The vision of Harvest Food & Outreach Center is to see a community where every family has access to basic needs, nutritional food and adequate housing. Their goal is to see that no family struggles alone in times of crisis or hardship. This is accomplished when every child and family has the opportunity to have an empowering education, quality healthcare and a future filled with faith, hope and love.

With FAMCare - Harvest Food & Outreach's goal is to improve upon an already successful programming by including secure, web-based case management technology to improve productivity and information management. 

We're honored to have them as a new client.

You can learn more about the Abba House story and why they are so successful - through the words of their founder, Jim Sharp - over on the FAMCare case management solutions website.

Founded by Jim and Chris Sharp in 1992, the facility serves women and their children.  Restoration of the family unit is one of the main objectives at Abba House.  “Abba is family-centric… and with FAMCare, they are able to capture data relevant to family outcomes,” says George Ritacco, Executive Director, Client Services at GVT.

The core FAMCare case management platform was built for child welfare case management, and acts as a COTS/hybrid solution – with tailoring for each system to match the individual workflow and business rules for each client.  Abba’s FAMCare system has been tailored to capture data specifically related to their core focus – helping women with addictions and emotional wounding. 

Paper forms were transformed into online data entry forms.  Users populate their client records through a simple point and click effort and can connect to the system from anywhere with an Internet connection, even from a mobile device such as a Blackberry.  This enables caseworkers to remain in front of their critical data as needed.  FAMCare contains all of the necessary elements to help Abba build robust case profiles for their clients and delivers critical information in real-time, when the caseworkers need it most.  The team now has access to up to the minute alerts from pre-defined triggers of upcoming events and appointments and managers and directors are able to identify problem trends and delinquent cases as they occur.

 “Incorporating a web-based case management solution like FAMCare®  only helps our team become more efficient, gain regular access to critical data and make better decisions that will continue to improve outcomes for our clients, said Abba’s founder, Jim Sharp.  

 “We’re very proud of our new partnership and look forward to helping Abba achieve their next milestone.  Because FAMCare is a flexible human services solution, it can be tailored and scaled as Abba grows – allowing them to leverage new features when the need arises,” remarked Ritacco.

Thanks to a three-year effort by the Sharps and others, the Rural Development Department of the USDA has approved a $1.55 million-dollar loan to expand Abba House with a 22,000 sq. ft. building that will enable the ministry to triple its current capacity.  And recently, American Proteins owner Tommy Bagwell   recently committed to providing a $150,000 matching grant to the organization.

"This [grant] from the Bagwells puts us within $300,000 to $400,000 of reaching our goal and being able to break ground on the project," Sharp said. "I'd estimate, we should be ready to start building within the next six months."

The new data management tool should be a perfect complement to an already expanding infrastructure. 

About Abba House
Abba House is a 12-month minimum residential ministry for women with emotional wounding. Abba House is a safe place for women to come and receive God’s love and forgiveness.  For more information, please visit:  http://www.abbahouse.com     

About Global Vision Technologies
GVT is a provider of world-class information management solutions for child welfare and human services case management, patient registries, and e-learning management.  The company strength is derived from its ability to rapidly deliver tailored, cost effective and proven web-based tools that save organizations time and money by improving time to ramp up, while reducing overall training and support costs. 

For more information, contact:  George Ritacco, Global Vision Technologies (877)-791-4367 ext. 85 or visit us on the web at http://www.globalvisiontech.com    

George Ritacco
Global Vision Technologies, Inc.
877.791.4367 Ext. 85
george.ritacco@globalvisiontech.com
www.globalvisiontech.com

SOURCE Global Vision Technologies, Inc.

###

 
About Global Vision Technologies
GVT is a provider of world-class information management solutions for child welfare and human services case management, patient registries, and e-learning management. The company strength is derived from its ability to rapidly deliver tailored, cost effective and proven web-based tools that save organizations time and money by improving time to ramp up, while reducing overall training and support costs. For more information visit: http://www.globalvisiontech.com 


George Ritacco
Global Vision Technologies, Inc.
877.791.4367 Ext. 85
george.ritacco@globalvisiontech.com
www.globalvisiontech.com

###
 

Results from the beta pilot were consistent. Prior to using the technology, the user group had suffered from what many case workers deal with everyday… a backlog of cases, limited resources, asked to do more with less and no solid set of tools to help. The group wanted a more streamlined and real-time way to collect case notes, review cases and share information back with management at the home office.

