An Inclusive Approach to Updating Accreditation Standards

Each year, the COA Accreditation standards team at Social Current reviews and updates our standards manual to ensure that it is consistent with evolving practices, relevant literature, and the continuous feedback we receive from our network. We recently released our 2023 edition of updates, the culmination of our yearlong collaborative process.

In our work to update the standards we strive to live our values of inclusivity and engaging all voices. In addition to reviewing published literature, we prioritize feedback from those with field experience. Specifically, our process for updating the standards involved:

• Collecting, reviewing, and synthesizing prominent published research and professional literature in key areas
• Examining the proposed revisions and discussing trends in the field with our standards advisory panels comprised of subject matter experts, leaders of human services organizations, and staff from human services organizations
• Soliciting and incorporating feedback from our network of accredited and engaged organizations and the broader social sector

A significant motive behind our most recent update was to better reflect principles of equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI). We released these enhancements to our standards to promote EDI through organizations’ practices, policies, and services.

To learn more about COA Accreditation, a service of Social Current, register for an upcoming Introduction to COA webinar.