• Aurora Family Service at a Glance
• Our Purpose
• Our Donors

Aurora Family Service 2010 Annual Report

Our purpose

At Aurora Family Service, we help families live well. It's our purpose and what we do every day. We recognize that family challenges are rarely isolated. What impacts one family member affects the whole family and, in turn, the greater community. By keeping critical services accessible to those in need, we're doing our part to help keep families whole and communities strong.

As part of Aurora Health Care, we bring family focus and service competencies to Wisconsin's most comprehensive integrated health care provider. We are part of the Better Outcomes for Older Adults through Safe Transitions (BOOST) team at Aurora West Allis Medical Center. This team provides transition planning and in-home support and guidance for families with older members who are hospitalized. We support Aurora's efforts to provide a well-coordinated and outstanding patient experience by connecting uninsured patients and their families to health care coverage and a range of community resources to support recovery and good health.

Measuring our impact

Our clients depend on us to provide resources and a best practice approach that is of the highest professional caliber. In 2010 we focused on providing excellent service and measuring the impact of our work more than ever. A few key highlights include:

• Aurora Family Service holds two national accreditations
  1. Council on Accreditation (COA) for services to families, including mental health services, community case management, financial counseling and literacy education – a level of accreditation held by only seven social service organizations in Wisconsin.
  2. Council on Accreditation for Marriage and Family Therapy Education (COAMT) for Family Therapy Training Institute post-graduate training in systemic family therapy – the only such training program embedded in a health care system.
• We participate in a community-wide outcomes project for five funded programs. In 2010, we attained top-quartile rating for outcomes and reporting across all five programs.
• AWARDS electronic record
  In 2010, AFS moved to a leading-edge web-based electronic record and work management system, enabling real-time scheduling, reporting, trend analysis and outcome measurement.

Improving the client experience

It's important that the services we provide at Aurora Family Service are personalized to meet our clients' needs. A focus on convenient access, cultural proficiency and the engagement of our own caregivers all helped us meet that goal in 2010.

Accessibility highlights

• Our Highland Clinic provides families with counseling and mental health services regardless of ability to pay. In 2010, the clinic provided $340,000 in uncompensated care.
• We provided universal screening 684 at-risk mothers and infants at Aurora Sinai Medical Center, as well as information on community resources and in-home support services to those requesting continued support and guidance.
• The majority of our services were delivered in clients' homes and home communities.

Cultural proficiency

Cultural proficiency is a hallmark of our service delivery and an integral part of our 2010 annual plan.

• Caregiver education, process reviews, strong relationships with community providers, attention to the environment and forums for discussion and growth were all included in the agency's Cultural Proficiency Plan in 2010.
• Through our Diversity Council, caregivers provide leadership and advice to Aurora Family Service management.
• The Race, Families and Milwaukee Summit provides awareness and expertise to the community. The focus of the 2010 summit was on infant mortality. A diverse crowd of over 300 people participated in the event that featured keynote speaker Kumea Goodin-Shorter, author of "Shifting – the Double Lives of Black Women in America."
• In 2010, we expanded our Community Advisory Committee. Building on the Financial Wellness Committee established in 1975, advisory committees bring expertise from the wider community (including consumers) into service planning, new service development, outreach and communication.

Caregiver engagement and stability

Building relationships is one of our most important goals. The engagement and stability of caregivers is key to client satisfaction and maintaining strong relationships with our community partners.

• The average length of service for Aurora Family Service caregivers is nine years.
• All supervisors and managers have been in the field for ten or more years.
• We've served the community for 128 years and established a consistent reputation for reliability.
• Our client satisfaction scores are consistently in the top quartile (96 percent)
• Aurora Family Service caregiver turnover in 2010 was only 4 percent, as compared to the industry standard for social service agencies of 20 percent.