As the Chairman of Stewards of Change Institute, I am proud to announce that the Institute has received official recognition by the IRS as a tax exempt 501(c)(3) public charity. SOC Institute was organized exclusively to research, support, and educate the general public, government agencies, judiciary, private businesses, foundations, and not for profits about sharing and utilizing information across the continuum of health and human services.
Paul Wormeli, one of the Institute’s four new board members stated:
“The SOC Institute recognizes the transformative nature of interoperability and its inevitable impact on policy, practice and structure from the field level through executive leadership. Recent advances in interoperable technologies have dramatically changed the way that health and human service organizations can collect, share and use information among workers, across departments, functions, and even between disparate organizations in real time and in a more cost effective manner.”
In recognition of the need to find new paths to improve data sharing and interoperability efforts across health and human services, the founders of Stewards of Change Consulting supported the establishment of the Stewards of Change Institute as a charitable non-profit organization. As the Institute builds out its plans, research projects, and events it will focus on identifying emerging solutions that improve connections between service silos and outcomes for the most vulnerable populations. To realize this goal, the board members and executives of the Institute will promote a common vision for HHS interoperability and identify effective methods to link services and make data-driven decisions. Among other tools, the Institute will use the National Interoperability Community of Practice, a virtual community of practice, to share best practices and emerging trends.
The Institute intends to build on the experience of Stewards of Change Consulting. Over the past eight years, SOC Consulting has convened more than 1,000 leaders from the public, private, not-for-profit, courts and academic sectors to create a national vision and a theory of change Human Services 2.0 to guide interoperability efforts across the US. Stewards of Change Consulting will continue to offer consulting services to governments and the private sector, while the newly formed Institute will advance interoperability by focusing on research, education, and training.
Daniel Stein, cofounder and Managing Partner of Stewards of Change Consulting will also serve as the President of the Institute. As he recently stated:
“It is imperative that we establish an organization now that leverages the opportunities presented by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) to drive information sharing across health and human services. The PPACA provides the funding and administrative flexibility to leverage the enormous investments being made in our health care infrastructure to also benefit human services. With many of the ACA provisions scheduled to expire by the end of 2015, there is ever more urgency in this situation.”
I believe that Stewards of Change Institute, with support from its board members and the interoperability community, is well positioned to provide innovative leadership to improve information sharing and interoperability across Health and Human Services.
Always nice to see things geared towards nonprofit technology and the companies behind them!