Concluded Project - end date 9/30/2004
Ugaza Jamii
Project contacts:
Karen Cellarius, Project Manager 503-725-4112
Debi Elliott, Principal Investigator 503-725-5198
The purpose of Project Ugaza Jamii is to create an infrastructure for the coordination of comprehensive case managed community services to African American men and women with a substance abuse problems in order to increase the likelihood of their long-term recovery. Project Network, a residential substance abuse treatment center for African American women is the lead agency for a collaborative effort of four agencies in Portland that are currently providing gender and culturally specific drug and alcohol treatment services to the target population.The Regional Research Institute for Human Services serves as the technical resource for the Project.
Project Ugaza Jamii pools expertise and resources, formally links with 10 other broadbased and culturally-specific service agencies, and corrdinates a plan to provide services with the context of a comprehensive, coordinated and integrated service delivery plan that will significantly improve the quality, effectiveness and effciency of substance abuse services to the target population. The comprehensive services provided by Jamii is modeled after Best Practices, as documented in the current literature. All participants and their significant others receive substance abuse treatment and mental health assessments and have available to them the full range of substance abuse treatment services, individual and group mental health services, trauma treatment, couples group counseling, domestic violence education/mtervention, vocational assessment, job training, housing placement, primary care, and basic needs assistance as well as parenting groups and services for children, when appropriate.
We are using a web-based MIS. The case managers take on the responsibility of monitoring service provision and treatment plan compliance from the system level, checking the MIS periodically to make sure that information is being entered in a timely and useful manner across agencies. The case managers work in partnership with each client and his/her significant other to track the coordination of services being provided by the set of agencies serving each couple.
A comprehensive evaluation plan is being implemented. Process evaluation allows full documentation of the planning, development and implementation of the project. Outcome evaluation utilizes a longitudinal design consistent with CSAT's GPRA strategy.
Project Ugaza Jamii is creating a unified, focused system of care delivered by a multidisciplinary team. Interagency duplication and fragmentation is eliminated and interagency expertise is utilized. By joining together, pooling expertise and resources, formally linking with other broader-based service agencies, and developing a plan to provide services within the context of a comprehensive, coordinated and integrated service delivery plan, this project is attempting to significantly improve the quality, effectiveness and efficiency of substance abuse services to African American in N/NE Portland.