POTENTIAL AIRS CONFERENCE WORKSHOP SUGGESTIONS

The following is an unedited list of suggestions that came from the evaluations from AIRS Atlanta 2014 in response to an open-ended question on “what workshops would you like to see at the next AIRS Conference?”

However, this is not an exclusive list and there might be many very worthwhile issues that did not happen to come up during this process. Trust your instincts – if there is something that you believe would be an important presentation, chances are your peers will feel the same!

  • More in-depth workshop, such as key information of disaster preparedness involving emergency officials and relationships between I & R offices, or lessons learned. Rejuvenation of I & R staff, again more in depth of significance on physical, mental health and well-being playing into performance of I & R
  • Military Family courses
  • How to maintain solid relationships/partnerships when building a statewide database and how much staff time to devote.
  • Enjoyed the conference! would like to have more breakout discussion groups to hear how other states are operating. The Sunday afternoon meeting was great for discussion.
  • How to deliver exceptional service when there are no services available Tone of Voice: How voice inflections send the right or wrong messages Special Projects: selecting agency projects that impact your community and callers How to deal with Debbie Downers... we all have one. Effective strategies to deal with the negative people in your contact center Staff appreciation!! Ways to renew, inspire and show appreciation to wonderful specialists: What happens when technology fails? What is your contingency plan in the event of an outage? Crisis? Abusive callers: how do we handle them? What’s in the policy? Is it time to change the policy? Pesky non-service/referral related calls... How do we minimize these calls and turn them into referrals?
  • Military track had great workshops, hope to see that again
  • Best practices for updating - statewide and nationwide programs – across counties/regions - programs that cover multiple counties/regions
  • Coordinated Assessment for homeless programs
  • Social Security or Transportation for elderly
  • I would like to see more on diversity and not the usual suspects. Urban/Rural issues, LGBT, more experiential learning experiences based on current trends.
  • AIRS Accreditation 101, Getting started
  • Networking between 211 and AAA
  • More how to instead of "This is what we did". It made most of them sound like reports instead of teaching. You can use this is what we did in the context of what you're teaching others, but it shouldn't be the drive behind it.
  • Continuation of the conversations started in the database assembly i.e. database metrics and database quality assessments
  • Person-Centeredness. Medicare/Medicaid. Estate Recovery. End-of-life planning. Cultural Diversity.
  • Management -Dealing with difficult employees or conflict among employees
  • I would like to see more training for staff that are I&R. Not management or directors. Folks that are on the ground,doing the work each day. for example, thinking outside the box to find a solution to financial problems, how toencourage family members to do the right thing, ( for example if they need to call APS or law enforcement on afamily member ) How about a track/training on suicide, the kind that those that work on hotlines get? those of usthat do I&R, when we do come across those kinds of calls would greatly benefit from more training. In summary,some training that gets into the weeds of what I&R specialist encounter every day.
  • I would suggest a Research with 211s Track
  • More healthcare topics, compassion fatigue, improving management of I&R systems
  • I think we really need to continue discussion around technology and data management. This is critical to oursustainability and credibility as I&Rs.
  • More on outreach & collaborations!
  • There were a good variety of topics. However, some classes were really geared towards beginners in subjects. Ithink each class should have some detailed and expert information for those who are familiar with a topic.
  • Cultural diversity - how to serve using a language line and the LEP population. More practical information on
  • Developing a good disaster plan - not just lessons learned - back to the basics for disaster.
  • How Technology Can Improve Access; Funding and Sustainability; Better Use of 2-1-1 Data; Strategic Planning
  • Interested in the Open Referral topic
  • Marketing/branding. Keep on with the "using your data" topics - very helpful.
  • The standards of I&R
  • Moving out of silos
  • Preparing for disasters - actually show a prepper backpack and give information on what to have handy
  • How to improve training for specialists
