The Institute: Who We Are
The Institute of Family & Community Impact is OhioGuidestone’s center of excellence for clinical research, training, innovation, and advocacy. The Institute, or IFCI, was born out of OhioGuidestone’s strategic plans for growing our innovation and research in 2017. We focus on enhancing the lives of children, adults, and families by empowering them to build nurturing, healthy, and resilient communities that thrive.
For more than 150 years, OhioGuidestone has helped generations of individuals and families. Our clients reach vitality and happiness through self-reliance and efficacy, education, and commitment to being members of strong, resilient communities. Above all, OhioGuidestone provides pathways for growth, achievement, and lifelong success. We offer community-based services and programs, notably for early childhood mental health, school-based therapy, and family counseling. At OhioGuidestone we also offer workforce skill development, foster care, substance use recovery services, and much more!
What We Do at IFCI
IFCI is a reliable source for expert information and resources for community members ranging from practitioners to clients, educators to students, and policy makers to everyday families. As an extension of OhioGuidestone, we are committed to developing innovative, evidence-based solutions that reduce barriers to care, increase access to quality and responsive care, and improve outcomes for those experiencing mental health issues and substance use disorders.
We have a motivation and vision centered around building stronger, more resilient families and communities. The Institute serves as a point of connection between our direct service providing agency and many different external stakeholders impacted by our work. Our goal is to foster meaningful relationships, share knowledge and resources, and ultimately build a stronger, more inclusive community where equity and justice are at the center of behavioral healthcare.
Our Initiatives
Clinical Innovations
The Institute pioneers and develops clinical innovations to best serve client needs and advance mental health care in many settings. At OhioGuidestone, we validate and implement IFCI tools and models with our highly trained, frontline staff and leadership. We use the knowledge from our empirical research to develop evidence-based (or informed) programs, interventions, and innovations that promote positive, culturally, and linguistically responsive outcomes for the people we serve — and beyond.
Research
IFCI does research for and with the communities we serve, never ‘on’ them. We positively impact communities through our research by sharing important empirical results and implications directly with clients, families and staff in a variety of accessible formats, instead of limiting our research to only professionals within inaccessible journals. Through our research, we strive to gain a deeper understanding of the challenges, and joys that families and communities face and experience. Interested in our open research studies? Visit our secure Research Portal.
Training & Professional Development
At the Institute, we exercise our US & WE approach to community by offering trainings that promote health and resiliency for clinicians, schools, and caregivers. Our clinical training programs equip a variety of professionals across direct service providing fields with the tools and knowledge necessary to enhance their effectiveness through evidence-based clinical treatment and services.
Products
We publish products that give the best clinical tools to those in varying fields and share our motivation, vision, and purpose with the world. Through our innovation and dedication, we continue to develop culturally responsive products that enhance our readers ability to achieve holistic long-term goals and make a difference in the lives of clients and beyond. The best part? The Institute has products useful for everyone!
Translate Science
We are committed to translating science in an accessible and engaging manner to and for the public. We help further knowledge among clinicians, researchers, and policymakers while keeping our position papers and Impact Corner blog-style articles accessible to everyone. At the Institute, we validate and implement tools and models through our highly trained OhioGuidestone staff. We also partner with national and local organizations that do similar work and strive toward similar goals as ours. We are, in short, a hub connecting a wide variety of initiatives to build stronger, more resilient families and communities that get to do more than just survive- they get to thrive!
Advocacy
The Institute advocates non-partisan policies for and with the people we serve and pushes for action consistent with our motivation and US & WE vision. By working hand-in-hand with those we serve to impact mental health policy, we strive to create a positive change that aligns with our core values to uplift and empower individuals, families, and communities! Together, we continue to make family and community impact.