Welcome to Foothold’s Interactive Software Guide
About Foothold
Thank you for your interest in Foothold Technology and our AWARDS software!
Coming out of a human service agency, Foothold was founded in June 2000. Foothold’s focus is to transform the way you provide care within your community. As such, we understand that there are a wide variety of factors and decisions that go into selecting a new software product. This guide is designed to address the concerns and questions that come with
How to Use the Software Guide
embarking on a project of this magnitude.
In addition to information about our nimble system, our vast client network of over 1,000 organizations offers the best testament to the type of partnership you can expect from Foothold. In their own words, AWARDS users will give you a sense of how our culture of compassion and experience helps them navigate their data challenges.
We understand that it takes a robust team working together to successfully run an organization. This guide is designed as a “choose your own adventure” tool to address the primary challenges you face in your specific and unique role. It gives you point-and-click access to information on the topics of interest to you.
Choose your role: You’ll start off with a list of 8 roles that reflect broad functions in a typical human services agency. Click on the one that’s of interest to you.
Choose an issue or challenge: Drill down further by clicking on an issue commonly faced by someone in the role you’ve selected.
3.
Learn how AWARDS will help: For each topic, you’ll find content that illustrates how AWARDS addresses the challenge or issue.
Navigate by Software Feature
1.
Jump straight to our Glossary to see videos and other content on our flexible, powerful software features.
My Role is...
Select an icon below to explore the goals and challenges for that particular role.
Board Member
We have partnered with many board members throughout the years we have been in business. They have come to us with questions and concerns, trusting us to answer their most complex needs. Our goal is to help transform the way they provide care. We have made an effort to summarize the challenges that have been confided to us and look at how data systems can affect some different areas a board member might be concerned about.
What are the most pressing issues facing your agency?
Select a relevant topic below to find out how AWARDS can help.





Reputation & Mission
As a human services organization, your mission is at the core of everything you do. That is why we provide our clients with the tools they need to drive their agency forward and deliver exceptional services in their communities.

Our
Brett Jones Evaluation and Compliance Manager Avalon Housing

implementation went great. We’ve replaced our time-consuming, internal system with AWARDS and look forward to saving hundreds of hours of work for our entire services department.”
AWARDS is flexible enough to handle your pressing needs, and nimble enough to handle your future needs. You can’t outgrow us. Some of our most widely used and powerful tools include:
ReportBuilders™ – Create your own ad-hoc reports, as well as templated reports, using any of the 80+ ReportBuilders™ throughout the system.
BillingBuilder™ – Determine what are billable and non-billable services, and generate those bills monthly, weekly, or even daily.
AWARDS InSights – Aggregate your data and analyze your impact in the community using our business intelligence tool.
Service Referrals – Create, track, and report on referrals from other agencies.
Blog | Switching from Paper to an EHR – Camelot Counseling
Since 1971, Camelot Counseling, located in Staten Island in New York City, has been working with individuals and families to address the adverse effects of alcoholism and substance use. Chief Executive Officer Luke Nasta, a Staten Island native, has helped lead the organization for over four decades. Mr. Nasta has used his own personal struggle with addiction and his journey of recovery to help inform Camelot’s programs, including operating the only residential chemical dependency treatment program in Staten Island.
Sustainability
Sustainability is a constant challenge for organizations; the pressure to stay in business and stay relevant is tremendous. One key aspect of that is understanding and learning from your service data. AWARDS provides easy access to all of that data, allowing your agency to generate its own customized reports for the purposes of analyzing agency performance and adhering to strategic goals.



We’ve been accredited since 1999 . . . with programs that are in AWARDS it takes mere minutes to pull out the information we need to keep up with our accreditation.”
Steinhardt
AWARDS provides easy workflows, simplifying data entry from intake through discharge. A few of the AWARDS tools specifically designed to build sustainability within the organization include:
ReportBuilders™ – Create your own ad-hoc reports, as well as templated reports, using any of the 80+ ReportBuilders™ throughout the system.
FormBuilder™ – Build your own forms and assessments and place them in any of the numerous areas within the system to accomodate your unique workflows.
AWARDS InSights – Aggregate your data and analyze your impact in the community using our business intelligence tool.
Outcomes – Access dashboard metrics and service utilization reports so you can easily see if you are reaching your agency’s goals.
Blog | Not Just a Vendor: Making Foothold Technology Your PARTNER
A common but bothersome issue: your office copy machine breaks. The solution is pretty much onesize-fits-all. You call your copy machine vendor and they deploy a technician who disappears into the copy room, diagnoses the problem, and applies a prescribed fix.
In the complex and constantly shifting world of behavioral healthcare, not all of your technology is or should be so formulaic. Several agencies have partnered with Foothold Technology, integrating AWARDS into all of their workflows, for more than ten years. Here are a few things we’ve learned about fruitful and rewarding partnerships along the way.
Agency Performance

In today’s world, being able to see where you are and where you want to go requires tools that can keep up. AWARDS provides a real-time system that allows you to capture the data you want and access the information you need. Foothold will partner with you to help guide and inform this process.
Lessons Learned from an Electronic Record Implementation


Before AWARDS, we weren’t able to report on an agency-wide level.
Everything was reported within each department. AWARDS gives us the ability to run reports for all programs and gives us a broader outlook of our agency.”
Molinari
Data
AWARDS will help you quickly enter and pull client and services information, while also allowing you to review how the day-to-day metrics are meeting your agency performance goals/targets. Key system functionality includes:
ReportBuilders™ – Create your own ad-hoc reports, as well as templated reports, using any of the 80+ ReportBuilders™ throughout the system.
Entitlements – Determine if authorizations have been used, how many are left, and get reminders when thresholds are met.
PlanBuilder™ – Create the framework and workflow of your plans - be they life, treatment, service, or goal focused. Once plans have been entered, use a variety of methods to determine whether the agency is meeting established criteria for success.
FormBuilder™ – Build your own forms and assessments and place them in any of the numerous areas within the system to accomodate your unique workflows.
Case Study | Using Data to Measure Success - Bowery Residents’ Committee
Founded: 1971
Location: New York, NY
Clients Served: Over 700 annually
Services: Housing, Homeless, Substance Use Disorder, Mental Health, Employment
Annual Operating Budget: $65m
Funding

The ability to capture data in order to bill and report based on funder requirements is critical to the success of every agency. AWARDS can handle billing from a variety of payer sources – Medicaid, MCOs, states, counties, third party insurance, grants, and more.


