Southwest Human Development
Creating a Positive Future for Young Children
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Early experiences matter. What we see and hear as young children sets a course for a lifelong process of discovery of ourselves and of the world around us. Science has documented that our earliest days, weeks, months and years of life are a period of important growth and development. At birth, children have cognitive, social and emotional potential that reflect a combination of genetic and environmental influences. As children, our health and development are directly influenced by the quality of care and experiences we have with parents and other caregivers. How we are held, talked to and cared for teaches us about who we are and how we are valued. This profoundly shapes who we will become. The investments we make today in young children provide an important foundation for human development, with critical links to economic earnings and opportunity later in life.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Head Start
Southwest Human Development Head Start, Early Head Start and Early Head Start-Child Care Partnerships are comprehensive, high-quality child development programs that promote school readiness for pregnant women, children ages birth to 5 and their families. Through a two-generation approach, the Head Start, Early Head Start and Early Head Start-Child Care Partnership programs partner with families to support the growth and development of each child and their family in a positive learning environment through a variety of services.
Family Support Services
Southwest Human Development offers an array of education and support services for families to help parents and caregivers as they raise their children. We believe that all caregivers have the desire to improve their parenting skills and behaviors, while promoting positive parent-child interactions, enhancing their child’s health and development, and increasing their family’s economic well-being.
Services for Children with Disabilities
Parents who are worried about their child’s development or behavior often find themselves going from one specialist to another, telling their story over and over as they look for answers to their questions. Our One Child, One Family, One Team approach is designed to help parents avoid this frustrating process and get their children the care they need. Our professional team of pediatric specialists provides integrated care – members meet regularly, collaborate and ensure that all advice, evaluations and treatments are coordinated. We specialize in children ages birth to 5 – a time when intervention can make a real and lasting difference. All team members have knowledge about the many factors that influence a child’s health and well-being, including environment, relationships, the events in a child and family’s life, the child’s development, and medical conditions. We know that each child is one-of-a-kind so we work in partnership with parents to understand their child and create plans together to ensure each family has the support they need.
Mental Health Services
Parenting today can feel overwhelming. With so much information available, how do you know if you are doing the “right” thing for your child? How do you know when normal behavior becomes problem behavior? Family, friends and pediatricians may offer advice, but sometimes it is not enough. When there are concerns, parents and caregivers are often told their child will “grow out of it.” While this may happen, research and practical experience show that many untreated problems can and do become more serious with age. Our psychologists and therapists work exclusively with infants, toddlers, preschoolers and their families. Services are provided in your home or our offices and cover questions and challenges in a wide range of areas. The cause of these concerns may be unclear, and may be the result of a past event such as prematurity, illness, divorce and separation, developmental delay, loss of a loved one or trauma. Whatever the cause, we work in partnership with families to determine the best option for helping each child as a unique individual.
Professional Development and Training
Southwest Human Development offers nationally recognized education and training programs to professionals and organizations working with young children across Arizona, the U.S. and internationally. The agency is committed to training that is interactive and applicable to everyday work with children and families. Key elements include group participation, discussion of real-life problems and implementation of ideas learned during the training experience.
Where we work
Awards
Best Places to Work 2014
Phoenix Business Journal
Commitment to Underserved People 2012
Arizona Public Health Association
Healthiest Employers 2014
Phoenix Business Journal
Best Walk 2012
Easter Seals
Best Places to Work 2015
Phoenix Business Journal
Healthiest Employers 2016
Phoenix Business Journal
Best Places to Work 2016
Phoenix Business Journal
Healthiest Employers 2015
Phoenix Business Journal
Best Places to Work 2013
Phoenix Business Journal
Best Places to Work 2012
Phoenix Business Journal
Best Places to Work 2017
Phoenix Business Journal
Best Places to Work 2018
Phoenix Business Journal
Healthiest Employers 2017
Phoenix Business Journal
Healthiest Employers 2019
Phoenix Business Journal
Best Places to Work 2019
Phoenix Business Journal
Healthiest Employers 2020
Phoenix Business Journal
Best Places to Work 2020
Phoenix Business Journal
Affiliations & memberships
Easterseals 2007
Educare Arizona 2010
External reviews
Photos
Videos
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Total number of conferences held
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Mental Health Services
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Birth to Five Helpline conference
Our Sustainable Development Goals
Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.
Goals & Strategy
Learn 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?