Historically, the user group had been typically collecting case notes in a note pad - and typing the information back into the system at a later time - from their notes or from memory. The inherent pitfalls were obvious enough (items lost or forgotten, growing backlog of case management, etc.,)

Here are some of the comments and benefits the team received and discussed during the pilot. "We can now enter client information and observations, as they occur. We can inform our team of changes to a client's situation instantly from our mobile devices." Another comment referenced a renewed sense of real productivity when it comes to eliminating repetitive work... "I no longer take notes in a notebook and have to wait to return to the office to update client records. No more repetitive work!"

A final comment spoke of the benefits of being able to spend more quality time with clients... "I am more focused now - I'm able to spend more time in the field supervising clients, instead of watching my cases pile up." “Overall, the program was a success and we’ve received some really great comments. We're looking forward to more feedback as the program and application evolves,” remarked George Ritacco, Executive Director, Client Services at GVT.

A list of user benefits include:

• Access FAMCare® from a Windows Mobile-enabled, hand-held device (instant access to client information)
• Enter notes or important information immediately
• Communicate with the team and share findings with supervisors as observations are made in the field
• Eliminate 'repetitive' work, such as writing notes on location and then typing them into a computer later.
• Eliminate 'down-time' (enter notes from any location - at court hearings, at meetings, etc.,)
• Spend more time in the field supervising clients
• Case notes are more accurate, decisions can be made faster and information is instantly available to other team members or supervisors
• Save agency money - data entry is streamlined

About Global Vision Technologies Inc.
GVT specializes in providing both off the shelf and customized solutions in three main areas: child welfare and human services software, e-learning management solutions and patient registry software and provides its clients with advanced web-based technologies that improve effectiveness and decision making.

George Ritacco
Global Vision Technologies, Inc.
877.791.4367 Ext. 85
george.ritacco@globalvisiontech.com
www.globalvisiontech.com  
 

GVT developed the FAMCare enterprise platform in 1997. At that time – FAMCare was the only human services case management application that was actually web-based. FAMCare allowed caseworkers and their supervisors the ability to access their system from any location with an Internet connection, which translated to improved productivity on many levels. FAMCare went on to become a leading provider of child welfare and juvenile justice management software for larger organizations.

With FAMCare Lite, GVT has contributed something to the community of caseworkers - that is cost effective and promises to deliver a high ROI. “A system like FAMCare Lite that is rich with solid features and reporting, easy-to-use forms, and affordably priced, makes it a real viable information management tool especially now when organizations are feeling the “tightening” and “toughness” of our current economy,” said Ritacco.

According to GVT – adopters of FAMCare Lite do not need to build the system infrastructure to manage the application. Nor do they need to worry about system maintenance, backups, bandwidth or hosting. The hosting, data and infrastructure is managed and maintained by the GVT team allowing users more time to concentrate on managing their operation and taking care of the kids and families under their care. “The system is simple enough for caseworkers from various disciplines: child welfare, juvenile justice, adult protective services, detention, substance abuse facilities, domestic violence treatment facilities and others - to start using immediately to track their information,” said Ritacco.

Some of the benefits include:

• Solid Reporting and Tracking Metrics.
• Instant Access to Critical Data
• Mobile Technology Access
• Collaborative Case Management and Monitoring
• Staff Management / Dashboard
• Customizable Treatment Plans
• Flexible Forms and Fields
• Full Legal and Medical Tracking History – HIPAA Compliant

The system is completely scalable, so larger organizations can grow beyond the Lite version and incorporate more modules and customizations as their needs change. "Our goal with FAMCare Lite was to make advanced case management, easy to adopt and leverage - for all of our friends in need of child welfare software or human services software," continued Ritacco.

For more information visit: FAMCare.

About Global Vision Technologies Inc.
GVT specializes in providing both off the shelf and customized solutions in three main areas: child welfare and human services software, e-learning management solutions and patient registry software and provides its clients with advanced web-based technologies that improve effectiveness and decision making.

George Ritacco
Global Vision Technologies, Inc.
877.791.4367 Ext. 85
george.ritacco@globalvisiontech.com
www.globalvisiontech.com