Because of our success using AWARDS for billing, we were able to instill confidence in our funders.”
Yvette Brissett-Andre Executive Director Unique People ServicesBecause funding streams and the requirements to fulfill them can vary tremendously, AWARDS has built in flexibility to handle each of them. This flexibility applies whether you need to pull information around a target population or narrow down your data to see if outcomes are being met. The tools that can help pull this together include:
BillingBuilder™ – Differentiate between billable and non-billable services, and generate those bills monthly, weekly, or even daily.
PlanBuilder™ – Create the framework and workflow of your plans - be they life, treatment, service, or goal focused. Once plans have been entered, use a variety of methods to determine whether the agency is meeting established criteria for success.
Entitlements – Determine if authorizations have been used, how many are left, and get reminders when thresholds are met.
PlanBuilder™ – Create your own ad-hoc reports, as well as templated reports, using any of the 80+ ReportBuilders™ throughout the system.
Agency Wellness
While AWARDS can’t directly stop staff turnover, it is an easy-to-use and easy-to-learn system that allows for quick adaptation by new staff. Foothold provides regular and ongoing support, so when staff leave, you have a resource to fall back on. AWARDS also provides free FootholdConnect™ webinars offering additional training.
JUMP TO... Member CEO CFO COO
AWARDS has made my job easier. We’re able to coordinate services our clients need. We were using paper and filling everything out [by hand], but with AWARDS we can share the information across the agency as a whole.”
LaShunda Carter
Sanctuary Services for Veterans New Jersey
AWARDS is flexible enough to handle your pressing needs, and nimble enough to handle your future needs. You can’t outgrow us. Some of our most widely used and powerful tools include:
Human Resources – Track staff information, including staff training and credentials.
AWARDS Online Help – Give staff the information they need to get the job done using our searchable interactive Help tool, including recordings and step-by-step instructions on how to use the system.
Messages – Communicate with other AWARDS users at the agency (individuals and groups) quickly, efficiently, and with HIPAA compliance. Receive automated alerts and reminders.
Agency File Cabinet – Store important agency documents directly within AWARDS for greater staff accessibility.
Case Study | Electronic Record Keeping Instills Confidence and Leads to More Funding - Unique People Services
Founded: 1991
Location: New York and Westchester
Services: I/DD, Supportive Housing, Mental Health, HIV/AIDS
Clients Served: Over 500 Annually
Annual Operating Budget: $22m
Using AWARDS Since: 2009
Chief Executive Officer
We have worked with many CEOs throughout the years we have been in business. They have come to us with questions and concerns, trusting us to answer their most complex needs. We have made an effort to summarize the challenges that have been confided to us and look at how data systems can affect some different areas a CEO might be concerned about.
What are the most pressing issues facing your agency?
Select a relevant topic below to find out how AWARDS can help.





Agency Performance
Reputation & Mission
Agency Wellness
Funding Sustainability
Agency Performance

In today’s world, being able to see where you are and where you want to go requires tools that can keep up. AWARDS provides a real-time system that allows you to capture the data you want and access the information you need.

AWARDS will help you quickly enter and pull client and services information, while also allowing you to review how the day-to-day metrics are meeting your agency performance goals/targets.

Before AWARDS we weren’t able to report on an agency wide level. AWARDS gives us the ability to run reports for all programs and gives us a broader outlook of our agency.”
Courtney Molinari Assistant Director, Data Compliance
The Arc of Essex County
Key system functionality includes:
ReportBuilders ™ – Create your own ad hoc reports, as well as templated reports, using any of the 80+ ReportBuilders™ throughout the system.
Entitlements – Determine if authorizations have been used, how many are left, and get reminders when thresholds are met.
PlanBuilder ™ – Create the framework and workflow of your plans - be they care, life, treatment, service, or goal focused. Once plans have been entered, use a variety of methods to determine whether the agency is meeting established criteria for success.
FormBuilder ™ – Build your own forms and assessments and place them in any of numerous areas within the system to accommodate your unique workflows.
Case Study | Using Data to Measure Success - Bowery Residents’ Committee (BRC)
Founded: 1971
Location: New York, NY
Services: Housing, Homeless, Substance Use Disorcer, Mental Health, Employment
Clients Served: Over 700 Annually
Annual Operating Budget: $65m
Funding
Critical to the success of any agency is the ability to capture data in order to bill and report, based on funding requirements. AWARDS can handle billing from a variety of payer sources – Medicaid, MCOs, states, counties, third party insurance, grants, and more.



Before AWARDS, we weren’t able to report on an agency-wide level.
Everything was reported within each department. AWARDS gives us the ability to run reports for all programs and gives us a broader outlook of our agency.”
Molinari
Because funding streams and the requirements needed to fulfill them can vary tremendously, AWARDS has built in flexibility to handle each of them. This flexibility applies whether you need to pull information around a target population or narrow down your data to see if outcomes are being met. The tools that can help pull this together include:
BillingBuilder™ – Differentiate between billable and non-billable services, and generate those bills monthly, weekly, or even daily.
PlanBuilder™ – Create the framework and workflow of your plans - be they care, life, treatment, service, or goal focused. Once plans have been entered, use a variety of methods to determine whether the agency is meeting established criteria for success.
Entitlements – Determine if authorizations have been used, how many are left, and get reminders when thresholds are met.
ReportBuilders™ – Create your own ad-hoc reports, as well as templated reports, using any of the 80+ ReportBuilders™ throughout the system.
Blog | Playing with the House’s Money: How to Work With Instead of Against Your Funders
Seven Nevada agencies found an electronic health record (EHR) to streamline workflows and meet funder requirements.
READ MORE
Reputation & Mission
As a human services agency, your mission is at the core of everything you do. That is why we provide our clients with the flexible tools they need to drive their agency forward and transform their communities.



The amazing thing . . . is the easy access it provides to all of our data.
The time I save in not going through piles of paper files means that our clients can get the appropriate attention much sooner.”
Mike Gelfand
AWARDS is equipped to handle your pressing needs, and flexible enough to handle your future needs. Some of our most widely used and powerful tools include:
ReportBuilders™ – Create your own ad-hoc reports, as well as templated reports, using any of the 80+ ReportBuilders™ throughout the system.
BillingBuilder™ – Determine what are billable and non-billable services, and generate those bills monthly, weekly, or even daily.
AWARDS InSights – Aggregate your data and analyze your impact in the community using our business intelligence tool.
Service Referrals – Create, track, and report on referrals from other agencies.
Sustainability
Sustainability is a constant challenge for organizations; the pressure to stay in business and stay relevant is tremendous. Understanding and leveraging your data is a key component to staying relevant now and into the future. AWARDS provides easy access to all of that data, allowing your agency to generate its own customized reports for the purposes of analyzing agency performance and monitoring adherence to strategic goals.

