UST
Serving Nonprofits Since 1983
CASE STUDY
Yolo Family Service Agency
Yolo Family Service Agency has provided preventative and therapeutic
mental health care to Yolo County, California, since 1959. They provide core
services including professional counseling for children, families, couples, and
individuals coping with issues such as marital difficulties, parent/child conflict, depression, anxiety, the
effects of trauma and abuse, custody and divorce, and grief and loss. By working on a sliding fee schedule
and accepting many major insurance plans, they aim to impart that, “Dealing with problems on your own,
does not mean dealing with them by yourself.”
Challenge
“As a smaller agency we can’t do everything,” explains
Executive Director Trish Stanionis. Even with a county
contract to provide the counseling to children in foster care
and those involved with protective services, YFSA still has to
be conscious of their funding.
With limited resources, YFSA pays 11 therapists hourly wages
to provide counseling services to people throughout Yolo
County, with an average yearly budget of $500,00-$700,000.
For them to be able to reach their 1,500 clients a year, they
must be vigilant of their organizational funds—more so
because they provide vital counseling services that can make
all the difference in someone’s future.
Solution
“I’ve paid other unemployment claims services, and our
interaction with UST has been immensely better. UST has
done really good work when we needed it, and then the
claims monitors don’t bug me when I don’t need them.”
And, because your contributions to your account are based
only on your own claims, she explains, “UST is helpful
because you’re not paying for what you don’t need.” YFSA
knows it’s not the best time to be a therapist without a job
and they’ve done their best to manage all of their resources
effectively, eliminating only one position a few years ago.
As a result, they have saved thousands of dollars over the
past few years that would have been paid in taxes, for claims
they didn’t even have. With very low unemployment, their
contributions to their UST account remain an asset, and can
even be partially refunded as they continue to enjoy a low
claim experience.
Summary
The ease of UST and the ability to easily budget for claims
has been a boon to YFSA. Having dealt with other claims
administrators before working at YFSA, Stanionis found that
UST’s claims administrators were “great to the point that I
noticed it,” which she explains she didn’t expect based on
her previous interactions with unemployment benefit claims
services.
As a smaller agency that functions without an established
Human Resources department, Stanionis finds comfort in
knowing that when the time comes for them to expand, or if
they ever have to eliminate another position, she can rely on
UST. “I know I can call UST and talk to someone about that,
which is really where the help is. UST is a partner in this with
us, as opposed to just providing us with a service.”
As a smaller agency we can’t do everything... UST is a partner in this
with us, as opposed to just providing us with a service.”
Copyright © UST 2014
06.13.14