To Download the 2010-2014 Hodac Strategic Plan, please click here.

"Hodac, Inc., has experienced substantial success in numerous important efforts: education and prevention services that enable Middle Georgia youth to make healthy life decisions; reaching out to victims in their most desperate of situations - offering comfort, support, information, and referrals to better equip them in moving forward; and
providing residential and transitional housing to homeless single mothers in substance abuse recovery while providing them with the tools for recovery. This Strategic Plan sets forth Hodac's vision, goals, and strategies to continue to advance our mission and remain an integral part of Middle Georgia's growth. We remain ever grateful for those who have continued to support the mission and vision of this organization over the past five years. We look forward to continuing to strengthen and expand the legacy of "...making a difference in the lives we touch in Georgia, through education, advocacy, prevention, and intervention."
Kathy Hart
Executive Director

"As Board Chairman, I am impressed with Hodac's continuous ability to respond and adapt to the changing needs of our community. Since our founding 39 years ago, Hodac has worked tirelessly to remain dedicated to serving with honesty and integrity. We recognize that our responsibility is to provide valued human and social services to the Middle Georgia community and beyond. In the process, we never lose sight of our goal to remain an organization that delivers real and timely help. We are excited to move forward with passion and purpose to make the next five years a time of growth and change."
Arthur Head
Chairman

INTRODUCTION

Founded in 1971 as the Houston Drug and Action Council, Hodac, Inc. has evolved into a diverse organization offering a broad spectrum of human services to the Middle Georgia community and the State. Hodac's Board and staff rejoice in its many achievements and plan for its future through strategic thinking, acting, and learning to promote improved decision-making and enhanced organizational effectiveness.

Crucial to its continued success is the development of a strategic plan to serve as a blueprint for organizational innovation and effectiveness. In the spring of 2010, Hodac's Board and senior management team embarked on an intensive process of reflecting on past successes, analyzing current conditions, and envisioning the organization's future. The Plan resulting from this process outlines broad goals in key organizational areas as well as recommended strategies for implementation. However, the implementation process must allow for adaptive learning as new information becomes available and circumstances change.

As the Board of Hodac embarked on the planning process, the United States was struggling with difficult economic situations - high unemployment, increased business closures, increased housing foreclosures, and decreased revenues from government for social services. This economic reality highlights the need for Hodac to have a strong strategic plan in order to not only survive but to thrive into the future. While it is critical to understand the context of the times, this strategic planning process represents the staff and Board's commitment to quality and Hodac's role in the Middle Georgia community.

The strategic planning process began with clarifying Hodac's mission and answering the all important question:
"Why Does Hodac Exist?"

MISSION STATEMENT

Our mission is to extend a helping hand to make a difference in the lives we touch in Georgia through education, advocacy, prevention, and intervention.

In an ideal world, Hodac would not exist.  Hodac was created, however, to fulfill a public need - addressing challenging community problems to improve the lives of individuals and families.

VISION STATEMENT
To be the leader in creating a healthy community in which each person has a sense of self-worth; accepts responsibility for self, family, and community; and has the capacity to be self-sufficient.

A vision statement is a description of what the organization should look like once it has achieved its full potential. A vision statement is inspiring and focuses the energies of organizational stakeholders toward achieving the ideal.

ORGANIZATIONAL VALUES

Each organization has core values about which its stakeholders care. Values articulate how Hodac will conduct its business and serve as the foundation for ethical, responsible decision-making by Board, staff, and volunteers.

People-Centered
Collaborative
Accessible and Affordable
Innovative and Transparent
Integrity and Trust
Respect and Equity

GOALS FOR 2010-2014

To guide the work of staff and the Board over the next five years, every aspect of the organization was analyzed, and new goals were developed.

Administrative

The broad spectrum of services offered by Hodac emphasizes the importance of developing goals for each distinct division within the agency. The need to better support and better plan for the delivery of programs and services is central to building Hodac's overall capacity and sustainability. However, administrative or organizational goals supporting capacity building are equally as important as divisional or program goals.

Building capacity means securing the resources and creating the systems necessary to achieve organizational goals and include Board leadership, fundraising ability, internal systems, staff power, and community support. Strengthening an organization's ability to raise and manage money is key to building its capacity to function effectively. Capacity building also entails developing better financial controls, updating technology, and redesigning communications materials. While it is important to bring more money into the organization, it is also important to make the organization more efficient and secure.

Building and sustaining an effective nonprofit agency depends upon a number of factors including the quality of the programs offered, the skill of the board and management team in seeking and securing sources of revenue, and how much existing and potential donors understand about how the organization operates.

