The Children’s Home of Reading Youth and Family Services Achieves Distinguished Accreditation
Reading, PA, June 30, 2021: The Children’s Home of Reading Youth and Family Services has achieved national accreditation through the New York-based Council on Accreditation (COA). The Children’s Home of Reading Youth and Family Services provides the following services: Mental, Behavioral, Educational, Community Programs, and Foster Care, Adoption and Post-Permanency. It took six months to achieve accreditation. Organizations pursue accreditation to demonstrate the implementation of best-practice standards in the field of human services. COA evaluated all aspects of The Children’s Home of Reading Youth and Family Services programs, services, management, and administration. To read the full article click here.
COA accreditation is an objective, independent, and reliable validation of an agency’s performance. The COA accreditation process involves a detailed review and analysis of an organization’s administration, management, and service delivery functions against international standards of best practice. The standards driving accreditation to ensure that services are well-coordinated, culturally competent, evidence-based, outcomes-oriented, and provided by a skilled and supported workforce. COA accreditation demonstrates accountability in the management of resources, sets standardized best practice thresholds for service and administration, and increases organizational capacity and accountability by creating a framework for ongoing quality improvement.
To achieve COA accreditation, The Children’s Home of Reading Youth and Family Services first provided written evidence of compliance with the COA standards. Thereafter, a group of specially trained volunteer Peer Reviewers confirmed adherence to these standards during a series of on-site interviews with trustees, staff, and clients. Based on their findings, COA’s volunteer-based Accreditation Commission voted that The Children’s Home of Reading Youth and Family Services had successfully met the criteria for accreditation.
“We involved the staff, our clients, and our stakeholders in the accreditation process, and it is a real credit to the work the team does every day to get the COA stamp of approval for the programs and services we provide to the community,” said, Dr. Vince LaSorsa, President and CEO of The Children’s Home of Reading, “It really reflects the great mental and behavioral health work that we are doing to help children and families in crisis succeed and thrive throughout Pennsylvania.”
An endorsement of COA and the value of its accreditation process is reflected in it being named by the US State Department as the sole national independent accrediting body under the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption to accredit intercountry adoption service providers. In addition, COA is the only national accreditor designated by the U.S. Department of Defense to develop accreditation standards and processes for human service programs provided to military personnel and their families.Founded in 1977, COA is an independent, not-for-profit accreditor of the full continuum of community-based behavioral health care and social service organizations in the United States and Canada. Over 2,000 organizations — voluntary, public, and proprietary; local and statewide; large and small — have either successfully achieved COA accreditation or are currently engaged in the process. Presently, COA has a total of 47 service standards that are applicable to over 125 different types of programs. To learn more about COA, please visit www.coanet.org.
The Children’s Home of Reading Youth and Family Services is the oldest human service agency in Berks County, founded by the City of Reading in 1884 to help orphan children. Today, it still offers foster care and adoption services but has become a multi-faceted organization that offers specialized mental, behavioral, and educational programming to over 1100 children and families across PA each year; with offices in Berks and Schuylkill County and the Greater Lehigh Valley and is considered a leader in providing trauma-informed care through their three residential treatment programs and two Acute Partial Hospitalization programs. To learn more visit, www.buildingkidslives.org.
