Monday, December 29, 2008

PATHWAYS COMPASS release V5.10.0.0

Pathways released V5.10.0.0 on December 30, 2008. This release includes the following additions and modifications to PATHWAYS COMPASS: Password Reset, Bookmark/Favorites and a modification to the Duplicate ID popup window.

Password Reset:
This function will allow the user to reset their password. This new link will be visible on the login screen under the User ID and Password box. You will now be able to click on the Forgot Password link, enter your User Id and the new password will be sent to your email address on file. If you do not receive the new password or aren't certain we have your current email address, contact the Support Team.

Add Bookmark/Favorites:
This function will allow you to quickly Bookmark or Add to your Favorites the PATHWAYS COMPASS login page.

Duplicate ID popup window:
This is a modification to the current Duplicate ID message and to the OK and Cancel options. Below is the new pop up message for the Duplicate ID.

The ID you just entered is already in the system. Please avoid saving duplicate IDs, especially Social Security numbers.

--If you think you might have typed the ID incorrectly, click OK (or press Enter) and go back and change it
OR
--Click Search on the Main menu, find the client with the same ID and work with that client record
OR
--Click Cancel to save a new client record. CAUTION: If you do this a duplicate ID will be created
OR
--Contact the Support Team for further assistance.

If you have further questions on the new release, you can contact the Support Team at 404-639-9933 option 2, toll free at 866-818-1032 option 2 or via email at support@pcni.org.

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

2008 Collaboration Awards Announced

Five highly collaborative organizations have been honored with 2008 Pathways C3 Awards.

The C3 Awards, given during a reception Sept. 30 at the midtown Atlanta offices of Kilpatrick Stockton LLP, are named in recognition of the three main components of effective collaborations
  • sense of community
  • motivation capacity
  • capability for focused action


Collaborative Organization Award

Crossroads Community Ministries

The Pathways C3 Collaborative Organization Award recognizes an agency that excels at working in partnership with other service providers and has built strong networks of cooperating organizations to better meet client service needs.

The award is chosen based on analysis of data in the PATHWAYS COMPASS Community Information Sharing System, with added consideration for an agency's participation in other community collaborations.

An outgrowth of Atlanta's original homeless service provider - St. Luke's Community Kitchen - Crossroads provides superior service to its thousands of clients in part due to strong collaborative relationships with scores of fellow homeless service provider organizations.


Service Community Collaboration Award
Athens/Clarke Continuum of Care

The Pathways C3 Service Community Award recognizes groups of organizations that, through their collaboration, form a network of services that extends their individual capacity and effectiveness.

Under the effective leadership of Evan Mills, the Athens/Clarke CoC has implemented innovative processes to extend the reach of the CoC and to increase the collection and sharing of client data. In the process, the CoC has developed one of the strongest Community Information Sharing System implementations in its region.


Leadership in Collaboration Award
Wellstar Health System, United Way of Metropolitan Atlanta, Cobb Continuum of Care

The Pathways C3 Leadership in Collaboration Award recognizes an organization, Continuum of Care or group of organizations that has been innovative and proactive in creating opportunities for collaboration.

Wellstar Health System, motivated by an increase in the number of homeless people coming to its emergency room, approached United Way of Metropolitan Atlanta to help find a solution. United Way drew in Cobb CoC member MUST Ministries, which agreed to accept shelter referrals from Wellstar using the PATHWAYS COMPASS system to manage the referral process and to monitor the effectiveness of this unique collaboration.


For more information about the Pathways C3 Collaboration Awards, contact William Matson at 866-818-1032 x301.

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Pathways Systems and Your Internet Connection

Recently we discovered that intermittent problems that some PATHWAYS COMPASS users had been experiencing for more than a week had been caused by serious issues at an Internet service provider that connected them with our data center. Those problems have now been resolved, but we're on the lookout for similar problems should they occur.

If you have a problem while using Pathways systems, please contact our support team at 866-818-1032 Option Two, or by clicking the blue help button within PATHWAYS COMPASS. We'll check first to see if we're having a technical problem, and if so we'll address it as quickly as possible. If we think the issue may be Internet related, we may work with you to check your connection using the following Internet sites and tools.


Internet Traffic Information

The Internet Traffic Report monitors the flow of data around the world. Use links on the site's main page to drill down and see whether there are problems with Internet providers in your area.

Visit DSL Reports to see how your Internet provider rates when compared with others in your area. Visit the site's forums to find out if other customers are currently reporting problems.


Internet Testing Tools

The following tools allow you to test the quality of your Internet connection. Problems with Internet connections between your computer and our servers can cause our systems to appear to hang or fail to save data you have entered.

If our support team thinks a problem you are having while using our systems might be caused by issues with your Internet connection, we may ask you to perform one or more of these tests and share the results with us.

Ping Plotter. The download links for the free edition are at the bottom of the page. Ping Plotter is an easy to use network troubleshooting and diagnostic tool that collects Internet connection data (over a period of hours, days or weeks) and then graphically shows problems in a way that shortens the time it takes to pinpoint the exact cause of an issue.