OBJECTIVES

• Development of a billing structure to include insurance reimbursement;
• Expansion of fee-for-service programs;
• Development and implementation of an on-going fundraising campaign for both organization and program needs; and
• Development of an endowment fund.

DESIRED OUTCOMES

• To develop and maintain financial stability;
• To diversify revenue sources;
• To provide Hodac with the financial resources to enhance services; and
• To reduce the dependence on public funding.

GOAL 1:
Hodac will strengthen its Board through focused Board development activities.

OBJECTIVES
The Board will develop specific strategies to broaden its support for Hodac through service opportunities and financial giving.

DESIRED OUTCOMES

• To improve organizational effectiveness;
• To develop new leadership; and
• To strengthen commitment to organizational giving.

GOAL 2:
Hodac will strengthen its organizational capacity through the development of new revenue streams.


Clinical Services

Gateway Cottage is a residential program offering transitional housing and supportive services to women with a history of substance abuse and their children for a maximum period of 24 months. Through its residential program, Hodac works one-on-one with clients to address their biological, psychological, social, and spiritual needs with the goal of living a substance-free life and providing their children a safe, stable, and nurturing home environment.

Through an aftercare program, clients and their children transition from residential treatment into permanent housing with supports.

The consensus of the planning group was that the Gateway Program is a financial concern. The program operates through a combination of federal, state, and private donations. However, because of the requirement for 24-hour staffing as well as the operational costs of the housing units, from time to time the program has operated in the red. Restrictions placed upon Hodac by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development significantly impact the Agency's ability to change the structure of the Gateway Program. Consistent with the Administrative Goal of new revenue streams, it is imperative that Hodac develop the means for making Gateway financially stable.
The Board and staff of Hodac agree that the expansion of clinical services is an area of opportunity. It is recognized, however, that such an expansion must be guided by sound decision making quantified through documented need and a well developed business plan. During the next five years, Hodac will lay the foundation for building its clinical services division.

OBJECTIVES

• Hodac will become a CARF (Commission on the Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities) accredited provider.
• Clinical Services staff will obtain appropriate certifications and licenses to ensure CARF compliance and enable the agency to expand its fee-for-service programs.
• Hodac will conduct a needs assessment of the Middle Georgia community to inventory existing resources, assess gaps in the service delivery system, and identify its existing internal and external assets to meet the identified gaps.
• Hodac will develop a business plan to guide the implementation process for expanding clinical services.

DESIRED OUTCOMES

• To meet internationally recognized standards for accountability, ensuring funders, insurers, and consumers of the highest quality services.
• To meet identified gaps in community mental health services.
• To provide additional revenues to offset the cost of Gateway operations and to support Hodac's overall operations.

GOAL:
Hodac will expand clinical services to the middle Georgia community.

"I have food in my refrigerator and I am not hungry anymore, but most importantly, my children have their mother back, a real one, one they can depend on, my mother has her daughter back and finally people can call me their friend. I don't hate myself anymore and I know that my life is anything but hopeless."
- Gateway Cottage graduate and current Aftercare Program client

Victim Resource Center

Hodac provides comprehensive, person-centered services to the victims of crime. Professional staff and volunteer advocates are available 24 hours a day to provide information and emotional support to the victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. Services may include assistance with navigating the complicated legal system including court notification and accompaniment; advocacy with law enforcement and the judicial system; and information and referral to community resources. Hodac is committed to keeping victims safe while, at the same time, providing the tools and support victims need to become stronger emotionally, mentally, and physically to ensure self-reliance and self-sufficiency.

"To the victim, these volunteers eased a truly awful situation. To this day, the woman remembers the volunteers
that helped her so much on the darkest day of her life. She is very thankful they were there in her time of need."
-Meredith Howell, Hodac Crime Victim Advocate, speaking about a victim to whom she provided hospital accompaniment and advocacy services

OBJECTIVES

• Increased community awareness of sexual assault and domestic violence within Houston, Peach, and Pulaski Counties.
• Increased community capacity by extending sexual assault services to Pulaski County.

DESIRED OUTCOMES

• To decrease the number of reported rapes and sexual assaults reported within Houston, Peach, and Pulaski Counties.
• To expand the services offered to victims of domestic violence and sexual assault within Houston, Peach, and Pulaski Counties.
• To train professionals about sexual assault and domestic violence, improving response and services to victims.

GOAL:
Hodac will expand services to the victims of sexual assault and domestic violence.

