Grant will help Delaware support high-risk youth and families in Wilmington, and bolster work of Family Services Cabinet Council

WILMINGTON, Del. – Governor John Carney announced on Wednesday that Delaware has received an 18-month training and technical assistance grant from the University of Pennsylvania’s Actionable Intelligence for Social Policy (AISP) Integrated Data System Learning Community to help develop an integrated data system across state agencies.

The system will help Delaware coordinate services and support young people and families in Wilmington who are at high risk of violence, and bolster the ongoing work of the Family Services Cabinet Council. Delaware was among six county and state governments to receive the technical assistance grant.

“We re-established the Family Services Cabinet Council to make sure that state agencies are working together more effectively, coordinating services on behalf of Delaware families we serve, and delivering results,” said Governor Carney. “The Council is helping confront some of our most challenging issues – including ways to break the school-to-prison pipeline, expand job training, and reduce crime in our neighborhoods. An integrated data system will help us more effectively target our resources, and reach the kids and families who need our help the most.”

“We are excited to be awarded this technical assistance grant from UPenn’s Actionable Intelligence for Social Policy,” said Dr. Kara Odom Walker, Secretary of the Delaware Department of Health and Social Services, and a board-certified family physician. “This is the technical expertise we need to help make an integrated data system a reality in Delaware, and to help us support the young people in Wilmington who are at high risk for street violence and their families. Being able to see the full picture of the services that young people and their families are receiving and their interactions with the system will help us develop interventions that are coordinated and appropriate for each family.”

Delaware’s Department of Health and Social Services will join other state agencies in working with the AISP Learning Community to plan for the implementation of an integrated data system that will establish linkages across multiple stand-alone government data systems. The technical assistance, which will begin in March 2018, will include in-person training, an online learning platform, and a full evaluation of the AISP program at the end of the 18 months. The training will cover governance of integrated data system, legal agreements, data integration and linking procedures, and identifying and carrying out research priorities.

The Data Working Group of the Family Services Cabinet Council, chaired by Secretary Walker, is comprised the eight FSCC agencies including the Department of Technology and Information (DTI). The working group is engaged in the early stages of the development of an integrated data system, drafting necessary data sharing agreements, and creating a vision for the system. The data working group is carrying forward the recommendation of the CDC report on gun violence in Wilmington. The working group also is partnering with CompassRed, a Wilmington-based data and analytics company, to identify the data needed for analysis to provide actionable, data-driven information back to DHSS that can be used to provide the right services to the right families.

“The goal is to increase collaboration between state social service agencies by developing the capacity to link and share data between agencies,” said James Collins, Chief Information Officer for the State of Delaware. “This will enable predictive analytics to better reveal which families and individuals are most at risk and deliver relevant information to social service agencies so they can respond more quickly with appropriate resources.”

The other county and state governments awarded Actionable Intelligence for Social Policy technical assistance grants are Baltimore and Miami-Dade counties and the states of Georgia, North Carolina and Vermont.

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