Strengthening Support Services Summit
Save the date!
February 24th, 2026
Session Materials
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Emily Frazier talked about Funding and Collaboration. We learned about Tame versus Wicked problems.
Click here to see her presentation.
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Callie Parr with Zero to Five Montana led an engaging conversation on how we can come together and improve early childhood in our community.
Click here to see the key takeaways.
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Housing First Leadership Panel included:
Carrie Steere with Good Samaritan Ministries
Emily McVey with United Way
Gina Boesdorfer with Friendship Center
Mark Nay with St. Peter’s Health
Michael O’Neill with Helena Housing Authority
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Karl Rosston talked about early prevention programs, suicide prevention and the support tools available to the community.
Click here for more information.
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Jesse Heide with YWCA guided participants to explore substance misuse in Montana, discussed treatment options and gaps, how to collaborate on next steps for improvement, and reviewed participants' roles within the treatment system.
Click here to see her presentation.
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Emily McVey led us through an informative session to cover the resources directories in our community.
Click here to see her presentation.
Find speaker bios below.
Speakers
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Emily is the Executive Director of United Way and she will be our host for our time together.
Emily has lived in Montana her whole life. She and her husband, Mike, raised their children in Helena, participating in a number of extracurricular activities such as Boy Scouts and sports. Emily’s background includes a formal education in culinary arts, sociology, and public relations, and she has a master's degree in public administration. Her nonprofit experience includes working at Florence Crittenton Home, Montana Youth Homes under Rocky Mountain Development Council, as well as volunteering for other nonprofit organizations. Emily worked for the state of Montana for six years for Child and Family Services. Emily was glad to return to the nonprofit sector in 2019 to work alongside other nonprofits to make meaningful change happen in the tri-county area. When she is out of the office, Emily enjoys cake decorating, and trying out new hobbies by taking adult education classes.
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Callie is the Early Childhood Tribal Coordinator with Zero to Five Montana. She will be our leader for the breakout session on Early Childhood.
Callie Parr joins Zero to Five Montana as the Early Childhood Tribal Coordinator with a diverse professional background. Most recently, she was working to support families and early childhood initiatives at the community level in her hometown of Butte.
Callie found her passion for early childhood after becoming a mother herself and recognizing the true impact access to early learning opportunities, prevention through early intervention, and other supportive programs can have on young children and families.
Callie is a people-person with a passion for helping others. She was facilitator of the local early childhood coalition, has served on several committees, and received the 2023 Moving Mountains Award for her prevention efforts.
Callie is a generational descendant of the Little Shell Chippewa Tribe of Montana that was recently federally recognized as a tribe in 2019. She looks forward to building strong relationships with communities, parents, and leaders throughout the state of Montana and advocate for all children and families.
When she’s not advocating for families in Montana, you can find Callie spending time with her three children, spouse, Chris, and her puppy and kitty!
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Carrie is the Assistance Coordinator with Good Samaritan Ministries. She is a Certified Behavioral Health Peer Support Specialist. She will join our panel for the Housing Breakout Session.
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Emily is the Executive Director of the Helena Area Community Foundation. She is here to share her wisdom with us on how we can collaborate for funding in our community.
Emily Frazier, CFRE, MA, is a Helena native and a nonprofit nerd. She holds a master’s degree in Philanthropy and Development from Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota, is a Certified Fund Raising and loves connecting people to the causes they care about. Emily has worked in the nonprofit sector for over 15 years and joined the Helena Area Community Foundation in 2019. Emily is a 2021 graduate of Leadership Montana and was selected as one of Helena’s 20 under 40 in 2021. Emily serves her community as a CASA volunteer, and her hobbies include cooking, playing board games, and carving candles as an apprentice chandler. She is thrilled to be living and working in her hometown, for her hometown! She lives with her husband, Eric, and her dogs, Hershel and Watson.
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Gina has served as the Executive Director of the Friendship Center since 2021. She will be joining the panel to discuss housing in Helena.
Gina has been working in victim services since 2008. She started her career as a volunteer at a local domestic violence sexual assault agency during college. Gina has a B.A. in Psychology and Criminal Justice. She also has an M.A. in Clinical Psychology, with an emphasis on trauma after completing her clinical practicum at a veteran's health and trauma clinic. Gina and her family moved to Helena in 2015 when she took a job at The Friendship Center. At The Friendship Center, Gina first worked primarily with the shelter residents. She then transitioned to a role managing the programmatic side of the agency as well as the facility. -
Jesse is the Clinical Director at the YWCA Helena. She is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and an Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Consultant. Jesse will lead our Substance Misuse breakout session.
Jesse grew up in Indiana as the second born of four children. After earning her degree in psychology from Boston University in 2003 she planned for a short stay in Helena—but quickly fell in love with the town and its people, deciding to stay
In 2008, Jesse earned her Master of Social Work from the University of Montana, launching a career dedicated to supporting children and families. With extensive experience across multiple systems - including court system, school systems, service providers, child protective services and levels of care - including inpatient, school- based, and outpatient service; she has developed a deep understanding of the complexities of social work.