Information and Referral Services

Through Hodac's 24 hours a day, seven days a week, Information and Referral Call Center, staff provide confidential assistance to Georgians throughout the State, who need help to address the physical, mental, and emotional pain of drug and alcohol addiction, compulsive gambling, and crime victimization. This portion of the call center operations is funded through contracts with the State of Georgia.

In addition, Hodac serves as a United Way 2-1-1 Call Center, providing callers a link to more than 4,000 agencies statewide that offer a broad spectrum of human services depending upon the caller's unique needs. The expansion several years ago of the Call Center as the United Way 2-1-1 Call Center represents a move toward the full utilization of the Hodac staff and infrastructure resources.

The investment that has been made in personnel, equipment, and facilities presents additional opportunities for expanded services. The Board and staff acknowledge that with technology there are no geographical limitations to call center/help line operations. In addition, as outlined in the vision statement, Hodac will purposefully pursue being the leader in program delivery. Given that, the Board establishes the following goals for Information and Referral.

GOAL 1:
Hodac's Call Center operation will become accredited through the Alliance of Information and Referral Systems (AIRS).

OBJECTIVES

• All Call Center staff will become credentialed as Information and Referral Specialists through the Alliance of Information and Referral Systems (AIRS).
• Call Center operations will demonstrate full compliance with the AIRS Standards for Professional Information and Referral.

DESIRED OUTCOMES
To demonstrate quality customer service, effectiveness, creditability, and organizational capacity.

GOAL 2:
Hodac will expand Call Center operations.

OBJECTIVES
Hodac will seek and secure Call Center contracts that are consistent with its mission, vision, and values.

DESIRED OUTCOMES

• To provide additional Call Center services that meet the needs of persons in crisis or with addictive behaviors.
• To diversify revenue streams that support Hodac programs and operations.

Prevention and Education Services

Prevention and Education services provided by Hodac specialize in the provision of a wide variety of prevention education activities for Middle Georgia youth and those who care for them. Academic studies are just one component of the skills and knowledge a young person needs to develop into a healthy, successful adult. In partnership with local schools, churches, and other youth-serving organizations, Hodac's programs fill in other vital areas of skill-building that youth need to succeed, such as leadership, life skills, navigating relationships, sex education, and healthy decision making.

Hodac's Teen Center, located at Sewell Circle Park in Warner Robins, provides a safe place for Houston County youth ages 10-18 years to go after school and during the summer to participate in fun and purposeful group activities. Hodac provides health education opportunities and youth development activities for adolescents in order to reduce risk-taking behavior, foster responsible decision-making, and encourage positive peer relationships along with community involvement.

Hodac also serves the Middle Georgia community as a whole through parenting workshops, community trainings, service learning projects, and the dissemination of educational information and materials.

GOAL 1:
Hodac will expand the provision of life skills and/or health curricula to include all Houston County middle schools.

OBJECTIVES

• The partnership with the Houston County Board of Education will be strengthened, improved, and expanded.
• Middle school-aged youth will have accurate, timely information and support to deal with the challenges and opportunities of adolescent life.

DESIRED OUTCOMES

• To increase student awareness of healthy behaviors.
• To improve student decision making.

GOAL 2:
Hodac will establish an additional Teen Center in Crawford, Houston, or Peach County.

OBJECTIVES
Broadened community capacity to provide positive activities for youth.

DESIRED OUTCOMES
To develop positive self-esteem, improve decision making, and promote academic success of participating youth.

HODAC SERVICES

Laying the Groundworkfor Tomorrow's Communities through:

Information and Referral
Gateway Cottage
Clinical Services
Victim Assistance
Teen Center
Substance Abuse
Prevention and Education
Parenting Education
Relationship Education
Defensive Driving Classes
Drugs Don't Work Program
DUI Risk Reduction Classes

From Left to Right:
Kathy Hart
Executive Director
Debbie Vetter
Office Coordinator
Nicole Poss
Intervention Coordinator
Heather Carr
Prevention Coordinator
Emily Morse
Contracts Coordinator
Sherri Peavy
Assistant Director
LaShanna Stephens
Clinical Coordinator

From Left to Right:
Bruce Clark
Ann Gregory
Dr. Henry Leavengood
Helen Starling
Brad Fink
Kathy Hart
Joy Raynor
Arthur Head
Sherri Peavy
Amy Fitzpatrick
Not Pictured:
Deborah Berry-Smith
June Lowe
Pam Piper

The 2010-2014 Strategic Plan for Hodac was prepared with the assistance of the Middle Georgia Regional Commission.