Refugee services tracking system and Georgia refugee community blog 2008-2009

REFUGEE SERVICES TRACKING
SYSTEM
2008-2009 SERVICE ANALYSIS

The DHS Refugee Services Tracking System was first developed in 1998 on the Paradox platform then migrated to the Microsoft Access platform in 2002. It has two major components, the "State Database" and "Agency Database". This document will provide an analysis of the DHS Refugee Services Tracking System, dependant data sources, federal and ADHOC reports produced; and how they are used to monitor, evaluate and track the services provided by the Refugee Programs Unit and its contracted service providers. This document will also examine applied fixes, enhancements and the future of this database.
The State Refugee Database is designed to collect service and biographical data on existing and newly arrived refugees. The (Agency Database) is provided to contracted service providers as a tool to collect vital information on refugees such as name, alien number, and social security number, date of birth, country of origin, entry status, and gender. The database is structured to meet the requirements of the Service Provision Guidelines of the Refugee Programs Unit and ORR (Office of Refugee Resettlement). The State Refugee Database offers flexibility and adaptability to meet the needs of the refugee community and can be modified as needed to meet new federal guidelines.

Figure 1 Main Menu Figure 2 Contract Master

Funded by the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR)
Georgia Department of Human Services
Division of Family & Children Services Refugee Programs Unit

Several months prior to a new contract year, budgets are determined and allocated by the Refugee Programs Unit and then submitted in the form of a renewal contract to the service provider. Once the contracts are reviewed and signed off by the service provider(s) and the Department of Human Services, the service providers designate and submit how many units and dollar amounts will be used for each of the services they are contracted to provide. This information is then entered into the State Database Contract Master. In addition to entering dollar/unit amounts in the Contract Master, the funding source information Social Services Grant (SSG) and/or Targeted Assistance Grant (TAG) is entered according to the appropriate service. After each contract is entered into the State Database, an Agency Database is created and sent to the appropriate service provider. Figures 1 and 2 are examples of how the main menu of the Agency Database and the Contract Master may appear to the contracted service provider.

State Refugee Database:
The database is an important application for the contracted service providers and is used on a daily, weekly and monthly basis and assists the contracted agencies in managing their budgets and expenditures. It is also used as a performance measurement tool by the State of Georgia.
Assists contractors in tracking services such as; Employment, Employment Upgrade, English Language Instruction, Information & Referral, Interpretation & Translation, and Citizenship, Social Adjustment Services such as; the Refugee Youth and Domestic Violence programs.
Provides easy to read reports.

Figure 3 Client Master

Figure 3 is a sample of the Client Master which is accessed by selecting the Client Data button on the Main Menu. This is where the service provider enters a client's biographical data, household information, resettlement information, service and billing information. Each Tab or (back page) on the Client Master has an associated form where the service provider can enter additional information and track the applicable service provided to a client. It is critical that these back pages be filled out completely as required in the Refugee Database Tracking Manual; since the information contained in the required fields is used to measure the success and/or failures of the services provided to a client in the Performance Expectation Outcome Report.

From the Reports Menu (Figure 4) the service provider can:
1. Produce a Client List by Name or by Case Worker for a particular time period to see who, what, or when a service was provided
2. Produce an Invoice for a particular time period. 3. Produce a 90 day or 1 Year Employment Report 4. Produce a Needs Assessment Payment List 5. Produce an ESL- Attendance report for a
particular time period 6. Produce a Youth-Attendance report 7. Produce Year To Date Counts/Goals
Figure 4 Reports

The Client Master also contains the service log which is used monthly by the service provider to generate an invoice that is electronically submitted via e-mail to the Refugee Programs Unit and then imported to the State Database. Once the data is imported to the State Database an automated confirmation is sent via e-mail to the service provider alerting them that their monthly invoice data was imported. In addition, if any bugs were identified and fixed prior to the end of a billing cycle, a new database update/install would be created and distributed via encrypted e-mail to all contracted service providers affected.

DHS Refugee Services Tracking System 2008 2009 Service Analysis

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From the main menu of the Agency Database, (Figure 5) Figure 5 Main Menu
the Agency can perform the following functions:

Monthly Narratives

Each one of the services has a Monthly and Trimester Narrative that must be submitted at it's appropriate due date.

In this menu the service provider enters information on a particular program, it successes, failures, challenges, the number of people served during a particular month and collective goals whether achieved or not achieved.