Drawn to the YWCA’s unwavering commitment to women and families, Jesse joined the organization in 2023 as Clinical Director. In this role, she finds immense fulfillment in:
guiding women on their recovery journeys;
helping children navigate their emotions;
strengthening family bonds, and
ensuring YWCA Helena provides top-tier services to the community.
Outside of work, Jesse recharges by traveling to visit friends and family, spending time by the water, and cherishing moments with her husband and son.
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Karl is the Suicide Prevention Coordinator for the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services. He is joining us to lead the breakout session on Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Tools and Support.
Karl provides evidenced-based programs to all Montana secondary schools, implements the State Suicide Prevention Plan, supports the Montana Crisis Lifeline, implements statewide media campaigns, provides suicide prevention trainings, and coordinates suicide prevention efforts around the state. Karl is a master level trainer in QPR and trains in suicide safe care for patients for many of the state’s universities and health care settings.
Previously, Karl was the Director of Social Services at Shodair Children’s Hospital in Helena. Before returning to Montana, he was on the faculty of the University of Colorado, School of Medicine, and a clinical consultant with the Colorado Division of Youth Corrections.
He is a licensed clinical social worker who maintains a small private practice in Helena. He received his master’s in social work from the University of Denver and his bachelor’s in psychology from the University of Montana.
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Mark Nay brings a unique perspective to his work as a Community Health Worker for St. Peter’s Health FUSE Team. With a background as a former Street Outreach Coordinator for Good Samaritan Ministries, Mark has dedicated himself to serving vulnerable populations. His journey includes overcoming addiction, navigating the challenges of the Department of Corrections as a convicted felon, and experiencing homelessness firsthand from 2015 to 2022, including living unsheltered from 2018 to 2020. Mark's experiences fuel his passion for advocating for those facing similar struggles, and his story inspires hope and resilience in others.
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Michael is the Executive Director at Helena Housing Authority and will be joining the housing panel.
Helena Housing Authority (HHA) provides safe and affordable housing and related services to eligible low-income families, the elderly, and the disabled in the Helena, MT area. HHA housing programs include public housing, housing choice vouchers, tax credit affordable housing, and Permanent Supportive Housing for persons who are homeless.
Michael has an extensive background in developing affordable housing, community facilities, and services across the state of Montana. He founded and led the Montana Home Choice Coalition, a statewide coalition bringing together the housing and disability communities to create better housing choices for Montanans with disabilities and seniors. Michael strongly advocates the view that quality, safe, accessible and affordable housing is the cornerstone of stable community living and a life of greater independence and dignity for all.
In the spirit of streamlining community efforts, we have utilized information from the Community Health Improvement Plan or CHIP to select our speakers and our 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.
Resources - both how to find them and how to access them - are a hot topic in Helena.
There are many directories already operating in our community.
Here’s some more information on each resource directory that we know of serving the Helena area. If you know of more, let Maureen know and she will add it to the list!
Accessing Resources in the Helena area
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Montana 211 is a statewide service but you can search for local resources. Montana 211 is underutilized but has the potential to be an extremely robust tool for our community.
You can dial 211 or visit the online directory here.
Interested in being listed or updating your information? Click here.
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CONNECT aims to foster clinical-community linkages and inspire a collaborative culture among service providers. All types of clinicians and other service providers are encouraged to utilize CONNECT to refer patients to community support services.
Learn more about CONNECT here.
Interested in learning more about CONNECT? Reach out to Vivi Tyler.
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The Bright App is a searchable database full of behavioral health providers.
Check out the Bright App here.
Want to be listed in The Bright App? Click here.
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The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline provides free and confidential emotional support to people in suicidal crisis or emotional distress 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Call 988 or visit their website here.
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LIFTS stands for Linking Infants & Families to Supports. This online directory is ran by Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies - The Montana Coalition.
Want to be listed in LIFTS? Click here.
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HRA is a community meeting where nonprofits, businesses, service groups, or caring citizens can share information, discuss the needs of our community, and network with groups working toward similar goals. Each week this group shares updates via email much like a nonprofit community newsletter. There are over 120 people on the HRA information chain.
Click here to see the HRA’s Foldable card with local services.
Want to be added to the group? Email Emily McVey.
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The Helena Village Collective supports Helena’s perinatal community through connection, resources and advocacy. They want to ensure every parent has the knowledge and support they need to nurture both their child and their parenting journey.
They are in the early stages of creating a Perinatal Resource Guide for our community.
Keep an eye on their Instagram page for all their amazing work.
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Partners in Peds has an impressive list of resources on their website.
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.
How did this come to be?
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.
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.
Thank you to our many community partners