Interoperability allows us to merge information, communicate with the state, pull medical documentation — things that we could not do effortlessly without Foothold.”


AWARDS provides easy workflows, simplifying data entry from intake through discharge. A few of the AWARDS tools specifically designed to build sustainability within the organization include:
ReportBuilders™ – Create your own ad-hoc reports, as well as templated reports, using any of the 80+ ReportBuilders™ throughout the system.
FormBuilder™ – Build your own forms and assessments and place them in any of numerous areas within the system to accommodate your unique workflows.
AWARDS InSights – Aggregate your data and analyze your impact in the community using our business intelligence tool.
Outcomes – Access dashboard metrics and service utilization reports so you can easily see if you are hitting your agency’s goals.
Think Tank | The Challenges and Opportunities of Care Coordination Involving Behavioral Health Data
As an electronic health record (EHR) vendor, we know there are challenges and opportunities related to care coordination in an ever-evolving landscape. There are challenges related to data, workflows, resources, and understanding and implementing the concept of coordinated care. To address these challenges, Foothold Technology continues to enhance our software, but we also continue to collaborate with partners, leading experts, and our customers on issues related to healthcare IT and interoperability.
READ MORE
Agency Wellness

While AWARDS can’t directly stop staff turnover, it is an easy-to-use and easy-to train system that allows for quick adaptation by new staff. Foothold partners with your organization to provide regular and ongoing support, so when staff leave, you have a reliable resource to fall back on. Foothold’s experienced staff also provides training and insights to help keep you and your staff continue the work of transforming the way you provide care.
Carter Sanctuary Services for Veterans, New JerseyAWARDS has made my job much easier. We’re able to coordinate services our clients need. We were using paper and filling everything out [by hand], but with AWARDS we can share the information across the agency as a whole.”
LaShaunda
Key system functionality includes:
Human Resources – Track staff information, including staff training and credentials.
AWARDS Online Help – Give staff the information they need to get the job done using our searchable interactive Help tool, including recordings and step-by-step instructions on how to use the system.
Messages – Communicate with other AWARDS users at the agency (individuals and groups) quickly, efficiently, and with HIPAA compliance. Receive automated alerts and reminders.
Agency File Cabinet – Store important agency documents directly within AWARDS for greater staff accessibility.
Case Study | Electronic Record Keeping Instills Confidence and Leads to More Funding - Unique People Services
Founded: 1991
Location: New York and Westchester
Services: I/DD, Supportive Housing, Mental Health, HIV/AIDS
Clients Served: Over 500 Annually
Annual Operating Budget: $22m
Using AWARDS Since: 2009
We have worked with many CFOs throughout the years we have been in business. They have come to us with questions and concerns, trusting us to answer their most complex needs. We have made an effort to summarize the challenges that have been confided to us and look at how data systems can affect some different areas a CFO might be concerned about.
What are the most pressing issues facing your agency?
Select a relevant topic below to find out how AWARDS can help.




Agency Performance
Billing
Funding
Resource Allocation
Agency Performance


In today’s world, being able to see where you are and where you want to go requires tools that can keep up. AWARDS provides a real-time system that allows you to capture the data you want and access the information you need. AWARDS will help you quickly enter and pull client and services information, while also allowing you to review how the day-to-day metrics are meeting your agency performance goals.

Before AWARDS we weren’t able to report on an agency wide level. AWARDS gives us the ability to run reports for all programs and gives us a broader outlook of our agency.”
Courtney Molinari Assistant Director The Arc of Essex CountyTestimonial: Options for Community Living
Key system functionality includes:
ReportBuilders™ – Create your own ad-hoc reports, as well as templated reports, using any of the 80+ ReportBuilders™ throughout the system.
Entitlements – Determine if authorizations have been used, how many are left, and get reminders when thresholds are met.
PlanBuilder™ – Create the framework and workflow of your plans - be they care, life, treatment, service, or goal focused. Once plans have been entered, use a variety of methods to determine whether the agency is meeting established criteria for success.
FormBuilder™ – Build your own forms and assessments and place them in any of numerous areas within the system to accommodate your unique workflows.
Case Study | Using Data to Measure Success - Bowery Residents’ Committee
Founded: 1971
Location: New York, NY
Clients Served: Over 700 annually
Services: Housing, Homeless, Substance Use Disorder, Mental Health, Employment
Annual Operating Budget: $65
Funding

Critical to the success of any agency is the ability to provide data to all its funding partners. How an organization funds itself is paramount to its success. AWARDS can handle billing from a variety of payer sources – Medicaid, MCOs, states, counties, third party insurance, grants, and more.


“We were just awarded a federal grant for project expansion from SAMHSA at $500,000/year for five years. The grading we received was “outstanding” in the category of Health Record Management System, which, of course, is due to us using AWARDS.”
Kay Velardo Agency Administrator
Community Counseling Center of Southern NevadaBilling & State Data Transmission with an EHR
Because funding streams and the requirements needed to fulfill them can vary tremendously, AWARDS is nimble enough to handle each of them. This flexibility applies whether you need to pull information around a target population or narrow down your data to see if outcomes are being met. The tools that can help include:
BillingBuilder™ – Differentiate between billable and non-billable services, and generate those bills monthly, weekly, or even daily.
PlanBuilder™ – Create the framework and workflow of your plans - be they care, life, treatment, service, or goal focused. Once plans have been entered, use a variety of methods to determine whether the agency is meeting established criteria for success.
Entitlements – Determine if authorizations have been used, how many are left, and get reminders when thresholds are met.
ReportBuilders™ – Create your own ad-hoc reports, as well as templated reports, using any of the 80+ ReportBuilders™ throughout the system.
Blog | Playing with the House’s Money: How to Work with Instead of Against Your Funders
Seven Nevada agencies found an electronic health record (EHR) to streamline workflows and meet funder requirements.
Billing


Being able to bill effectively is critical to the growth and success of any organization. The merging worlds of healthcare and human services, billing departments are being asked to take on new complex challenges. Effectively streamlining service data into Medicaid, Medicare and 3rd party insurance reimbursements requires great software and partners who understand the complexities.