  • Shared resource data processes, open referral, strategies for engaging local specialized I&R in collaboratives,
  • AIRS membership recruitment strategies
  • Tracks for beginners and those who are more advanced
  • Target terms and when to use them. How to deescalate angry callers, how to recognize and address a caller who is suicidal, how to make work flowmore organized and seamless in a call center, how to motivate staff (without hugging and without half the daydedicated to how to punish staff), how to make working in a call center fun and efficient, actual stories of peoplewho used call centers and it changed their life and how.
  • Cultural Competency, Crisis call handling, more disability classes!
  • I would love a workshop focused on increasing staff motivation as I think that this is something that many centersstruggle with in the nonprofit sector.
  • Sharing responsibility for updating on three levels National, State, County
  • Technology Continued
  • Focusing more on Elder Abuse.
  • Mental illness and aging--finding supports
  • Workshops tailored more toward the AAAD's. Private Pay Opportunities.-Software Training- Ideas for Outreachand Fundraising-
  • More how to subjects. Transportation always seems to be a big issue and I think it could be addressed better withmore information and resources.
  • Technology and innovative programs for tracking outcomes
  • Open question session to the board
  • Navigating Medicaid especially the Aged and Disabled Waiver; how to handle angry callers.
  • Target Terms, Networking in your Community
  • How to manage with less and less resources within your organization and also within the community.
  • Tools that I&R folks can actually use, like solutions based therapy, panels, etc.
  • Two tracks for Resource Database: a beginner track and an advanced track. Several suggestions were made atthe G-9: Resource Database Open House - Final Session. Also, Iwould like the opportunity to learn more about national/state opportunities for funding. In addition, continue toappreciate the technology track, and I look forward to next new topics and ideas in this area.
  • Anything the Ontario 2-1-1 team wants to talk about. They structured their presentation exceptionally well,starting by sharing clearly defined goals/takeaways in their opening, to very engaging breakouts to discuss casestudies. Highly recommend their format be shared to provide guidance for future presenters.
  • Funding for 2-1-1
  • Helping the Care Recipient maintain Independence in their home and community. Perhaps Companionship.
  • Maybe have some workshops preparing people for the CRS CIRS exams
  • Continued workshops showing how military and community providers work together.
  • Whatever 2-1-1 San Diego has prepared. They are AWESOME!!!!
  • How to communicate with callers who have had strokes or are hard to hear
  • Continue with best practices in all program related area and how IR/A is essential to all services.
  • A session on preparing for AIRS certification.
  • Military track with more info for Active Duty Soldiers and Families. Specifically our geo dispersed
  • SC THRIVE
  • How to get Accreditation
  • Continued workshops about evolutions in disability services sector (such as Rights in Passage this year),evolutions in ACA, maybe someone who can help generate questions to determine need for and tips to find
  • Resources for financial assistance for a variety of groups (with disabilities, basic needs, aging, etc.).
  • Interoperability. Open data business models. What is open source?
  • New programs and tech
  • I am not sure if this should be done, but I would like to see vendor specific and genre specific reportingworkshops.
  • I would like to see more on various types of reporting. I know that can depend on software vendors though.
  • Perhaps a show and tell session where people can bring their infographics, reports and other visuals to shareideas and brainstorm better ways to make reports more user friendly.
  • More topics around Q&A and performance measurements.
  • More topics for agencies re database updates, etc. 6
  • More management track - ABC's for call centers (for new staff) Nonprofit/For profit call center differences
  • Wellness in the workplace - stress relief - yoga
  • Funding for Options Counseling, i.e., how to obtain state match dollars. Sustainability for the ADRC initiative.
  • More on call centers and sound business practices.
  • More on supervision of staff
  • Would like to see more Area Agency on Aging, ADRC presenters. The 211 world is quite different from an AAAI&R world and would like to hear more about what other AAAs are doing and new initiatives/best practices.
  • Managing government contracts. Government Contracting 101. Light overview of FAR etc. What you need toknow to stay out of trouble.
  • More veteran related information/ Training /I&R