Community Based Organizations

WHY BECOME A COMMUNITY BASED ORGANIZATION?

 A Community Based Organization (CBO) is a nonprofit organization or other community-based partner on the Unite Us network, typically a 501c3 designated organization. Examples include food pantries, churches (various ministries such as clothing closets, food boxes, diapers, etc.), federally-qualified health centers, and the Georgia Family Connection Partnerships.  Being on the platform is offered at no cost to community-based organizations.

Unite Us provides community based organizations (CBOs) with the ability to send and receive referrals from other providers in the network, allowing organizations to improve coordination with local partners and ensure care of vulnerable neighbors. With the Unite Us platform’s ability to measure and track referrals, organizations can have a better understanding of the impact of their work.

Interested in learning more about the network or if you qualify as a CBO?

About Unite Us

  • WHY DO WE NEED A DATA SHARING PLATFORM?

    Research supports that as much as 80% of a person’s well-being is tied to physical environment, economic factors and health behaviors.  This is why the community led One Hall Mental and Behavioral Health Committee identified the need for a data sharing platform that would allow for communication between nonprofits, healthcare, and service organizations to connect individuals in the community to the social services they need to navigate life and find pathways out of poverty.



  • WHY THE UNITE US PLATFORM?

    A committee of stakeholders including community nonprofits, United Way and North Georgia Health Systems, selected Unite Us as our community’s platform to enable this work.  Unite Us is a coordinated care network of health and social service providers that connects people to needs such as housing, employment, food assistance, healthcare and more. Partners in the network are connected through the Unite Us shared technology platform which allows users to send and receive electronic referrals, address clients’ social needs, and improve health across communities.  It allows users to measure and track referrals and have a better understanding of the impact of their work.  It also has the ability to update organizational information and resource availability in real time as well as make and receive referrals quickly and easily. 

“The Unite Us platform sets our clients up for success and makes our jobs easier. When someone has an immediate need of a service we don’t provide, instead of giving them a list of places to call and sending them on their way, we can easily and quickly make connections on their behalf. We can also look back on the platform later to see if they got help and everything is ok.”
—-Good News Clinics

Frequently Asked Questions for CBOs

  • Founded in 2013, Unite Us is a technology company that builds coordinated care networks of health and human service providers to address all determinants of health. What was originally created to serve veterans has grown into a national movement to connect everyone to the care they need. Unite Us is an intuitive platform that supports meaningful collaboration, community-wide care coordination, and secure, bidirectional data sharing.

  • The Unite Us platform aligns everyone who delivers services in one standardized tool. It facilitates simple, secure, electronic referrals between health and social care providers and integrates with their existing tools like Epic. The platform gives all partners visibility into a person’s service journey, even after that person leaves their organization, allowing partners to simultaneously serve people across a range of service types. It also prompts users via email when they need to login and address something within the platform. This solution streamlines workflows and makes the partners’ jobs easier.

  • A community based organization (CBO) is a partner that works directly with community members to provide services. They can send referrals, receive referrals, or both. Each staff member who will use the platform will have user-based role access to ensure each team member sees only what they need to in the platform.

    To receive referrals, a CBO will identify at least one program (employment services, housing, legal services, public benefits navigation, primary care, etc.), and the staff (users) associated with that program who should have access to receive referrals. The CBOs operate within what is called a network, which is a curated group of trusted community partners on the Unite Us platform. For instance, all of the providers in Georgia are in the Unite Georgia network.

  • A person can enter the Unite Us network through any in-network providers through walk-ins, phone calls, submitting a website form, or a digital referral. This means that people can get the assistance they need quickly, easily, and through many possible entry points.

  • Yes, all agency information and the user’s personal information and privacy is secure. We never share client data without consent. We protect clients’ most sensitive information. We keep client data secure.

    The Unite Us platform is HITRUST, HIPAA, FERPA and SOC 2 Type 2 compliant, addressing the necessary criteria to ensure the safety and security of the information that flows throughout the system. Unite Us takes Personally Identifiable Information (PII) and Protected Health Information (PHI) very seriously. They encrypt and secure all data in their platform, in-transit and at rest and secure logins for each network partner with configurable access and permission settings at the organization and user levels.

    In addition, they have implemented internal and external privacy and security policies adhering to HIPAA guidelines and work with third-party consultants to regularly review administrative, physical, and technical safeguards. In accordance with HIPAA guidelines, Unite Us undergoes an annual Risk Assessment and Penetration Testing. Additionally, they sign Business Associate Agreements (BAAs) with providers in their networks that provide health-related services and are considered a Covered Entity under HIPAA, as well as any applicable workforce members (Amazon Web Services, Google, etc).

  • 1. Submit the Onboarding Form. Once the submission is received, Unite Us will build the organization’s basic profile based on the information provided.

    2. The organization profile will be sent back to the organization. At that time, the organization will fill in the organization, program, and user information.

    3. New organizations will complete training provided by Unite Us/United Way.

    4. United Way of Hall County will review data on an ongoing basis to determine if there are gaps in services or missing community resource providers.

    5. UWHC will hold a reoccurring Zoom meeting with the network to address barriers/lack of service being provided. UWHC will reassess how often meetings are needed based on the amount of issues/needs determined.

  • • For onboarding/technical questions at Lacey Resch, Unite Us Customer & Community Engagement Manager
    lacey.resch@uniteus.com | (478) 250-7742

    • Chat live on the Unite Us platform via the chat bubble on the bottom right corner and connect directly with the Unite Us Support Team.

    • Reach out directly at www.uniteus.com/contact.

    • Send an email at support@uniteus.com.

    UWHC will hold reoccurring Zoom meetings with the network to address barriers/lack of service being provided. If you have additional feedback for United Way of Hall County about the Unite Us platform, reach out United Way of Hall County’s director of the Compass Center, Parish Howard at phoward@unitedwayhallcounty.org.

 Find Out More About Joining the Network

Fill out the form to find out more information about how you can be part of the community based organization network. United Way of Hall County will contact you.