Fairfax-Falls Church Community Services Board

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8221 Willow Oaks Corporate Drive
Fairfax, Virginia 22031
Daryl Washington
Executive Director

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CSB Strategic Plan

An infographic outlining the goals of the Strategic Plan that are also in plain text in the accordion drop down sections on the page.
Click the image above for a printable PDF of the FY 2026 - FY 2028 CSB Strategic Plan Goals.

The CSB's strategic plan will serve as a roadmap between FY 2026 and FY 2028. Strategic planning is an ongoing process, and this three-year plan is designed to evolve with the needs of the people we serve and the agency. Strategic planning is future-oriented, proactive and can be adapted as new priorities emerge. Evaluation and performance measurement are key to the success of the strategic plan. The plan will be reviewed and evaluated regularly, and data will be tracked and reported to demonstrate progress toward our strategic goals.

Read the FY 2026 to FY 2028 CSB Strategic Plan below or download a PDF copy.

Published September 16, 2025.

FY 2026 - FY 2028 CSB Strategic Plan

Foreword

As the Community Services Board (CSB) developed this latest strategic plan, we were encouraged by the consistently high ratings and positive feedback we received from stakeholders. We heard clearly that the CSB is recognized for its exceptional leadership, dedicated staff, and strong collaboration with community partners in delivering critical services to the Fairfax-Falls Church community.

While it is gratifying to be recognized for our accomplishments, we understand that continued success requires ongoing evaluation, adaptation and growth. This strategic plan is a roadmap for that continued improvement. It reflects our commitment to serving our clients effectively, efficiently and with the highest standards of care.

It is important to recognize that this plan was not developed in isolation. The CSB is currently operating in one of the most dynamic and uncertain fiscal and legislative environments in its 50+ year history. In Fiscal Year 2026, the CSB was projected to receive nearly $5 million in federal funding and over $12 million from the state. However, anticipated reductions in federal spending and a shift of funding responsibilities to state and local governments have introduced significant financial uncertainty.

Concurrently, challenges at the local level — such as declining commercial real estate revenue and rising costs for supplies, capital equipment and employee compensation — have further impacted the county’s fiscal landscape. As a result, all county agencies, including the CSB, have been directed to prepare FY27 budgets reflecting a 5% reduction. For the CSB, this equates to over $9 million in necessary budget adjustments through cost savings or additional revenue generation.

To meet this challenge, CSB employees have been invited to contribute ideas for both cost-saving measures and new revenue opportunities. We believe those closest to our clients are best positioned to help shape an organization that is both fiscally resilient and mission-driven.

This strategic plan was developed with critical input from staff and community stakeholders and represents our third consecutive plan shaped through collaborative engagement. We are deeply grateful to everyone who contributed their time, expertise and perspectives throughout this process.

As we move forward, we encourage ongoing dialogue. If you identify opportunities to enhance our organizational efficiency or service delivery, we welcome your insights.

We are guided by the understanding that there is no health without mental health. Our ability to succeed is directly tied to the strength of our partnerships — with individuals, community organizations and county agencies. We remain committed to deepening these relationships and building new ones to expand our collective impact.

Together, we will bring this plan to life — and together, we will celebrate the progress we achieve.

  • Daryl Washington, CSB Executive Director
  • Andrew Scalise, CSB Board Chair

 

Strategic Plan Development

The strategic planning process began in July 2024, shortly after the CSB welcomed its new Senior Strategy Director. Working closely with the executive leadership team, the director outlined the approach for developing the agency’s first strategic plan since 2018, and presented an ambitious timeline for its completion.

In August 2024, a team of strategy division staff was created to help carry out the strategic planning process. Shortly thereafter, a 21-person steering committee was formed, comprising representation from programs across the CSB.

Between October 2024 and January 2025, the steering committee led an extensive outreach effort to gather input on the CSB’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) from a diverse group of stakeholders, including:

  • CSB Board Members
  • County Leaders — 18 participants including agency directors and the Deputy County Executive for human services agencies
  • Community Partners — 33 representatives from nonprofit organizations, partners, contractors and service providers that collaborate with the CSB in client referrals and service coordination
  • CSB Employee Focus Groups — 20 groups consisting of staff from all CSB program areas, offering valuable insights from across the agency.

From December 2024 through March 2025, the CSB conducted a community survey to gather feedback from individuals who use its services. More than 700 clients responded, with over 90% indicating a favorable view of the CSB by answering “yes” to the question: “Would you recommend CSB services to your family and friends?”

In February and April, the CSB hosted six virtual focus groups, inviting clients to share their thoughts on the question: “What is one thing that could improve your experience as a client at the CSB?” Based on the feedback received, CSB staff took prompt action to address concerns and implement client-driven suggestions where feasible.

In total, input from nearly 1,000 stakeholders was collected and analyzed to identify key themes. These insights directly informed the development of the strategic priorities that serve as the foundation for this plan.

In parallel with the stakeholder engagement process, the CSB Communications Team conducted a historical analysis of the agency’s evolution. This effort produced a timeline highlighting the development and growth of CSB’s services in mental health, substance use and developmental disability support.