Trimester Narratives

This section is where the service provider enters information on a particular program during a 4 month period and whether collective goals were achieved or not. This information is critical, since it is used to produce the ORR-6 Trimester report which gets submitted to ORR.

Performance Outcomes

This menu will produce a detailed Performance Outcome Report for each program; it will display each client served, the date, day, and individual goal information and also provide an overall summary for each program and service.
Database Security
All database updates are sent to our contracted service providers in a password protected compressed file. Once the Service Provider receives the update the authorized database supervisor must enter the password twice, once when decompressing, then once after they execute the update.
Hardware/Software Requirements: The database can be run on a standalone PC or in a Server environment to allow multiple users to perform data entries simultaneously.
Platform PC-Based system Windows 2000 or higher Access 2000 or 2003 (Access higher than
2003, not tested) Word 2000 or higher WinZip (registered version) Email clients (GroupWise, Outlook,
Outlook Express)

DHS Refugee Services Tracking System Data Sources
The data sources below serve as a supplement to the State Database, the data compiled is then incorporated into the annual reports the State Refugee Programs Unit submits to ORR and does not impact the Agency Database that service providers receive.
SUCCESS
Provides information on refugees receiving Refugee Cash Assistance (RCA), Refugee Medical Assistance (RMA) or both in the state of Georgia. Success also provides Secondary Migration data pertaining to refugees who have come to Georgia after being previously resettled in another state.
The Georgia Refugee Health Program
Provides first, second and third trimester medical screening information.
WRAPS: (Worldwide Refugee Admissions Processing System)
Provides monthly Refugee/SIV's (Special Immigrant Visa Arrivals) arrival data such as; alien registration number, name, Country of origin, Date of birth, gender and sponsoring Volunteer Agency (VOLAG) name.
Multi-County Refugee Resettlement Unit
Provides annual Refugee Status Data on Refugee's who are classified as SIV's, Asylee or Parolee.

DHS Refugee Services Tracking System 2008 2009 Service Analysis

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State Refugee Database Built-In and Customized (AdHoc) Reports
Report: ORR-6 TRIMESTER
Description: ORR uses data gathered from the ORR-6 report to determine the number of months of Refugee Cash Assistance (RCA) and Refugee Medical Assistance (RMA) use based on Appropriations. State-by-State, RCA and RMA utilization rates derived from the ORR-6 are calculated for use in formulating program initiatives, priorities, standards, budget requests, and assistance policies.
Medical Screening data is used in the Annual Report to Congress to document the number of newly arrived refugees and other eligible populations accessing medical screenings during the year.
Data Type: RCA, RMA, Medical Screenings
Source: Success database, Georgia Refugee Health Program
Report: OMB Data Collection (formerly ORR-11)
Description: ORR requires that States providing refugee social services submit secondary migration data on refugees and entrants served who arrived in the U.S. during a 5-year period. The State is also responsible to submit at this time, Social Services (SSG) data on Asylees & Entrants who they served for a 3 year period as well as, TAG (Targeted Assistance Grant) recipient data for Asylees & Entrant that were served during a specified 5 year period.
Data Type: Asylee/Parolee, Entrant, Secondary Migration data.
Source: Multi County Refugee Resettlement Unit/DFCS, VOLAGS (Volunteer Agencies), Community Based Organizations, DHS Refugee Services Tracking System (State and Agency database)
Report: Annual Outcome Goal Plan/Annual Service Plan
Description: The Annual Outcome Goal Plan report, measures employment and employability services, delivered goals, actual and projected goals of a state to provide employment to refugees. This report measures employment caseloads, unduplicated number of refugees who entered employment, Cash Assistance Recipients Placed in Jobs, Number of Federal Cash Assistance (TANF, RCA) terminations, reductions, full time employment offering health benefits, wage and job retention results.

