A New Study Will Examine the Strength of Our Local Social Safety Net During COVID-19
Systems for Action, a national program office of Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, is engaging The Glasser/Schoenbaum Human Services Center in a two-year $200,000 study to assess the capacity of Sarasota’s social service organizations to meet clients' needs during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“When a patient is discharged from health care settings, they often have complicating needs that go beyond medical care, such as behavioral health, addiction or employment challenges,” says Dr. Kameron Hodgens, Executive Director and CEO of Glasser/Schoenbaum. “In the face of the pandemic, those factors become exponential.”
Thanks to a previous 2017 study of the same local network in Sarasota, this new study will compare today’s network data to the recent pre-pandemic data, revealing the ways our social safety net has absorbed the intensified needs. Findings will guide efforts to strengthen the capacity of other communities to meet the health and social needs of their residents.
Glasser/Schoenbaum is steeped in the local human services network and will lead efforts to access and connect with key stakeholders. It is partnering with Visible Network Labs, a network data science and strategy company, who will lead the methodology and evaluate the outcomes of the data. Dr. Danielle Varda, CEO of Visible Network Labs and Associate Professor at UC Denver, led the 2017 study.
“It's not often that research and practice are able to connect in real time. However, the relationship we have already established with Glasser/Schoenbaum and the data we collected pre-pandemic presents a unique and potentially very valuable opportunity to learn from crisis. With this funding, we will better understand the community’s ability to respond and how partnerships can strengthen the outcome,” says Varda.
About Systems for Action:
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s national research program, Systems for Action, aims to build robust scientific evidence about how best to align the delivery and financing systems for medical care, public health, and social and community services so as to achieve sustained improvements in health and well-being for all Americans. For this study, Glasser/Schoenbaum joins a Systems for Action cohort of similar studies with University of California, Los Angeles, New York University, University of North Texas, and Johns Hopkins University.
About Visible Network Labs:
VNL is a network data science and strategy company that works closely with health, public health, and social service systems to link relational analytics to health, mental health, and wellness outcomes. They recently won first place and the People’s Choice Award in the 2020 Prime Health Innovation Challenge, to support the expansion of PARTNERme, their person-centered network tool to support social connectedness.
The staff at Glasser/Schoenbaum have done a great job of connecting the many organizations on campus and creating a space that sparks collaboration. This sense of community extends to staff and clients alike, helping to break down barriers and leading to innovative ways to serve the community as a whole.
Real estate is one of the greatest costs in a business budget. Our partnership with The Glasser/Schoenbaum Human Services Center allows more money to go towards our mission. And what better place to house our office than on a campus with nineteen other outreach agencies.
As a small organization with a staff of two, employee safety was a big consideration when we were looking for office space. We did not want our employees to be in a place where they were alone. Being on the GSHSC campus has been great because there is a whole community of like-minded professionals.
