Determine how your county may benefit from building a Tech Collab
The San Francisco Youth Justice and Family Well-Being Technology Collaborative (SF Tech Collab) was established as one solution to improve collaboration between agencies. The SF Tech Collab united champions from various agencies dedicated to improving access to behavioral healthcare for system-impacted clients.
Initially focused on innovative technology-based research projects to improve access to behavioral healthcare for system-impacted youth, the pandemic caused the SF Tech Collab to shift to support agencies as they adapted their existing services to shelter-in-place mandates for all their clients. Cross-agency collaboration was essential to improving service provision and ensuring long-term sustainability.
Over time, staff from other agencies (e.g., community-based organizations and clinical providers) were invited to bring their needs and expertise to the SF Tech Collab. As members navigated service provision under COVID-19 conditions, they collaborated to address challenges and implementing lessons learned to improve timely access to behavioral health services.
Now that you’ve learned about the importance of champions, continue to the next page to learn how to get started with your first meetings.
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Behavioral health services: Treatment and/or interventions for behavioral health needs.
SF Tech Collab: The San Francisco Youth Justice and Family Well-Being Technology Collaborative
Shelter-in-place: Legal mandates implemented to protect the public from a health threat. In the acute pre-vaccine phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, most jurisdictions implemented some changes consistent with requiring persons to stay home and reduce contact with others who are a vector of a communicable disease.
System-impacted youth and families: Youth (and their families) who have had contact with the juvenile legal and/or child welfare system(s) and experienced a change in their life as a result of system contact.