The National Council on Accreditation, also known as COA, awards one of the most comprehensive and highly recognized accreditations at the national level. Two of the three Victor agencies have already been awarded this accreditation (Victor Treatment Centers and Rosemary Children’s Services), while Victor Community Support Services only recently underwent review to add the COA accreditation to its list of credentials. The process is very thorough and the COA reviewers visited three of our sites in San Joaquin, Shasta and Nevada counties.
Their reaction was nothing short of astonishment at the quality of Victor's services, structure and staff. Doug Scott, CEO, outlined the process in a letter to the whole Victor organization, and his assessment of their feedback was simply this:
“They were "blown away."
The reviewers were onsite for 3 days, and then met with the CEO, the HR Director and a larger group to provide their feedback. Based on their comments it is clear that they were indeed “blown away” by the professionalism, preparation and personal engagement of the Victor staff.
In essence, they had no major input and were unable to find areas where we do not excel. At one point, one of the reviewers commented “This is a very impressive organization that embraces a consistent business strategy while maintaining a clear commitment to the mission and values. You clearly walk the talk.”
Along with that amazing statement, some additional highlights of their feedback were as follows:
- The Board of Directors is comprised of people very connected to the mission of the agency and is meeting all of their fiduciary and oversight responsibilities
- The Fiscal Structure and performance of the agency is very strong
- The Agency HR practices are well defined and implemented. Our internal risk management and systems are superior.
- They were very impressed with our focus on training, New Hire Orientation and Leadership/Management Development
- Our Quality Department is “Beyond Excellent.” The agency utilizes data to drive decision making.
- Program practices and staff are very impressive. They were impressed with the quality of our staff, teamwork, enthusiasm and client service delivery. (Thanks to Stockton, Redding, and Grass Valley for representing all of VCSS so well)
Given the feedback that the COA reviewers provided, it is safe to say that our TEAM values were obvious to the reviewers.
As an organization with a solid history with the COA, we know that these comments from the reviewers are quite unusual and most certainly not the norm in the accreditation process. The COA accreditation is highly recognizable and important to the counties and school districts that we work with. If this initial reaction by the COA is any indication, VCSS should be proudly displaying that accreditation soon.
We couldn’t be more excited and proud as an organization!