“Without BillingBuilder, billing for services would take a lot of time and staff to generate the bills and reconcile the payments. BillingBuilder generates numerous invoices into batch claim files in only a few, simple steps.
Hedigan CEO Community AccessEHR Review: Community Counseling Center of Southern Nevada
AWARDS was specifically designed to help meet these billing challenges; for instance, because service data is tied so closely to billing, AWARDS seamlessly pulls that data - from credentials to demographic information and more - directly and immediately from service records to the billing module. Tools designed to make this process effortless include:
BillingBuilder™ – Differentiate between billable and non-billable services, and generate those bills monthly, weekly, or even daily.
Clearinghouse – Leverage our clearinghouse partner - integrated seamlessly with BillingBuilder™ - to manage claims, and payers. Also, create views and dashboards using tools available via the clearinghouse.
Entitlements – Determine if authorizations have been used, how many are left, and get reminders when thresholds are met.
ReportBuilders™ – Create your own ad-hoc reports, as well as templated reports, using any of the 80+ ReportBuilders™ throughout the system.
Case Study | Finding $171,000 lost in the couch
How a typical human service agency lost money due to staff turnover but turned that loss into a windfall through AWARDS.
Resource Allocation


Organizations need to do more with less. How your number one asset, your staff, are allocating their time is critical. AWARDS users are more efficient with their time, spend less time searching for charts, and have fewer data entry errors. Your second most valuable asset - your data - is safe, secure, confidential, and of course, HIPAA-compliant. A partner that understands this can be a valuable asset to help you use resources more effectively.

“I can’t imagine doing my work without AWARDS. In terms of agency oversight, the ready accessibility of data from a vast range of programs is essential and immeasurably useful in my work.”
Cal Hedigan CEO Community AccessEHR Review: Vanderheyden
Human services staff rely on AWARDS tools such as:
ReportBuilder™ – Build effective reports around staff time and the services staff are performing, providing real-time feedback of missing data.
Operations – Track agency property and repairs including, but not limited to, vehicles, computers, properties, and more.
Housing – Track and report on housing information including vacancy rates and room utilization. Calendar – View information across staff, program, location, and client schedules. Leverage availability functionality to see who is free to meet at certain times.
Chief Operating Officier
We have partnered with many COOs throughout the years we have been in business. They have come to us with questions and concerns, trusting us to answer their most complex needs. We have made an effort to summarize the challenges that have been confided to us and look at how data systems can affect some different areas a COO might be concerned about.
What are the most pressing issues facing your agency?
Select a relevant topic below to find out how AWARDS can help.




Staff Management
Scalability & Growth
Agency Performance
Agency
Efficiency
Staff Management
AWARDS offers numerous ways for staff to communicate more effectively. Because of its web-based nature, AWARDS provides real-time information around client services. If staff have the appropriate permissions, they can access the most current information for their clients in seconds.
Member Evaluation and Compliance
“Our implementation went great. We’ve replaced our time-consuming, internal system with AWARDS and look forward to saving hundreds of hours of work for our entire services department.”
Brett Jones
Manager
Leveraging other pieces of AWARDS, such as those listed here, also allows teams to work together to help transform the community at large.
ReportBuilder™ – Build effective reports around staff time and the services staff are performing, providing real-time feedback of missing data.
Messages – Communicate with other AWARDS users at the agency (individuals and groups) quickly, efficiently, and with HIPAA compliance. Receive automated alerts and reminders for important triggers or events.
Charting Timetable – Schedule and track assessments and events, and ensure they are being completed in a timely manner. Receive automatic reminders for scheduled events.
Calendar – View information across staff, program, location, and client schedules. Leverage availability functionality to see who is free to meet at certain times.
Case Study | Electronic Record Keeping Instills Confidence and Leads to More Funding - Unique People Services
Founded: 1991
Location: New York and Westchester
Clients Served: Over 500 annually
Services: I/DD, Supportive Housing, Mental Health, HIV/AIDS
Annual Operating Budget: $22
Using AWARDS Since: 2009
Scalability & Growth


Organization structures and funder requirements evolve. Some systems are not able to keep up with those changes. Moving to a nimble, webbased system provides the infrastructure to handle that challenge.

“The process of upgrading and automating case management and client tracking is not an easy process. We’re a social service agency, not a software company. Having the benefit of a software provider who understands the way social service agencies work was an invaluable asset in this process.”
Larry Grubler
Executive Director
Transitional Services for NYEHR Review: The Bridge
Keep your agency running smoothly over time using fundamental AWARDS tools such as:
AWARDS InSights – Make data-driven decisions and understand your impact in the community using our analytics tool.
Messages – Communicate with other AWARDS users at the agency (individuals and groups) quickly, efficiently, and with HIPAA compliance. Receive automated alerts and reminders for important triggers or events.
Charting Timetable – Schedule and track assessments and events, and ensure they are being completed in a timely manner. Receive automatic reminders for scheduled events.
Calendar – View information across staff, program, location, and client schedules. Leverage availability functionality to see who is free to meet at certain times.
Agency Performance


In today’s world, being able to see where you are and where you want to go requires nimble tools that can keep up. AWARDS provides a real-time system that allows you to capture the data you want and access the information you need. AWARDS will help you quickly enter and report on client and services information, while also allowing you to review how the day-to-day metrics are meeting your agency performance goals/targets.

“Before AWARDS, we weren’t able to report on an agency-wide level. Everything was reported within each department. AWARDS gives us the ability to run reports for all programs and give us a broader outlook of our agency.”
Courtney Molinari Assistant Director The Arc of Essex CountyEHR Review: Rehabilitation Support Services, Inc.
Key system functionality includes:
ReportBuilders™ – Create your own ad hoc reports, as well as templated reports, using any of the 80+ ReportBuilders™ throughout the system.
Entitlements – Determine if authorizations have been used, how many are left, and get reminders when thresholds are met.
PlanBuilder™ – Create the framework and workflow of your plans - be they care, life, treatment, service, or goal focused. Once plans have been entered, use a variety of methods to determine whether the agency is meeting established criteria for success.
FormBuilder™ – Build your own forms and assessments and place them in any of numerous areas within the system to accommodate your unique workflows.
Case Study | Using Data to Measure Success - Bowery Residents’ Committee
Founded: 1971
Location: New York, NY
Clients Served: Over 700 annually
Services: Housing, Homeless, Substance Use Disorder, Mental Health, Employment
Annual Operating Budget: $65
Agency Efficiency
Doing more with less is a constant challenge for most human service agencies. AWARDS allows for nimble workflows to help lead staff through your processes efficiently, ensuring a high level of data integrity, and making sure the data talks to every part of the database.

