A big thank you to all who participated in the first survey on identifying readiness factors for implementing systems of care. The Child, Adolescent and Family Branch has enlisted the help of Lenore Behar and Marty Hydaker to use concept mapping to obtain feedback about community readiness from key staff and community partners of selected Phase 4, Phase 5, graduated sites, plus a panel of other “experts.”

The response to our request has been impressive!  We are delighted that so many of you wanted to offer ideas about community readiness.  We received almost 400 ideas about readiness.  We have worked to eliminate redundancies, combine ideas, and produce a manageable number of unique items for the next part of our study.  We have distilled the ideas into 109 action statements.  We are ready to ask for your help again.

This next task should take about 25 – 30 minutes.  We are asking you to rate the 109 items, using a 5-point rating scale.  We are asking you to rate them, first for importance in developing a system of care and second, for ease of implementation—in others words, how easy or hard you think it is to get this action in place.  We know we are asking for a large amount of your time, but your opinions are very important to this work and ultimately to helping sites to be more ready when they apply.

Please follow the link to the website where you will find information about how to participate.  At the website, you will find the following:
1.    a brief description of the initiative
2.    a confidentiality statement
3.    a demographic form
4.    detailed instructions about how to proceed
5.    a place to enter two sets of ratings of the 109 statements, first to rate them for importance and second, to rate them for ease of implementation.
6.    Please complete your work by July 28, 2008, 11:59 p.m. EDT

You will see that there is a place for you to enter a user ID and password on the website.  This sign-in information is only so that you can re-enter the website and continue your work.  Also, if you have problems and need technical assistance, call Dr. Lenore Behar or Mr. Marty Hydaker.  If you wish to fill in your name, address, etc., you may.  Otherwise, all responses will be anonymous.

Thank you very much for participating and for sharing your priorities with us.

William “Marty” Hydaker, M.A.           Lenore Behar, Ph.D.
Hydaker Community Consulting        Child & Family ProgramStrategies   
300 Jitterbug Lane                             1821 Woodburn Road
Cullowhee, NC  28723                        Durham, NC 27705
(828) 293-8300 (office)                      (919) 489-1888 (office)
(828) 506-8044 (cell)                          (919) 740-6362 (cell)
hydakerwm@aol.com                          lbehar@nc.rr.com