The Helena community—and surrounding areas—are filled with individuals and organizations dedicated to improving the lives of others. If you or your organization provides services to our community, this event is for you. Whether you're an unpaid volunteer involved in a coalition or a paid staff member of a local organization, we invite you to join us.

Our mission is to break down silos and foster collaboration in addressing the everyday challenges faced by community members.

By coming together, we aim to strengthen our collective approach to serving others, reduce duplicated efforts, and work more effectively as a united community.

Let’s build a stronger, more connected support network—together.

Using priorities from the Community Health Improvement Plan, this summit aims to bring those insights into action. Resource access is a frequent topic in social services—how do people find what they need, and how do we ensure effective referrals? While our community has many resource directories, improving their use remains a key challenge.

The Quad S will feature expert speakers and breakout sessions focused on these issues, offering a platform to strengthen partnerships, share knowledge, and enhance service coordination. Whether you’re a service provider, business leader, or community advocate, this is your opportunity to help build a more connected support system.

We had over 70 participants join us to discuss Early Childhood, Housing, Substance Misuse and Suicide Prevention. We heard from Emily Frazier on collaborating for funding.

Breakout sessions could focus on the following topics:

• Early Childhood

• Mental Health

• Substance Misuse

• Transportation

• Chronic Disease

• Housing

Help us decide what is most important and valuable!

Click here for a short form to share your thoughts.

The Strengthening Support Services Summit (affectionately called The Quad S) on February 27th is the next step in our community’s effort to improve collaboration across service providers, businesses, and organizations. It builds on foundational gatherings like Elevate Montana’s Coalition of Coalitions, which brought stakeholders together to explore ways to work more effectively across sectors. A key takeaway was the need to shift from competing for resources to collaborating on funding and shared services.

After a pause due to COVID, these discussions resurfaced when the Early Childhood Collaborative team participated in the 2023 Early Childhood Transitions Summit. That summit highlighted how service transitions—especially in early childhood, housing, and behavioral health—often create barriers for families. It became clear that intentional collaboration is essential to ensure people don’t fall through the cracks.

In the spirit of streamlining community efforts, we have utilized information from the Community Health Improvement Plan or CHIP to guide the breakout session topics.

The Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP) is a 3-year strategy for Lewis and Clark County, developed using data from the Community Health Assessment (CHA). It focuses on three priority areas—chronic disease, housing, and behavioral health—with six key topics of concern: asthma, cancer, heart disease, housing, mental health, and substance use.

They have regular updates to the community. Open to everyone.

Click here for more information.