EHR Review: NJAMHAA
Client Information System Manager Catholic Charities of Santa Clara County

“Over the course of two to three years, we used an in-house system to bring 4 programs into one database. We made the decision to switch to AWARDS, and at one point we had over 80 programs all in one database.”
Jasper de Guzman
If your agency is transitioning from paper, you will find many time-saving features to create efficiencies. If you already have a computerized data system, you will appreciate how AWARDS is easy to use and navigate, saving your organization countless hours. We have standardized the pages so they are familiar to staff. Other key features include:
PlanBuilder™ – Create the framework and workflow of your plans - be they care, life, treatment, service, or goal focused. Once plans have been entered, use a variety of methods to determine whether the agency is meeting established criteria for success.
Charting Timetable – Schedule and track assessments and ensure events are being completed in a timely manner. Receive automatic reminders for scheduled events.
Demographics – Work with data in a holistic way. AWARDS has over 5000 data fields, and client demographic data stays consistent across programs/services/forms so that you don’t have to enter it twice. If data changes in one area, it automatically changes all related records.
FormBuilder™ – Build your own forms and assessments and place them in any of numerous areas within the system to accommodate your unique workflows.
Case Study | How ReportBuilder Transformed an Agency
Founded: 1979
Location: California
Clients Served: Over 2,500 annually
Services: Mental Health, Youth and Family
Using AWARDS Since: 2012
READ MORE
Chief Information Officer
We have partnered with many CIOs throughout the years we have been in business. They have come to us with questions and concerns, trusting us to answer their most complex needs. We have made an effort to summarize the challenges that have been confided to us and look at how data systems can affect some different areas a CIO might be concerned about.
What are the most pressing issues facing your agency?
Select a relevant topic below to find out how AWARDS can help.





Access to Data
Staff Management
Agency Efficiency
Security
Scalability & Growth
Access to Data


AWARDS is leading the way with interoperability and has the technical power to talk to most systems you might need to connect to.

Before AWARDS, it was all paper data collection. We really couldn’t keep an eye on what kind of services we were providing. With [Foothold], the data is at our fingertips.
Michele Meyer Director of QA and Compliance Jewish Service for the Developmentally DisabledAWARDS is flexible enough to handle your pressing needs, and nimble enough to handle your future needs. You can’t outgrow us. Some of our most widely used and powerful tools include:
Interoperability Center – Connect to HIEs and query-based exchanges. Receive and upload CCD-A and CCD formats.
Service Referrals – Create, track, and report on referrals to and from other agencies.
Direct Messages – Use AWARDS to interact with any agency that uses the HL-7 messaging format.
Blog | Interoperability: Making the Connection
Anyone who has been involved in any type of conversation about the state of the healthcare industry over the past couple of years, especially on the behavioral health side, has heard of interoperability. But what does interoperability actually mean? What goes into making a connection between your software and other healthcare organizations in your community?
Security
AWARDS is the most secure web-based system on the market. We work with a national cybersecurity firm, GreyCastle Security to ensure we meet or exceed compliance standards set out by NIST, HIPAA, and other key regulatory bodies.


Foothold Technology’s compliance score currently stands at 100% across all 18 control groups prescribed by HIPAA and the Federal Department of Health and Human Services. While compliance scores can change as time passes and technologies evolve, this score is among the highest we’ve ever seen. I can say without reservation that Protected Health Information (PHI) is as safe or safer with Foothold Technology than it is any other vendor in the Behavioral Health market.

We extend cybersecurity best practices to our customer base as well as supplying essential system security tools, including:
Messages – Communicate with other AWARDS users at the agency (individuals and groups) quickly, efficiently, and with HIPAA compliance. Receive automated alerts and reminders for important triggers or events.
System Setup – Control who has access to AWARDS, which parts of the database are available to them, and what they can or can’t do with data.
Audit Trail ReportBuilder™– Get the details, including who, when, and what data was accessed by viewing information that is captured by AWARDS.
Block Login Access – Stop unauthorized people from accessing your data system quickly and easily, whether in the event of staff turnover or any other event requiring moment-to-moment access adjustments.
FootholdConnect™ – Post announcements for staff to keep them up to date on current security policies and procedures.
Staff Management

AWARDS offers numerous ways for staff to communicate more effectively. Because of its web-based nature, AWARDS provides real-time information around client services. If staff have the appropriate permission, they can access the most current information for their clients in seconds.


Our new tools for communication help staff feel connected and supported, help our management team hear directly from staff to inform our decision-making, and in essence, help us keep the focus where it should be - on those who serve.EHR Review: Beacon of Hope House
Leveraging other modules in AWARDS, such as those listed here, also assists teams to work together to help serve the community at large.
ReportBuilder™ – Build effective reports around staff time and the services staff are performing, providing real-time feedback of missing data.
Messages – Communicate with other AWARDS users at the agency (individuals and groups) quickly, efficiently, and with HIPAA compliance. Receive automated alerts and reminders for important triggers or events.
Charting Timetable– Schedule and track assessments and ensure events are being completed in a timely manner. Receive automatic reminders for scheduled events.
Calendar – View information across staff, program, location, and client schedules. Leverage availability functionality to see who is free to meet at certain times.
Case Study | Electronic Record Keeping Instills Confidence and Leads to More Funding - Unique People Services
Founded: 1991
Location: New York and Westchester
Services: I/DD, Supportive Housing, Mental Health, HIV/AIDS
Clients Served: Over 500 Annually
Annual Operating Budget: $22m
Using AWARDS Since: 2009
Scalability & Growth

Organizational structures and funding streams evolve, and being able to operate on your current systems is not always sustainable. Moving to an easily scalable, web-based system provides the infrastructure to handle that challenge.
The process of upgrading and automating case management and client tracking is not an easy process. We’re a social service agency, not a software company.