Strategic Goal # 1: Achieve program financial sustainability
Strategic Goal #2: Increase brand recognition of Southwest Human Development, its mission, programs and services and the importance of early childhood among key audiences using a content marketing strategy
Strategic Goal # 3: Ensure long-term leadership excellence
Strategic Goal # 4: Optimize organizational infrastructure and efficiency
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
Strategic Goal # 1: Achieve program financial sustainability
1. Explore options for further sustainability, funding diversification and potential strategic partnerships.
2. Board members fundraise for specific programs.
3. Board members engage in advocacy.
Strategic Goal #2: Increase brand recognition of Southwest Human Development, its mission, programs and services and the importance of early childhood among key audiences using a content marketing strategy
1. Develop an updated messaging platform for the agency with a specific goal of tying together the myriad of programs into a collective and consistent messaging platform.
2. Develop marketing assets that help the agency tell stories about itself and its constituents.
Strategic Goal # 3: Ensure long-term leadership excellence
1. Invest in leadership development.
2. Invest in staff retention.
3. Develop succession planning process.
Strategic Goal # 4: Optimize organizational infrastructure and efficiency
1. For each operational area, identify efficiency improvement opportunities and implement common processes, policies, and procedures at an agency level.
2. Check-handling Procedures
3. Procedure for Ordering Business Cards
4. Provide appropriate training to Managers to access budgets in MIP
5. Updated Employee Manual
6. Updated Agency Policies and Procedures Admin Manual (for Managers)
7. Roll out of plan to reduce HR paperwork
8. Develop internal HR roles and responsibilities
9. IT tips & training opportunities
10. Plan to reduce paperwork and streamline the purchasing and expense reimbursement processes
11. Efficiency Meetings
12. Identify opportunities for greater alignment of SWHD IT and Head Start IT.
13. Developing process for contracts, business agreements and certificates of insurance
14. HIPPA Privacy Notices and Consent Forms
15. Comprehensive Recruitment Plan
16. Intern onboarding policy
17. E-mail Etiquette Protocols
18. High Level Automation Blueprint
19. Check-handling procedures
20. Procedure for ordering business cards
21. Plan for accessing financial reports
22. Updated Personnel Lists, Salary Schedule, and Job Descriptions accessible to all authorized personnel.
23. Scanning/Shredding Project and Annual Tasks
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
Strategic Goal # 1: Achieve program financial sustainability
1. Conduct individual strategic planning sessions and developed strategic plans for the ADAPT Shop, CDC, Language & Literacy and the Birth to Five Helpline/Fussy Baby programs.
2. Explore funding diversification opportunities for programs.
3. Self-select program, meet with leadership, and engage in fundraising.
4. Recruit board members willing to engage in fundraising.
5. Identify interested board members, cultivate relationships, set goals, and deliver messages/exert influence.
6. Recruit an expert in government relations to the board.
Strategic Goal #2: Increase brand recognition of Southwest Human Development, its mission, programs and services and the importance of early childhood among key audiences using a content marketing strategy
1. Assess feedback from Strategic Planning breakout session and from stakeholder survey.
2. Evaluate SWHD messaging against other agencies offering similar services.
3. Evaluate and refine overarching messaging.
4. Create and share new messaging with internal constituents.
5. Incorporate relevant feedback from internal constituents into final document.
6. Revisit messaging platform each year to ensure messaging is current.
7. Review and evaluate existing marketing assets for consistency with new messaging platform.
8. Update marketing assets as necessary with new messaging.
9. Develop new marketing assets materials to more fully tell the story of the agency and the people it serves.
Strategic Goal # 3: Ensure long-term leadership excellence
1. Continue to develop Leadership Academy and coaching for leaders.
2. Provide opportunities for infrastructure training, e.g., fiscal tasks, meeting facilitation, human resources, committees, management systems planning, and strategic planning.
3. Develop talent organically and ensure structured knowledge transfer.
Strategic Goal # 4: Optimize organizational infrastructure and efficiency
1. Develop a plan, estimate costs, and set priorities.
2. Clarify and, if needed, streamline process for receiving, logging, and notifying the CDO and CEO about checks received.
3. Move responsibility from Development to HR
4. Review and updates to the Employee Manual.
5. Complete review and update of the agency policies and procedures manual.
6. Identify paperwork bottlenecks and redundancies and develop Plan to Reduce HR Paperwork.
7. Develop and disseminate HR Roles & Responsibilities document.
8. Disseminate, in multiple ways, information about using Outlook and other existing tools for efficient scheduling of meetings, streamlining administrative tasks, and getting better within the agency at using the tools it already has.
