community based clients as well as residenital youth.
Number of clients reporting increased knowledge after educational programs
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Children and youth
Related Program
Substance Abuse/Misuse Prevention and Education
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Number of clients served
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Children and youth, Families
Related Program
Counseling Services, including FAYS (Family and Youth Success) and counseling for crime victims
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
These number only reflect community based services and do not include residential counseling services.
Number of participants reporting change in behavior or cessation of activity
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Children and youth
Related Program
Counseling Services, including FAYS (Family and Youth Success) and counseling for crime victims
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
This is a percentage of the clients that closed reported a change in the behavior or cessation of the activity that lead to the initial referral for services in the community based services.
Average number of service recipients per month
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Children and youth
Related Program
Counseling Services, including FAYS (Family and Youth Success) and counseling for crime victims
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Average monthly served decreased slightly due to the average length of session increased for most clinical staff from 35 minutes to 50 minutes.
Number of direct care staff who received training in trauma informed care
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Youth Emergency Shelters
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Context Notes
We did not start focusing on trauma-informed care agency wide until 2019. At this time, it became manditory that all agency staff be trained in trauma-informed care, TBRI.
Our Sustainable Development Goals
Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.
Goals & Strategy
Reports and documents
Download strategic planLearn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
Connections aims to strengthen positive family relationships so that children have more opportunity to grow into successful, productive adults; this aim also stresses the prevention of child abuse and family violence as well as building youth resiliency and decreasing individual and family risk factors, such as substance abuse, suicide risk, homelessness, and untreated mental health issues. When this is not possible, our next aim is to protect children from harm through shelter, trauma-informed care, counseling, and support in learning the coping skills and resources to be self-sufficient, gain a sense of self-worth, recover from past trauma, manage stress effectively and safely, and resist substance abuse and/or crime. We meet our mission and aims through a variety of services for youth, adults, and families.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
We meet our mission and aims through a variety of strategies for youth, adults, and families. These include:
A 24-hour hotline for crisis intervention and crisis counseling
Education utilizing evidence-based curriculum to build youth resiliency and strengthen families, particularly with a focus on preventing child abuse, substance abuse, and juvenile crime
Counseling services for youth, families, couples and individual adults utilizing evidence-based models
Emergency shelter and trauma informed care for youth ages 5-17 who have run away, been abused or neglected, are homeless, or are experiencing intense family conflict
Transitional living services for youth ages 15-21 who are in the foster care system or who are estranged from their families. This also includes employability training, including building a resume, job search and interviewing skills, and exploring and pursuing career goals.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
Since its inception in 1981, Connections has been guided by its vision for communities where every individual is safe, valued and has the opportunity to lead a meaningful life. The agency has long-term stability in offering its core services for well over 20 years, with most of the same services offered since soon after the agency's inception. At the same time, the agency implements cutting-edge approaches in its counseling, substance abuse prevention, and residential models of care that have been researched and are nationally recognized as having proven evidence of making a positive difference. Connections also has established protocols of financial management and of evaluating its services and overall agency performance, with proven success for many years. In fact, the agency is currently building on its achievements by seeking national accreditation in social services through the Council On Accreditation (COA).
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
Connections has ensured that its employees and volunteers are trained in providing trauma informed care, in detecting and addressing signs of emerging mental health issues, and in maximizing agency and community resources to address community need. The agency implements nationally-recognized, evidence-based approaches in its services and measures the impact of these approaches for continuous quality improvement. Connections continues to improve its employee retention and prides itself on hiring, developing, and retaining employees with expertise in their field. In fact, many of the agency's employees are either certified or licensed professionals in their field of expertise, even for prevention services in which a professional license is not required. The agency is currently in the process of seeking national accreditation of its social services through the Council On Accreditation; currently, less than 10% of non-profit agencies in Texas have national accreditation.
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To identify where we are less inclusive or equitable across demographic groups, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
It is difficult to get the people we serve to respond to requests for feedback, Staff find it hard to prioritize feedback collection and review due to lack of time, It is difficult to get honest feedback from the people we serve
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
CONNECTIONS INDIVIDUAL AND FAMILY SERVICES INC
Board of directorsas of 04/29/2022
Amy Cunduff
No Affiliation
Term: 2020 - 2022
Amy Cunduff
The Heart of Illinois Special Recreation Association
Jane B. Childers, Ph.D.
Trinity University
Brent Perry
Caleb Scott
Hal Holtman
Holtman and Company
Alex Marlow
Delta Airlines
Pia Lomax
Executive Coach
Amanda Anding
Environmental Consulting
George Scofield
Lawyer
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? Yes
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Transgender Identity
Sexual orientation
Disability
Equity strategies
Last updated: 11/02/2020GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more
- We review compensation data across the organization (and by staff levels) to identify disparities by race.
- We ask team members to identify racial disparities in their programs and / or portfolios.
- We analyze disaggregated data and root causes of race disparities that impact the organization's programs, portfolios, and the populations served.
- We disaggregate data to adjust programming goals to keep pace with changing needs of the communities we support.
- We have long-term strategic plans and measurable goals for creating a culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.
- We have a promotion process that anticipates and mitigates implicit and explicit biases about people of color serving in leadership positions.
- We seek individuals from various race backgrounds for board and executive director/CEO positions within our organization.
- We have community representation at the board level, either on the board itself or through a community advisory board.
- We help senior leadership understand how to be inclusive leaders with learning approaches that emphasize reflection, iteration, and adaptability.