WRMA was awarded a contract by Santa Clara County, California, for a project that resulted in the examination and revision of the mission, goals and future direction of the Santa Clara County, Department of Family and Children's Services. This long-range strategic planning process also included documentation of the department's current programmatic, infrastructure, and technological status; research regarding funding streams, governmental mandates, and programmatic and organizational best practices/promising programs related to the Department's operational requirements; and a triangulation of key informant interviews, employee surveys, and a series of focus groups including all identified stakeholders. WRMA was particularly successful in obtaining input from an inclusive representation of interested parties, and in systematically and comprehensively exploring the issues raised by participants.
The research conducted by WRMA staff in both the academic and applied literature provided a unique and valuable dimension to the plan's usefulness and ease of implementation.
The process of collecting archival, quantitative, and qualitative data, and the subsequent analysis and recommendations for assuring the department's continued success, was completed and presented to the County Board of Supervisors for their review and consideration.
