It Takes a Village: How to Become a Good Grid Community Certified Partner

Chances are if you’re involved in the business of providing services to affected communities, you have a passion for helping others. You empathize with the plight others face and make it your personal mission to help as many people as you can. Unfortunately, this is no easy undertaking. People fall through the cracks every day, which contributes to a population of people who do not receive the wraparound services that they need.

As a caseworker dedicated to connecting people to the help they need, you may need to coordinate with other service providers in order to achieve that goal. This can be difficult due to competing schedules, out of date information on internet directories, and a general lack of understanding of where to find the services that your clients badly need.

That’s why our team at the Good Grid developed a system of training that strives to make the process of finding services for your client simpler and more efficient. Through our three-tiered training program, you will learn how to utilize the Good Grid’s various features to connect your client to the many services that are available.

Good Grid Community Certification

The Good Grid Community Certification training was enacted in order to allow service providers the opportunity to fully integrate themselves and the services they offer with the Good Grid system. It also provides an opportunity for you or your organization to connect with like-minded service providers in your community.

The Good Grid Community Certification process is made up of three tiers:

1. Good Grid Community Liaison: This person has been through any two hours of training on any aspect of the Good Grid system: the Social Hub, MyPortfolio, or the Learning Management System (LMS). These people can help anyone use the system and are advocates for meaningful collaboration in their community.
2. Good Grid Connected Partner: This certification indicates that 20 percent of the organization’s staff can adequately utilize the Good Grid system and are able to assist clients with the use of MyPortfolio. The Good Grid team will work with your organization to identify your specific needs, such as how you can best utilize the system, which staff should be trained on MyPortfolio to help clients, etc.
3. Good Grid Fully Engaged Partner: This top tier of certification indicates that you have access to and adequately utilize the Good Grid Collaborative Case Management system. You cannot bypass the first two tiers in order to take the third, as they build on each other to ensure a training that is well-rounded in nature and enables the individual or organization to maximize their effectiveness while using the Good Grid system. This also enables users to adequately train others, including clients, on how to utilize the various features of the Good Grid system.

It should be noted that the first two tiers of the Good Grid Community Certification are open to anyone who wants to take the training courses. These tools are available to anyone who wants to have a positive social impact on their community. They are also completely free, and anyone can sign up at any point. Whether you want to share resources, collaborate with other providers, or advertise services and events that you have coming up, this tool will ultimately be as effective as you make it. It is truly one of the few systems where the results match the work you put in.

The third tier, as mentioned above, is only accessible through completion of the first two tiers. This section will enable you to gain full access to all aspects of the platform as well as being able to utilize the previously mentioned Case Management System.

For a more in depth background of Good Grid’s Community Certification levels, please visit our previous blog. In this blog, we will focus on:

1. Who can become Good Grid Community Certified
2. The benefits of Good Grid Community Certification
3. The steps one should take to become Good Grid Community Certified

Who Can Become Good Grid Community Certified?

Though there are numerous organizations like the ones listed below that have become Good Grid Community Certified, individuals who are not affiliated with any specific organizations are not excluded from the first tier of training. After completing the first tier, individuals will be recognized as “Community Liaisons”. In fact, our team at the Good Grid highly recommends that individuals who are seeking to more effectively serve their community take part in this training.  

Since its inception, there are a multitude of Arkansas service providers that have become Good Grid Community Certified. These organizations are active participants in their community and have displayed their willingness and desire to help those who have fallen through the cracks. Some of these organizations include :

• Goodwill Industries: a donation-driven non-profit whose mission is “changing lives through education, training, and employment”.
• Jericho Way Resource Center: a resource center that is jointly funded by the cities of Little Rock and North Little Rock. Jericho Way Resource Center’s mission is to “identify and provide resources and services for those in need with the ultimate goal of transitioning clients out of homelessness”.
• Immerse Arkansas: a non-profit organization that aims to house, feed, educate, and care for at-risk youths as well as those who age out of the Arkansas foster care system. Immerse Arkansas “walks with youth and families toward hope, help, and healing”.
• Eaton Agency, LLC: an organization that helps individuals obtain health insurance through DHS and Healthcare.gov. This organization will act as agents and advocates for their clients throughout every step of the process.

The Benefits of Good Grid Community Certification

You may be asking “What are the benefits of me or my organization going through this training process?” and “How can I utilize what I learn to better serve my clients in the community?” There are a number of reasons why becoming Good Grid Community Certified would positively affect your ability to serve your clients and the community at large.

• Learn to effectively utilize the Good Grid system.

You will become adept at navigating the Good Grid’s cutting edge features to help their clients get the services they need. In learning how to utilize this state-of-the-art technology, you will also be able to assist others in providing services to others and to their community.

• You or your organization will benefit from being listed in the Good Grid Directory.

This gives you the opportunity to “claim” your profile and take active steps to ensure your information is correct and up to date in the system. You’ll also be able to effectively refer clients to services, advertise upcoming events, and stay up to date on the various resources your community offers. The Good Grid also serves as a convenient and easy to navigate location for all of your service providing needs.

• Get unfiltered access to follow-up support and training courses.

One of the Good Grid’s most valuable resources is our state-of-the-art Learning Management System (LMS). This amalgam of courses is designed to provide education for clients on a wide array of topics. These courses are refreshed and updated periodically.

• You or your organization will be listed on the Good Grid website as a Community Certified Partner.

After verifying or “claiming” your account and completing the first two tiers of certification , you will be included on the website as a Good Grid Community Certified Partner. This will allow others to see how invested you are in providing services to your clients and enable you to collaborate with other individuals and organizations who exhibit the same levels of commitment to service. Upon completion of the third tier, you will be recognized as a “Fully Engaged Partner”.

• Networking opportunities with likeminded individuals and organizations.

Becoming Good Grid Community Certified enables users to interface and liaise with other service providers and social impact specialists in your community. You’ll also be able to make connections in the community that will aid you in providing services to your clients in the future.

First Steps to Take to Become Good Grid Community Certified

To register your interest in becoming a Good Grid Community Certified Partner, there are a few steps we need you to take:

1. Send an email to team@goodgrid.com indicating that you are interested in becoming Good Grid Community Certified.
2. Our team at the Good Grid will follow up with you to get registered.
3. You will need to attend the training on the corresponding date and time.
4. After your training, you will be able to start utilizing the Good Grid to continue to make a difference in people’s lives!

The Good Grid community grows larger by the day, and in doing so becomes stronger and more capable of helping a wide range of clients find the services they need to succeed and thrive. In joining our Good Grid Community Certified Partners, you are effectively stating your commitment to collaborating with others to positively affect your community.