DSL Reports Online Tools. The most helpful tests here are the speed tests and the line quality test.


Earlier this year, Pathways contracted with WebSitePulse, a testing firm, to continuously check our servers and immediately notify us of any service interruptions. Click here to see the firm's latest report on our servers, which is updated every three minutes. We are proud to serve our users and we are committed to providing them with up to date information that helps them do their jobs. If you have any questions or concerns about our work, please contact us at 866-818-1032.

Friday, August 8, 2008

Winter Homeless Survey Chilling

By Rachel Pomerance
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Published on: 08/06/08

A winter night in Gwinnett County found 910 people homeless or "precariously housed," according to data released Tuesday by Pathways Community Network, a nonprofit that consults with human services agencies.

The findings offer a snapshot of homelessness in the county to the Gwinnett Coalition for Health and Human Services and its partner agencies, which plan to chart a course by year's end to manage the problem.

To tally the numbers of this precarious population on the night of Jan. 27, a survey was administered from Jan. 27 through Feb. 10 at a range of Gwinnett locations. Some 45 volunteers collected surveys at 10 hotels or motels; 70 volunteers collected surveys from outdoor or "unsheltered" locations; staff collected surveys at 12 area service agencies.

Among the findings, 539 people were "precariously housed," or in a temporary living situation, while 238 were sheltered by an agency and 31 were unsheltered.

About 70 percent of the family members counted were under the age of 18. Family size averaged 3.18 people. It showed that sheltered adults climbed from 30 in 2007 to 110 in 2008, and the number of sheltered children rose from 29 in 2007 to 128 this year.

Josie Parker, a project manager for Pathways, said the count provided a "nice baseline number," with demographic data and information about housing type. It marked the first count of unsheltered and precariously housed people ever in Gwinnett, the report stated.

Pathways will conduct a deeper survey from mid-August through September to look at the sleeping locations, disabilities and demographics of the population.

Both data collections were funded by the Regional Commission on Homelessness and the United Way of Metro Atlanta to work in partnership with the Gwinnett Coalition for Health and Human Services and its partner agencies.

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Help Make PATHWAYS COMPASS Even Better!

We're now developing several useful new features, including:
  1. new, configurable reports
  2. program and site profiles
  3. unlimited custom fields and assessments
Within six months we plan to introduce document upload and storage, and ID card scanning.

If you'd like to help us test these new features before they're made available to other users, send an email to the support team (support@pcni.org) and we'll add you to our New Feature Testing Team. When a new feature is ready for testing, we'll select a few users from the team and ask them to help us make sure the new feature is ready for release. We'll rotate assignments so that over time all team members get a chance to participate. If you have any questions about the New Feature Testing Team, give us a call at 866-818-1032 x308 or send an email to support@pcni.org.

Thursday, July 24, 2008

PATHWAYS COMPASS Videos

Perhaps you've read about PATHWAYS COMPASS, or you've attended a user class... but you still need to know more about how the system works. Pathways has introduced a new series of online videos that walk you through the PATHWAYS COMPASS system's basic functions. The topics of the first three videos are:
  • Client Search - a demonstration of how to use the PATHWAYS COMPASS system to search for people who have received services in your community
  • Program Enrollment - learn how to enroll a client in a program and record a service for that client in one transaction
  • Program Discharge - a demonstration of how to discharge a client from one or more programs.
Click here to view the videos. If you are a system user and you would like more information after viewing the videos, call our support team at 866-818-1032 x308. If you aren't a system user, Tommy Phillips will be glad to answer your questions. He can be reached at 866-818-1032 x305 or at tommy.phillips at pcni.org.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

New Systems Uptime Reporting

Our information systems and support teams are always working to make sure that the information systems we develop and operate are as dependable as possible. Now we're adding a new resource to support these efforts and keep you updated on the status of our systems.

Here's how the new monitoring service works: Data centers in Seattle, WA and Washington, DC check PATHWAYS COMPASS and Oracle BI Discoverer every few minutes, 24 hours a day. We are notified immediately if one of our systems is very slow, or if a server is down, so we can address any problems right away, often before any users are affected. You can see an up-to-the-minute report on this continuous system testing at any time by clicking on this link or visiting our Service Level Policy page, which describes our systems uptime commitment to you.

As always, you may contact our support team (support@pcni.org or 866-818-1032 x308) to report any problems with our systems, or to ask questions about our new monitoring service. We look forward to hearing from you.

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Free Training Available

ATLANTA, April 17, 2008 - Pathways provides User Training, Reports Training, Agency Admin Training and Confidentiality & Ethics Training on an ongoing basis. Here's how to sign up:

  • Sign up online. Find the class you want to attend in the User Training Schedule, and click on the Event Registration link
  • Sign up by phone. If you're in the Atlanta area, call 404-639-9933 ext 308; from other locations, call 866-818-1032 ext 308
  • Sign up via email. Send an email to support@pcni.org that specifies which training class(es) you want to attend

We look forward to seeing you in an upcoming class!