The Annual Service Plan reflects the current services provided to refugees in the State and the total dollar amount used by Georgia to provide services to the eligible service population from the following ORR funding sources: the social service formula program, the formula targeted assistance program (TAP), the targeted assistance discretionary grant, and other discretionary grants.
Data Type: All Data
Source: State Refugee Database, Agency Database
Report (s): Ad-Hoc (customized, user defined)
Description: An Ad-Hoc report is a highly customized report that is created by Query wizard or SQL script in MS Access. A database query extracts and combines data from various tables and fields from a single or multiple sources then manipulates and transforms the data into meaningful and useful reports that analyzes a specific aspect of the Refugee Program.
Data Type: All data
Source: DHS Refugee Tracking System
Fixes/Enhancements- 2009 Database vs. 2010 Database:
Through increased training, user feed back, more frequent site visits and a soon to be released Customer Survey obtaining direct participation in future releases of the DHS Refugee Services Tracking System, a more stable; user friendly database will be realized. In addition to the above, the feasibility of elevating the DHS Refugee Tracking System to a web-based system is being explored.
The data contained in a relational database is only as good as those entering the data. Certain enhancements that were overlooked in the past were introduced into the 2010 Refugee Tracking Database to ensure that the contracted service providers enter complete, accurate and all required data.
The following grid summarizes all fixes and enhancements made to the new 2010 version of the Refugee Tracking Database compared to last contract year's version.

DHS Refugee Services Tracking System 2008 2009 Service Analysis

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2009 STATE/AGENCY DATABASE V. 10.1.2008 ISSUE'S OR BUG
The employment pages permitted required fields such as job status, DFCS status, cash assistance, health benefits and wage information to be left blank.

TYPE OF CHANGE Enhancement Enhancement
Enhancement

Contracted service providers raised a concern that having phase II service provision home management, emergency crisis intervention and health care created the need for too many line item transfer requests due to the nature and the need for these services.
After send Data to DHR was executed both invoice and client list would automatically print. The contractors felt that it was a waste of paper and money to automatically print a client list report.
Contracted service providers reported that the database was not calculating the correct funding source (SSG/TAG) on the monthly invoice.
Clients stated that tabbing on the client master as well as the back page of citizenship and naturalization was erratic and skipped required fields.
Contracted service providers raised a concern that the mm/dd/yy date format is not constant in the performance outcome report.
Date format in Report/Invoices defaults to mm/dd/yyyy.
Database was allowing incorrectly formatted Alien and Social Security numbers to be entered in to the Client Master, creating the potential for duplicate records to be created.

Enhancement Enhancement
Enhancement Break/fix Fix Fix Enhancement Fix Enhancement

The Trimester ORR-6 currently is the only semiautomated report.

Enhancement

2010 STATE/AGENCY DATABASE V. 10.1.2009
Added new Service code 51.40, back page and Performance Outcome Report for Civics Class/Citizenship & Naturalization Training. Since Employment is the most critical and closely scrutinized service, we have linked the service log and payment to the employment placement/Follow-up and employment upgrade back pages to ensure all required data is collected so the most accurate data can be reported in the ORR-6 Trimester Report which is submitted to ORR. Database PURGE/Archive feature added as a tool in the state database. This archives client master and associated service log records greater than 5 years. This process is performed twice annually and is designed to increase performance of the Agency Database that has been provided to the contracted service providers. Added new back page and performance outcome report for social adjustment/health. Consolidated 3 Social Adjustment Services, Phase II Service Provision, Home Management 50.52, Emergency Crisis Intervention 50.53 and Health Care 50.54 into one service code 50.50. The request for this change came from the contracted service providers in order to cut down on Line Item Transfer Requests.
Option provided at end of the send data to DHS process to print invoice only. In addition if the service provider decides they want a client list report a new Print Client List button has been added to the supervisor menu of the Client Database. The malfunctioning SSG/TAG calculation on the expenditure page of the invoice was identified, repaired and released in the new database.
Adjusted tabbing in the client master and citizenship and naturalization forms. The issue was identified as a Microsoft Access setting issue and was adjusted accordingly. As a result of this change, productivity has increased. Changed date format in performance outcome report to default to mm/dd/yy.
Changed date format to mm/dd/yy, once the From Date is entered, the TO DATE field is automatically populated based on the calendar month, increasing productivity.
The database now forces the correct formats are used in the Alien Number Field and Social Security Number field.
In order to clean up existing incorrectly formatted Bad Alien/Bad SS numbers on both the State and Client Database a Bad Alien Number/Bad Social Security Number Report was introduced and kicks off at the point when the Service Provider attempts to send in their monthly invoice/data file, so they can make necessary corrects to their data before the send it to us.
The State Database has been enhanced to produce automated reports such as the Annual Outcome Goal Plan, Annual Service plan, the ORR-11 (Secondary Migration) Report and ORR-6 trimester report.

DHS Refugee Services Tracking System 2008 2009 Service Analysis

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