FAQs
Q: What does ICI stand for?
A: “Interagency Collaboration Implementation”
Q: What does Project ICI study? A: Project ICI is a three-year, longitudinal study that will examine changes in collaboration (e.g., referral-making, grant writing) among certain New York City health and social services agencies. We invite agencies to help us:
- Study prevention practitioners’ intentions to deliver Evidence-Based Interventions (EBIs) —
- such as CDC DEBIs and HIV testing and access to services (ARTAS).
- Determine how interagency collaboration can help overcome barriers to EBI implementation.
Q: Who is participating in Project ICI?
A: A list of currently participating agencies is here.
Q: How can I use this website?
A: This website only offers information on New York City–based agencies that are participating in Project ICI. Anyone can search for agencies within that universe by location, population(s) served, and types of services and EBIs offered. (If you work for a participating agency and see that your agency’s information on this site is incorrect, you may change it by clicking the “Update Agency” button on your agency’s page. Your agency’s Project ICI point person will have the username and password.) We also offer general information and resources on interagency collaboration and evidence-based practices and announcements of interest to providers and administrators at NYC social service agencies.
Q: What opportunity does Project ICI offer agencies?
A: Agencies will have the opportunity to train their staff on interagency collaboration, in order to improve implementation of evidence-based services. Each participating agency receives a computer to facilitate education on interagency collaboration, and agencies will receive a monetary incentive for each practitioner who participates.
Q: How can an agency join Project ICI?
A: Project ICI has taken in only a limited number of new agencies since it began its baseline interviews with its original group of agencies in 2013. If an agency is interested in becoming part of Project ICI, the appropriate point person, such as the executive director, should contact Prema Filippone, Project Director, at (212) 851-2403 or plf2107@columbia.edu.
Q: My agency is already participating in Project ICI, but the information you have on us is out of date. How can I update it?
A: To update agency information, you may go here. Click on “Search Agencies,” then find your agency on the list, click it, and then click on the “Update Agency” link next to the agency name. Please note that a username and password are required. These have been emailed to the point person at your agency.
Q: How does the Project work? What questions do we ask?
A: Project ICI is engaging over 350 practitioners’ (i.e. social workers, health educators, physicians, peer educators, linkage coordinators, case managers, etc.) from as many as 40 New York City agencies to examine changes in interagency collaboration over time.
- Baseline survey interviews will examine practitioner experiences in implementing EBIs.
- One-hour training and Web-based education will educate practitioners on interagencycollaboration.
- Twelve-month follow up survey will capture changes in practitioners’ intentions to deliver EBIs.
- Thirty-month follow up survey will capture changes in EBI implementation.
- In-depth interviews will be used to discover how practitioners overcome these barriers.
Q: Why are we studying interagency collaboration?
A: To help service practitioners to foster collaboration among agencies, in order to increase the number of individuals receiving evidence-based services and being referred for medical care. EBI implementation will increase the number of consumers receiving science-based HIV.
Q: What are some benefits of collaboration?
A: Interagency collaboration means you share information and pool resources with colleagues at other agencies. This can fill gaps in the services your agency offers and help you provide more streamlined programs. Interagency collaboration also allows you to make mutual referrals. This can be useful for HIV service providers referring clients to EBPs. Receiving referrals from other agencies can ensure the success and retention of your programs too! And all of this makes you more attractive to funders.
Q: What is the Project ICI Training?
A: Project ICI conducted a number of full-day live trainings in interagency collaboration between October 2013 and February 2014. These were for agency staff who had taken our baseline survey. At the moment, no more live trainings are planned. We have, however, condensed the live training into a 45-minute video, presented on-site at agencies by a facilitator from Project ICI. If study participants from your agency have completed baseline data collection with us, but no training has been scheduled, please contact Prema Filippone, Project Director, at (212) 851-2403 or plf2107@columbia.edu.
Q: Where does Project ICI funding come from?
A: Project ICI is funded by the National Institute of Health’s (NIH) Grant Number 5R01MH095676; Rogério M. Pinto, PhD, Principal Investigator. Co-investigators are: Melanie M. Wall, PhD, and Susan S. Witte, PhD NIH gives “R01” grants “to support a discrete, specified, circumscribed project to be performed by the named investigator(s) in an area representing his or her specific interest and competencies.”
Q: What are these specific interests and competencies? Why is Dr. Pinto doing this study?
A: Interagency Collaboration (IC) can improve agency and provider abilities to deliver evidence-based interventions (or EBIs; treatments proven effective through outcome evaluations and thus likely to be effective in changing target behavior). This research will identify innovative ways for agencies and providers to serve at-risk individuals with varying HIV risk profiles. Healthy People 2020 calls for an increase in the number of persons receiving evidence based-services. IC may help fulfill this mandate by improving provider communication, delivery of effective services and reduction of service duplication. By delivering EBIs, providers can enhance the likelihood of at-risk individuals getting tested, decreasing risk behaviors, increasing condom use and finding primary care. For instance, suppose a person at-risk for HIV infection enters the diffusion system through Agency A. Agency A is not providing EBIs matching this person’s demographics or prevention needs. How could a provider in Agency A find another agency with appropriate EBIs for this person? The proposed research will identify how IC could help the provider at Agency A put an at-risk individual on a quick path to receiving EBIs and thus inform service-level interventions to address EBI access and implementation difficulties.
Q: What will happen after the project ends?
A: Once the study is complete, Project ICI will compile a final report including any findings to be shared with study participants and their agencies.
Q: Can I share materials with agencies not currently part of Project ICI?
A: You are more than welcome to share the Project ICI website with your colleagues. You may also share any materials you received as part of our training. Please note that any reproduced materials should credit Project ICI and carry the line “© 2013 Trustees of Columbia University.”
Q: Are there other resources, beyond Project ICI, that can help me collaborate with other agencies?
A: A list of resources is posted here. If you know of resources we should add, please email complete information on these resources to David Pratt at dp2703@columbia.edu.
Q: What happens if I leave my job or otherwise do not wish to participate in ICI anymore?
A: Project ICI is a voluntary study. If you leave the position you held when you were first interviewed by Project ICI, we will still be in touch, and we hope that you will do your follow-up interview(s) just as you would do if you had stayed in your original job.