Having the benefit of a software provider who understands the way social service agencies work was an invaluable asset in this process.
Larry Grubler Executive Director Transitional Services for NYKeep your agency running smoothly over time using fundamental AWARDS tools such as:
AWARDS InSights – Aggregate your data and analyze your impact in the community using our business intelligence tool.
Messages – Communicate with other AWARDS users at the agency (individuals and groups) quickly, efficiently, and with HIPAA compliance. Receive automated alerts and reminders for important triggers or events.
Charting Timetable– Schedule and track assessments and ensure events are being completed in a timely manner. Receive automatic reminders for scheduled events.
Calendar – View information across staff, program, location, and client schedules. Leverage availability functionality to see who is free to meet at certain times.
Case Study | Using Data to Improve Agency Performance
Founded: 1971
Location: New York, NY
Services: Housing, Homeless, Substance Use Disorder, Mental Health, Employment
Clients Served: Over 700 Annually
Annual Operating Budget: Over $65m
Agency Efficiency


Doing more with less is a constant challenge for most human service agencies. AWARDS allows for nimble workflows to help lead staff through your processes efficiently, ensuring a high level of data integrity, and making sure the data talks to every part of the database. If your agency is transitioning from paper, we can build in many time-saving features to create efficiencies. If you already have a data system, AWARDS is easy-to-use and navigate, and can save the organization countless hours.

When you put data in one place [in AWARDS] it carries over everywhere — we didn’t have that with paper and pen forms. And so we ended up having to capture a lot of different information in a lot of different places.
Theresa Moran
Deputy Chief of Centralized Support Services Little CityEHR Review: Beacon of Hope House
Just a few of the beneficial tools available to you through AWARDS include:
PlanBuilder™ – Create the framework and workflow of your plans - be they care, life, treatment, service, or goal focused. Once plans have been entered, use a variety of methods to determine if the agency is meeting established criteria for success.
Charting Timetable – Schedule and track assessments and ensure events are being completed in a timely manner. Receive automatic reminders for scheduled events.
Demographics – Work with data in a holistic way. AWARDS has over 5000 data fields, and client demographic data stays consistent across programs/services/forms so that you don’t have to enter it twice. If data changes in one area, it automatically changes all related records.
FormBuilder™ – Build your own forms and assessments and place them in any of numerous areas within the system to accommodate your unique workflows.
Case Study | How ReportBuilder Transformed an Agency
Founded: 1979
Location: California
Services: Mental Health, Youth and Family Clients Served: Over 2,500 annually
Using AWARDS Since: 2012
Quality Assurance
We have partnered with many QA personnel throughout the years we have been in business. They have come to us with questions and concerns, trusting us to answer their most complex needs. We have made an effort to summarize the challenges that have been confided to us and look at how data systems can affect some different areas QA staff might be concerned about.
What are the most pressing issues facing your agency?
Select a relevant topic below to find out how AWARDS can help.




Compliance
Access
Audits

AWARDS has the ability to limit who has access to which clients and what data. Factor in the automatic time and date stamp AWARDS places on data entry and report viewing. The result: smoother and easier audits. Not only that, but AWARDS allows you to create a Restricted Census Access to allow an auditor login for access to specifically assigned records in readonly format.

The biggest impact to date has been eliminating most of our paperwork. We have quicker access to our data and less time spent reading case notes and deciphering handwriting. The reporting feature has allowed us to establish an effective auditing process which has led to an improvement in our data collection.

Key AWARDS tools when it comes to being audit-ready include:
Audit Trail ReportBuilder™ – Get the details, including who, when, and what data was accessed by viewing information that is captured by AWARDS.
System Setup – Control who has access to AWARDS, which parts of the database are available to them, and what they can or can’t do with data.
Client Search – View a complete client history, based on agency-defined information sharing rules, to get a holistic view of what work has been done with each client.
Messages – Communicate with other AWARDS users at the agency (individuals and groups) quickly, efficiently, and with HIPAA compliance. Receive automated alerts and reminders for important triggers or events.
Case Study | How One Agency Switched Software
and Galvanized its Services and Staff – Beacon of Hope House
Founded: 1982
Location: New York City
Services: Mental Health
Annual Operating Budget: $12m
Using AWARDS Since: 2006
READ MORE
Compliance
When thinking about compliance and quality assurance, determining the standards you want to uphold and the metrics you’ll use to track them is key. Beyond metrics, organizations need to understand the data behind what they’re measuring.

Before AWARDS - when we needed numbers, we had to go to each program and get them from each manager. Now, we can just go in and extract those numbers, and we don’t need to wait two to three weeks.
Jasper de Guzman Client Information Systems Manager Catholic Charities of Santa Clara County

AWARDS provides a range of nimble tools with which to support the flow of data (collecting it, compiling it, and developing metrics around it), only a few of which are listed here. If your agency is looking to address some of its compliance and quality assurance challenges, AWARDS is a key partner.
ReportBuilders™ – Create your own ad-hoc reports, as well as templated reports, using any of the 80+ ReportBuilders™ throughout the system.
PlanBuilder™ – Create the framework and workflow of your plans - be they care, life, treatment, service, or goal focused. Once plans have been entered, use a variety of methods to determine whether the agency is meeting established criteria for success.
Outcomes – Access dashboard metrics and service utilization reports so you can easily see if you are hitting your agency’s goals.
Messages – Communicate with other AWARDS users at the agency (individuals and groups) quickly, efficiently, and with HIPAA compliance. Receive automated alerts and reminders for important triggers or events.
Agency Efficiency

Doing more with less is a constant challenge for most human service agencies. AWARDS allows for a number of nimble workflows to help lead staff through your processes efficiently, ensuring a high level of data integrity, and making sure the data talks to every part of the database.
If your agency is transitioning from paper, we can build in many time-saving features to create efficiencies. If you already have a data system, our flexible tools will save the organization even more time.
When you put data in one place [in AWARDS] it carries over everywhere — we didn’t have that with paper and pen forms. And so we ended up having to capture a lot of different information in a lot of different places.
Theresa Moran
Deputy Chief of Centralized Support Services Little City
Just a few of the beneficial tools available to you through AWARDS include:
PlanBuilder™ – Create the framework and workflow of your plans - be they care, life, treatment, service, or goal focused. Once plans have been entered, use a variety of methods to determine if the agency is meeting established criteria.
Charting Timetable – Schedule and track assessments and ensure events are being completed in a timely manner. Receive automatic reminders for scheduled events.
Demographics – Work with data in a holistic way. AWARDS has over 5000 data fields, and client demographic data stays consistent across programs/services/forms so that you don’t have to enter it twice. If data changes in one area, it automatically changes all related records.
FormBuilder™ – Build your own forms and assessments and place them in any of numerous areas within the system to accommodate your unique workflows.
Case Study | How ReportBuilder Transformed an Agency
Founded: 1979
Location: Fremont, CA
Clients Served: Over 2,500 Annually
Services: Mental Health, Youth and Family
Using AWARDS Since: 20
Access to Data

AWARDS is leading the way with Interoperability and has the technical power to talk to most systems you might need to connect to.

