Best Practice Standards for Remote Program and Service Delivery
Without question, the COVID-19 pandemic has prompted us to rethink the way we offer programs and services. In 2020, Access Alliance, like many agencies, was forced to pivot swiftly to incorporate online and remote service delivery to respond to a rapidly emerging situation. Since then, we have recognized the value of including the option of online and remote service delivery for clients to improve access, whether there is a pandemic or not.
An important next step was the development of standards and the implementation of best practices for online and remote programming and services. Here, we turned our attention to developing guidelines, protocols, and updated policies for staff, volunteers, students, and management to ensure that our organizational standards of quality, access, and equity are built in from the start.
This organizational initiative and its accompanying Guide is called the Standard Guide for Incorporating Remote Program and Service Provision into a Multi-modality Service Delivery Approach. It is important to note that remote service delivery is not meant to replace in-person service and programs, but rather to incorporate another option for clients to access our programs and services.
Our steps to make this happen:
- Develop a draft list of best practices/standards for remote service/programming provision by compiling information such as learnings gathered during and prior to remote service offerings, best practices in the literature, staff input, and feedback from clients accessing remote services;
- Validate this list with staff and management teams;
- Develop an evidence-informed standards Guide with necessary tools to be used for current staff and future staff;
- Validate the Guide and tools (readability, accessibility, relevance, scalability, adaptability) with all staff;
- Provide training sessions with all staff;
- Carry out knowledge mobilization – share the Guide with external agencies.
Capacity Building Products and Resources
You can find the Guide and associated tools and forms here:
Contact
For more information about the Guide, please email us at TalkToUs@accessalliance.ca.