President’s Report

COA Accreditation
November 1, 2011

In order to assure the everyday implementation of best practice standards, Northwood is voluntarily accredited by the Council on Accreditation. The Council accredits over 1800 agencies in the United States and Canada. Every four years, an experienced team of peer reviewers, executives from human services organizations from around the country, spend several days at the agency to confirm whether the materials submitted to COA in advance are actually reflected in our day to day practice. The standards are extensive, and include all facets of organizational functioning such as board governance, financial management, human resources procedures, program implementation, and many others. COA accreditation is designed to identify providers that have met high-performance standards and have made a commitment to their stakeholders to deliver the highest quality services.

I am pleased and proud to report that the accreditation review went exceptionally well and Northwood has been reaccredited. In fact, we performed so well during the review that the accreditation decision came on an expedited basis. As stated in the letter I received in August, “Northwood Children’s Services was expedited through the process as a result of not receiving any out of compliance ratings in any of the fundamental practice standards. Congratulations on this amazing achievement ”.

Expedited accreditation is quite rare. I would like to thank our board members, community partners, and the dedicated and extremely competent staff members for their contributions to achieving this honor. The children and families we serve can be confident in the quality of the services we provide and our stakeholders can be proud to be a part Northwood.

Richard Wolleat
President & CEO