9. Bill and Annette to meet and discuss and follow up with Agency Efficiency Leadership Team.
10. Hold meeting of Finance, IT, and HR leadership every other month.
11. Hold conversations between SWHD and IT Head Start personnel
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
Strategic Goal # 1: Achieve program financial sustainability
1. Complete - Report backs on the above plans were presented at Board meetings. Strategic plan items related to messaging/branding, funding and sustainability have been sent to the Fund Development and Marketing, Communications and PR Committees for additional work, review, feedback etc.
2. Actively investigating new and diversified revenue sources to support programs.
3. Complete - All board members have selected one or more individual programs to focus their fundraising efforts on.
4. In Process: The Board Development Committee put together a list of potential board candidates and are meeting with them.
5. In Progress: The Board Development Committee put together a list of potential board candidates and are meeting with them.
6. In Progress: Several of the potential board candidates have backgrounds in government relations.
Strategic Goal #2: Increase brand recognition of Southwest Human Development, its mission, programs and services and the importance of early childhood among key audiences using a content marketing strategy
1. Complete Messaging Platform presented to the Board of Directors at the 9/13/16 meeting; agency leadership and staff on 9/14/16.
2. In Progress
Strategic Goal # 3: Ensure long-term leadership excellence
1. Facilitated a strategic planning session on agency leadership with SWHD's Directors. Work is underway to develop and implement a leadership development plan.
2. CEO and Agency Directors held a one-day strategic planning session on 10/28/16 facilitated by Judy Bertacchi focused on leadership and are working on developing a plan, set priorities, further refine action steps and develop measures of success.
3. In Progress
Strategic Goal # 4: Optimize organizational infrastructure and efficiency
1. Sharon Flanagan facilitated an agency efficiency strategic planning session with CEO, HR, Facilities, IT, and Finance Directors. The group developed the strategic plan outlined below to achieve/support Strategic Goal #4.
2. Complete
3. Complete
4. Ongoing
5. Complete
6. In Progress
7. In Progress
8. In Progress
9. In Progress
10. In Progress
11. In Progress
12. In Progress
13. In Progress
14. In Progress
15. Complete
16. Complete
18. Complete
19. Complete
20. Complete
21. Complete
22. Complete
23. Complete
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, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
We collect feedback from the people we serve at least annually, We take steps to get feedback from marginalized or under-represented people, We aim to collect feedback from as many people we serve as possible, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We look for patterns in feedback based on demographics (e.g., race, age, gender, etc.), We look for patterns in feedback based on people’s interactions with us (e.g., site, frequency of service, etc.), We engage the people who provide feedback in looking for ways we can improve in response, We act on the feedback we receive
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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, It is difficult to find the ongoing funding to support feedback collection
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.
Southwest Human Development
Board of directorsas of 06/12/2023
Julie Shaw
Zandra O'Keefe
BeachFleischman
Mark Anderson
Delta Dental of Arizona
Karen Ramos
Heidi Baldwin
Heidi K. Baldwin, PLLC
John Balitis
Jennings Strouss
Stefanie Layton
Offerpad
Julie Shaw
Tina Gounder
Head Start Policy Council
Benjamin Goetter
Mortenson
Tom Hoof
Ottawa Senators
Christine Nowaczyk
BOK Financial
Bridget Olesiewicz
Vanguard
James Van Steenhuyse
Stifel
Isaiah Wilson II
Head Start Policy Council
Bill McClung
Mary-Sara Jones
Amazon Web Services
Peter Kolesar
Kolesar Insurance
Cathleen Walker
PNC
Chris Thomas
Perkins Coie
Michael Jon Marsh
Colliers International
Sam Leyvas
HomeAid Phoenix
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
No data
Transgender Identity
No data
Sexual orientation
No data
Disability
No data
Equity strategies
Last updated: 02/16/2022GuideStar 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 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 employ non-traditional ways of gathering feedback on programs and trainings, which may include interviews, roundtables, and external reviews with/by community stakeholders.
- We disaggregate data by demographics, including race, in every policy and program measured.
- 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 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.
- We measure and then disaggregate job satisfaction and retention data by race, function, level, and/or team.
- We engage everyone, from the board to staff levels of the organization, in race equity work and ensure that individuals understand their roles in creating culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.