Department of Children's Advocacy receives recognition for environmental and social impact
The South Carolina Department of Children’s Advocacy (SCDCA) implemented automated solutions to greatly benefit the welfare of children in foster care by empowering staff with case management tools and secure central access to all documents and data related to children’s cases. The improved quality, security, and availability of this data also helps staff identify and remove barriers in child permanency cases and in the system statewide. Lindsey Taylor, director of the Foster Care Review Division at SCDCA, made the announcement during the Hyland Innovations Award Ceremony at CommunityLIVE 2023.
“When children enter foster care, it’s when a family is in crisis, and the information we’re receiving is deeply personal and confidential,” Taylor said. “Making sure we can treat and access that confidential information and take care of all cases with dignity and respect is really important.”
SCDCA examines, on a system-wide basis, the care and services provided to children in foster care, focusing on them achieving permanency in a timely fashion — a data-heavy process. To streamline process execution, SCDCA upgraded aging systems to Hyland WorkView, providing greater app development and case management capabilities to address the needs of individual child cases. SCDCA also improved data speed, access, security, and reporting with OnBase, Unity Forms, ShareBase, and other integrations — equipping Foster Care Review Board staff spanning the state’s 43 boards with fast and accurate data.
“This solution is allowing us to streamline and automate a lot of processes that have been very manual up until this point,” Taylor said. “The solution allows us to gather information and data more efficiently, manipulate the data in a better way, and view it from a higher level. We can now better identify systems gaps, make individual care recommendations, and place suggestions with legislators and people in positions of authority for improvements in the system and the removal of barriers.”
KeyMark worked in tandem with SCDCA to source, implement, and provide continuous support for Hyland solutions. SCDCA was recognized for its remarkable and positive impact in the community with the Environmental and Social Impact Award presented by Hyland at CommunityLIVE 2023 in Las Vegas.
About South Carolina Department of Children’s Advocacy
The Department of Children’s Advocacy’s mission is to champion advocacy, accountability, and service to improve outcomes for children served by state agencies in South Carolina. The DCA is an independent state agency which administers the Cass Elias McCarter Guardian ad Litem Program, Foster Care Review Division, Continuum of Care, and Investigations Units. The DCA’s leadership also serves on state committees and councils including the Suicide Prevention Coalition, the 988 Advisory Board, and the State Child Fatality Advisory Committee.