There is so much that I can do with AWARDS that I wouldn’t be able to do without AWARDS. Access to data is so easy. If somebody says to me, “What percentage of the consumers that you serve are veterans who also have a sexual abuse history and are in recovery?” I can get you that answer in a matter of seconds.

For instance, we are able to connect to a secure direct exchange or a query-based exchange, providing users with key data exchange tools, including:
Interoperability Center – Connect to HIEs and query-based exchanges. Receive and upload CCD-A and CCD formats.
Service Referrals – Create, track, and report on referrals to and from other agencies.
Direct Messages – Use AWARDS to interact with any agency that uses the HL-7 messaging format.
Clinical Director
We have worked with many Clinical Directors throughout the years we have been in business. They have come to us with questions and concerns, trusting us to answer their most complex needs. We will demonstrate how data systems can affect some of the areas a Clinical Director might be concerned about.
What are the most pressing issues facing your agency?
Click the icons below to find out how AWARDS can help.






Audits
Start with the ability to limit who has access to which clients and what data. Factor in the automatic time and date stamp AWARDS places on data entry and report viewing. The result: smoother and easier audits.
Finding, Choosing, Implementing an Electronic Record
For internal oversight purposes you can quickly and easily see what changes have been made to data in the system, when, and by whom. Not only that, but AWARDS allows you to create an auditor login for access to specifically assigned accounts in read-only format.



Before AWARDS we weren’t able to report on an agency wide level. AWARDS gives us the ability to run reports for all programs and gives us a broader outlook of our agency.”
Courtney Molinari Assistant Director
The Arc of Essex County
Key AWARDS tools when it comes to being audit-ready include:
Audit Trail ReportBuilder™ – Get the details, including who, when, and what data was accessed by viewing information that is captured by AWARDS.
System Setup – Control who has access to AWARDS, which parts of the database are available to them, and what they can or can’t do with data.
Client Search – View a complete client history, based on agency-defined information sharing rules, to get a holistic view of what work has been done with each client.
Messages – Communicate with other AWARDS users at the agency (individuals and groups) quickly, efficiently, and with HIPAA compliance. Receive automated alerts and reminders for important triggers or events.
When thinking about compliance and quality assurance, determining the standards you want to uphold and the metrics you’ll use to track them is key. Beyond metrics, organizations need to understand the data behind what they’re measuring.



Before AWARDS — when we needed numbers, we had to go to each program and get them from each manager. Now, we can just go in and extract those numbers, and we don’t need to wait two to three weeks.”
AWARDS provides a range of tools with which to support the flow of data (collecting it, compiling it, and developing metrics around it), only a few of which are listed here. If your agency is looking to address some of its compliance and quality assurance challenges, AWARDS is a key partner.
ReportBuilders™ – Create your own ad-hoc reports, as well as templated reports, using any of the 80+ ReportBuilders™ throughout the system.
PlanBuilder™ – Create the framework and workflow of your plans - be they care, life, treatment, service, or goal focused. Once plans have been entered, use a variety of methods to determine whether the agency is meeting established criteria for success.
Outcomes – Access dashboard metrics and service utilization reports so you can easily see if you are hitting your agency’s goals.
Messages – Communicate with other AWARDS users at the agency (individuals and groups) quickly, efficiently, and with HIPAA compliance. Receive automated alerts and reminders for important triggers or events.
Value-Based Care: The New Healthcare Landscape
There is little doubt that the movement toward a new era of healthcare is upon us, with the next paradigm shift being one to a model based on value over volume. The days of volume-based reimbursement methodologies that have for years dictated the landscape, delivery systems, and often quality of care, will be replaced with a system that is structured to achieve savings, and measure quality and customer satisfaction.
Agency Wellness
While AWARDS can’t directly prevent staff turnover, it’s intuitive usability makes it easy to learn when new staff are on-boarded. If a key staff person does leave, Foothold will always be there with ongoing support and resources. AWARDS also provides free FootholdConnect™ webinars offering additional training.


EHR Review: Buffalo Federation of Neighborhood Centers

AWARDS has made my job much easier. We’re able to coordinate services our clients need. We were using paper and filling everything out [by hand], but with AWARDS we can share the information across the agency as a whole.”
LaShaunda Carter Sanctuary Services for Veterans New Jersey
Human Resources – Track staff information, including staff trainings and credentials.
AWARDS Online Help – Give staff the information they need to get the job done, using our searchable interactive Help tool, including recordings and step-by-step instructions on how to use the system.
Messages – Communicate with other AWARDS users at the agency (individuals and groups) quickly, efficiently, and with HIPAA compliance. Receive automated alerts and reminders for important triggers or events.
Agency File Cabinet – Store important agency documents directly within AWARDS for greater staff accessibility.
Security
AWARDS is the most secure web-based system on the market. We work with a national cybersecurity firm, GreyCastle Security, to meet or exceed compliance standards set out by NIST, HIPAA, and other key regulatory bodies.

Performing Effective Risk Assessments
Foothold Technology’s compliance score currently stands at 100% across all 18 control groups prescribed by HIPAA and the Federal Department of Health and Human Services. While compliance scores can change as time passes and technologies evolve, this score is among the highest we’ve ever seen. I can say

without reservation that Protected Health Information (PHI) is as safe or safer with Foothold Technology than it is any other vendor in the Behavioral Health market.”

