​As we step into spring, a season of growth and renewal, we are excited to introduce a new series for the Alameda TCOM Collaborative that combines cultural creativity with practical tools: Lotería and the CANS. Through this series, we’ll explore how Lotería, the beloved Mexican game of chance, can serve as a metaphorical and visual framework to deepen our understanding of CANS items and enhance our practice.

Lotería, often compared to bingo, features a deck of beautifully illustrated cards, each symbolizing unique objects, people, or themes. These cards tell a story, inviting reflection and connection. In this series, we’ll use Lotería cards as jumping-off points to explore specific CANS items or domains, focusing on strengths, needs, and the ways we can support children, youth, and families.
​
For this first post, we chose El Árbol (The Tree) to represent family strengths, an essential item in the CANS. Just as a tree thrives with strong roots, families often serve as the foundation for growth and resilience. The CANS assessment invites us to look at family strengths through a strength-based lens, highlighting areas of connection, support, and nurturing.

​We totally understand that the CANS can be intimidating, especially if you feel like you need to ask about every item. Luckily, CANS isn't meant to be a questionnaire but a framework to organize the information you get from organic conversations with clients, parents, teachers, case managers and others who interact with and know the client. So go ahead and use your engagement skills to have conversations about how life is going, what concerns them, what's going well and where they think they need help or want change. Keep the CANS items in mind while you're talking, and then use the CANS framework to organize what you learned. It's OK if you don't know about every item at first; you'll likely know more when you come back to do an updated CANS after you get to know people better.

​Part of our mission as the Alameda TCOM Collaborative is to bring CANS information, resources, and training to the Alameda provider community. We’d love to hear more about what YOU want so we can meet your needs and prioritize information that’s meaningful to you and your practice. Our hope is that the CANS can be a useful tool for you and the youth, families, and teams that you partner with to reach consensus around action, work toward common goals, and celebrate progress. 

Thank you in advance for sharing your feedback with us!
​We appreciate it. 

Did you know that we offer free, live, virtual CANS trainings for Alameda County providers on your schedule? If you find our monthly certification trainings hard to send staff to due to scheduling conflicts but have a group of staff to train, we can schedule a CANS Certification "roadshow" just for you! Contact us and we will work out a date and time that works best for you and your staff. Beyond CANS Certification trainings, we offer CANS roadshow trainings on other topics as well including, but not limited to: CANS and Supervision; Teaming with CANS; CANS Engagement; & CANS Data/Reporting. We're here to help address your CANS Agency-specific needs!

Those using the CANS in Spanish were able to build community, share un cafecito, discuss barriers, and share resources for using the TCOM tools with Spanish-language communities.  Cristal Alvarado, from East Bay Agency for Children and the newest member to the Alameda County CANS Collaborative, shared about using Lotería (a Mexican game similar to BINGO), as a tool to guide conversations about the CANS. 

Do you or someone at your organization have questions about the CANS or perhaps would a CANS/ANSA refresher be helpful? We’re here to offer you coaching and consultation.

Transformational Collaborative Outcomes Management (TCOM) is a conceptual framework for managing services and outcomes within complex systems.  Within this framework there is a philosophy, a strategy, and a set of tactics all designed to facilitate an effective and integrated approach to addressing needs and building strengths with people. We have integrated this person-centered, collaborative approach within our Alameda County Behavioral Health Department Child Family Team meetings.  To start with, we have redesigned the Intensive Care Coordination/Intensive Home Based Services (ICC/IHBS) Child and Family Team (CFT) Client Care Plan and meeting notes document by integrating client/family strengths and needs as discussion points which can be weaved in, as necessary, throughout the meeting. This change follows the Integrated Core Practice Model framework as we continue to focus on youth, young adult and/or family strengths and needs and support alignment of all members of the team so that these teams can collaboratively creation immediate and longer term action plans. These updates help ensure that the Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths (CANS) tool is integral in the teaming process.