How do we count hours as it relates to group settings?

Circle of Care Center for Families

We fully recognize that some funding sources require hours to be counted differently. We report to the funding source, however that funding source wishes. We do draw a distinction between reporting to program-specific funding sources and reporting on behalf of the Center. When we do our end of the month reports as it relates to group settings, we count the time of actual service delivery, preparation time for service delivery, and transportation time. The number of participants has no impact on the hours of service. Some funding sources require the number of participants to affect the service hours, however within the context of the Center reports we do not report using that model. The reason is that if you have 20 students coming to an hour class 20 times a month and you only have one staff person serving them, 400 hours looks odd to many outside the realm of social services. This also creates more of a sense of balance between programs that serve individuals and programs that serve groups.