We extend cybersecurity best practices to our customer base as well - through periodic external awareness initiatives and essential system security tools, including:
Messages – Communicate with other AWARDS users at the agency (individuals and groups) quickly, efficiently, and with HIPAA compliance. Receive automated alerts and reminders for important triggers or events.
System Setup – Control who has access to AWARDS, which parts of the database are available to them, and what they can or can’t do with data.
Audit Trail ReportBuilder™ – Get the details, including who, when, and what data was accessed by viewing information that is captured by AWARDS.
Block Login Access – Stop unauthorized people from accessing your data system quickly and easily, whether in the event of staff turnover or any other event requiring moment-to-moment access adjustments.
FootholdConnect™ – Post announcements for staff to keep them up to date on current security policies and procedures.
Access to Data

AWARDS is leading the way with Interoperability and has the technical power to talk to most systems you might need to connect to.
Director of Quality Assurance Mental Health Association of Columbia-Greene Counties

The amazing thing . . . is the easy access it provides to all of our data.
The time I save in not going through piles of paper files meals that our clients can get the appropriate attention much sooner.”
Mike Gelfand
Interoperability Center – Connect to HIEs and query-based exchanges. Receive and upload CCD-A and CCD formats.
Service Referrals – Create, track, and report on referrals to and from other agencies.
Direct Messages – Use AWARDS to interact with any agency that uses the HL-7 messaging format.
Staff Management

AWARDS offers numerous ways for staff to communicate more effectively. Because of its web-based nature, AWARDS provides real-time information around client services. If staff have the appropriate permission, they can access the most current information for their clients in seconds.


Service delivery has improved exponentially because we have better information concerning the treatment of our customers . . . it’s probably the best process change we’ve ever made here, and I highly recommend it.”
Robert Davison Executive Director MHA of Essex and Morris Counties
Leveraging other pieces of AWARDS, such as those listed here, also allows teams to work together to help serve the community at large.
ReportBuilders™ – Build effective reports around staff time and the services staff are performing, providing real-time feedback of missing data.
Messages – Communicate with other AWARDS users at the agency (individuals and groups) quickly, efficiently, and with HIPAA compliance. Receive automated alerts and reminders for important triggers or events.
Charting Timetable – Schedule and track assessments and ensure events are being completed in a timely manner. Receive automatic reminders for scheduled events.
Calendar – View information across staff, program, location, and client schedules. Leverage availability functionality to see who is free to meet at certain times.
Case Study | Electronic Record Keeping Instills Confidence and Leads to More Funding - Unique People Services
Founded: 1991
Location: New York and Westchester
Services: I/DD, Supportive Housing, Mental Health, HIV/AIDS
Clients Served: Over 500 Annually
Annual Operating Budget: $22m
Using AWARDS Since: 2009
Direct Staff
We have worked with many direct staff throughout the years we have been in business. They have come to us with questions and concerns, trusting us to answer their most complex needs. We will demonstrate how data systems can affect some areas direct staff might be concerned about.
What are the most pressing issues facing your agency?
Select a relevant topic below to find out how AWARDS can help.



Individual Impact
Access to Data
Agency Efficiency
AssuranceWorking with individuals is at the core at everything you do. AWARDS makes the process of documenting that work as simple as possible and still allows you to pull quality information out of the system.



Service delivery has improved exponentially because we have better information concerning the treatment of our customers . . . it’s probably the best process change we’ve ever made here, and I highly recommend it.”
Robert Davison Executive Director MHA
Essex and Morris Counties
AWARDS was built by human service professionals for human service professionals, reflecting the needs of front-line workers in the design of key functionality, including:
Individual/Group Notes – Capture service information quickly and easily, using a variety of formats that work for your staff.
PlanBuilder™ – Create the framework and workflow of your plans - be they care, life, treatment, service, or goal focused. Once plans have been entered, use a variety of methods to determine whether the agency is meeting established criteria for success.
Daily Activity Log – Have AWARDS generate records for you by efficiently turning captured service data into notes.
Blog | Supported Employment: Focus on CHCNJ
Since the onset, CHCNJ has operated under a philosophy and belief that everyone has the right to be an active, productive member of the community.
Access to Data

AWARDS is leading the way with Interoperability and has the technical power to talk to most systems you might need to connect to.

The amazing thing . . . is the easy access it provides to all of our data.
Director of Quality Assurance Mental Health Association of Columbia-Greene Counties
The time I save in not going through piles of paper files meals that our clients can get the appropriate attention much sooner.”
Mike Gelfand
For instance, we are able to connect to a secure direct exchange or a query-based exchange, providing users with key data exchange tools, including:
Interoperability Center – Connect to HIEs and query-based exchanges. Receive and upload CCD-A and CCD formats.
Service Referrals – Create, track, and report on referrals to and from other agencies.
Direct Messages –Use AWARDS to interact with any agency that uses the HL-7 messaging format.
Agency Efficiency
Doing more with less is a constant challenge for most human service agencies. AWARDS allows for a number of workflows to help lead staff through your processes efficiently, ensuring a high level of data integrity, and making sure the data talks to every part of the database.

If your agency is transitioning from paper, we can build in many time-saving features to create efficiencies. If you already have a data system, AWARDS is easy-to-use and navigate, and can save the organization countless hours.
Jasper de Client Information System Manager Catholic Charities of Santa Clara County

“Over the course of two to three years, we used an in-house system to bring 4 programs into one database. We made the decision to switch to AWARDS, and at one point we had over 80 programs all in one database.”
Guzman
Just a few of the beneficial tools available to you through AWARDS include:
PlanBuilder™ – Create the framework and workflow of your plans - be they care, life, treatment, service, or goal focused. Once plans have been entered, use a variety of methods to determine whether the agency is meeting established criteria for success.
Charting Timetable – Schedule and track assessments and ensure events are being completed in a timely manner. Receive automatic reminders for scheduled events.
Demographics – Work with data in a holistic way. AWARDS has over 5000 data fields, and client demographic data stays consistent across programs/services/forms so that you don’t have to enter it twice. If data changes in one area, it automatically changes all related records.
FormBuilder™ – Build your own forms and assessments and place them in any of numerous areas within the system to accommodate your unique workflows.
Case Study | How ReportBuilder Transformed an Agency
Founded: 1979
Location: Fremont, California
Clients Served: Over 2,500 Annually
Services: Mental Health, Youth and Family
Using AWARDS Since: 2012
Glossary
Features & Functionality
Our software features allow you to manage all your data across your agency. Explore our features through videos or info sheets that give you a deep dive into our flexible, robust functionality.











Our Features in Action


See Demographics & Face Sheet

Learn About Our Powerful Functionality
With robust features and functionality, we can serve virtually any type of human services organization. Read more about the features we offer.
Navigate By Role
To learn more about AWARDS according to your specific role, return to our role-based navigation here.
