The Chas Foundation

What it reported doing in 2024

Mental illness navigator & support (mins) program in 2024, the chas foundation continued helping individuals and their families struggling with mental illness by connecting them to local treatment providers and offering peer family support. Support services include transportation, crisis meals, and temporary housing for individuals with serious mental illness (smi). Indeed, there is a disconnect between an individual needing mental health treatment and them accessing treatment. A multitude of barriers exist accessing treatment including cost, transportation, lack of providers, wait-times to receive treatment, substance abuse, etc chas seeks to eliminate those barriers. The mental illness navigator and support program educates families about the complex mental healthcare system, supports them along their journey, and provides a continuum of care through referrals and connections to local mental health services (treatment providers, housing, police, court, jails). When inpatient and outpatient services and resources are inadequate, or the individual and/or family has exhausted all options, the chas foundation continues to provide peer family support so that a support system is established for the entire family unit. Additional support is given by meeting with individuals and families at their choice of location, providing transportation to reach service providers, and assistance making doctors appointments. The mental health system can be a maze for individuals. Many people, families, and caretakers do not know where to start or how to navigate the system. An online mental health resource guide showing resources and services in every hampton roads city is continually updated for community use. Chas is the primary contact listed for residents to access resources and services on the mentally healthy hampton roads resource guide. The resource guide can be found and downloaded at talkaboutitnorfolk.com. Chas and the navigator and support program provide a free local mental health resource for the hampton roads region. A person can call and speak with a peer-specialist that's compassionate, caring, supportive, and informative while working to increase access to mental health care for that individual, family member, or caretaker. A chas peer-family-support specialist is available by phone from 9am to 5pm monday through friday and no appointment is necessary. The support specialist is local to the region and provides both information and support that is truly a lifeline to callers and program participants. The mins peer-support-specialist can be on the phone or meeting with a program participant for upwards of 3 hours per day. Mins staff work with some program participants daily or multiple times per week and some participants have been in the mins program for over 8 years. Unlike before, local health care and insurance providers are now referring families to the chas foundation. The mins program also receives calls from people asking for information about mental health services and resources including basic information like phone numbers or addresses for inpatient and outpatient treatment providers. In 2024, 612 peer-support connections to service providers and resources were made by the mins program. 58% of the calls chas receives comes from family members or friends asking how to help a loved one. 80% of callers have some form of health insurance. 70% of callers live in south hampton roads. Since the program began, the mins program has directly helped over 4200 people and have made over 5500 connections to local services. 2024 saw an increased demand for support services including crisis meals (69% increase) and temporary housing (282% increase) for individuals with serious mental illness. Mindfulness program mindfulness-based cognitive therapy may be useful for treating symptoms of anxiety, according to research published recently in the british journal of psychiatry. Researchers looked at changes in anxiety levels among patients w

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 83.2%; rating input score 83
• Program expense ratio: 95.2%; rating input score 95
• Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

• Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
• Pay-setting controls: Limited
• Foreign activity oversight: Limited
• Grant itemization coverage: Limited
• Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
• Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

• Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
• Governance controls: 5 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 56
  • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
  • Whistleblower policy: Pass
  • Document-retention policy: Pass
  • CEO compensation review process: Fail
  • Other executive compensation review process: Fail
  • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
  • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
  • Audit committee oversight: Missing
  • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

• Operating margin: 12.5%; rating input score 64; 64th percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.71; rating input score 32; 32nd percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 80; 80th percentile among comparable filings
• Officer compensation ratio: 70.3%; rating input score 2; 2nd percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: 7.4% per year; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
• Revenue growth: 6.9% per year; rating input score 100; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: 7.7% per year; rating input score 100; 58th percentile among comparable filings