Following the initial data collection and engagement phases, the CSB conducted a SKEPTIC analysis to ensure that no critical information was overlooked in the development of an effective strategic plan. SKEPTIC is an acronym that encompasses the following areas:

  • S: Socio-Demographics
  • K: Competition
  • E: Economics
  • P: Political/Regulatory
  • T: Technological
  • I: Industry Trends
  • C: Clients

This comprehensive review, combined with nine months of stakeholder engagement and data analysis, culminated in the identification of five strategic goals that form the foundation of the CSB’s FY2026 Strategic Plan:

  1. Increase awareness of services to improve individuals’ access to CSB, community behavioral healthcare and developmental disability services.
  2. Ensure high-quality, equitable service delivery to all individuals, including diverse and multicultural populations.
  3. Enhance positive work culture to foster engagement and retention.
  4. Expand the use of data to support decision-making, track progress, and report on goals and outcomes.
  5. Improve our business practices to become more efficient, maximize services, optimize revenue streams and maintain quality.

 

Connection to the County Strategic Plan

The CSB is a Fairfax County government agency, and our programs and services are aligned with the Countywide Strategic Plan (June 2025 revision). This plan centers on 10 community outcome areas that reflect the priorities most important to county residents. The CSB’s work primarily falls within two of these areas:

Goal 1: Increase awareness of services to improve individuals’ access to CSB, community behavioral healthcare and developmental disability services

Outcome Statement: Ensure that individuals, families and community members understand, trust and can easily access CSB and community services — resulting in increased service utilization, reduced stigma and stronger engagement in care.

Goal 1-1: Enhance external communication with individuals, the community and partners to navigate and access services more easily.

Supporting Strategies

Community Members and the General Public

  • Develop public education campaigns highlighting where and how to get help, with a focus on promoting early access.
  • Launch stigma reduction behavioral health campaigns focused on normalizing help-seeking behavior and mental health.
  • Develop campaigns and media stories on individual recovery, success and resilience.

Partners and Referral Organizations

  • Attend and participate in local events, cultural festivals and existing community events to share information about CSB services.
  • Host quarterly open houses or site tours for the public (inviting community partners and CSB staff) to learn more about CSB services, reduce stigma and promote help seeking behaviors.
  • Collaborate with local organizations, public and private, including barbershops, salons, faith-based organizations, and cultural groups to deliver services and information in trusted spaces.
  • Partner with schools and youth ambassador programs to offer educational resources and family-centered events.
  • Co-host a Holistic Health Fair with the Health Department that emphasizes mental health and wellness as a vital component of overall health.

Goal 1-2: Help individuals access and navigate the system of care.

Supporting Strategies

Individual Access and Navigation

  • Share wait times (e.g., for assessment or walk-in services) to reduce uncertainty and increase confidence in the process.
  • Use peer support specialists with lived experience to guide individuals through the referral and treatment process and journey.
  • Continuously gather and act on individual feedback to improve navigation materials, digital tools and overall access and navigation experiences. 

Goal 1-3: Enhance external communication and strengthen consistency and recognition of the CSB brand.

Supporting Strategies

Promote Consistent and Unified CSB Brand

  • Develop a CSB brand/style guide (logos, language, tone, colors, etc.).
  • Ensure all public facing materials, signage and digital content reflect unified visual identity.
  • Ensure all public materials are developed using plain language and health literacy best practices.
  • Create and distribute branded outreach materials with QR codes, plain language and SEO to drive people to services they need.

Goal 2: Ensure high-quality, equitable service delivery to all individuals, including diverse and multicultural populations

Outcome Statement: Deliver culturally responsive, accessible and person-centered care by building staff capacity and expanding in-person and community outreach services.

Goal 2-1: Deliver high quality, evidence-based and best practice-based care.

Supporting Strategies

  • Identify best practice models for all service areas.
  • Identify and address barriers embedded within our practices that hinder performance and progress toward best practices.
  • Use disaggregated data to identify disparities in service access, quality and outcomes to ensure continuous quality improvement.
  • Review ongoing individual feedback about individual experiences navigating services and identify areas for continuous quality improvement.

Goal 2-2: Deliver equitable, culturally competent services.

Supporting Strategies

Expand cultural competence of staff.

  • Ensure staff have the skills, awareness and tools to serve individuals from diverse cultural, racial, ethnic and linguistic backgrounds effectively.
  • Provide training throughout the year related to cultural humility and responsiveness practices, implicit bias, LGBTQ+ inclusion, understanding individuals with Developmental Disability and neurodivergence, and trauma-informed care to ensure respectful, affirming and effective individual interactions.
  • Implement targeted internal and external recruitment strategies to increase diversity and readiness for leadership and workforce.

Individual access and navigation.

  • Provide professional development opportunities including training, certifications, mentorship and leadership development to enhance employee skills and support career progression.
  • Equip and encourage managers to hold regular career development conversations with employees and actively integrate the use of the career exploration tool to identify and support advancement pathways.
  • Educate staff on how to interact with and support individuals with visible and invisible disabilities to improve dignity, autonomy and access.
  • Review and select appropriate equity assessment tools to evaluate and improve the inclusivity and cultural relevance of services across programs.

Goal 2-3: Identify and address key access and continued support barriers (e.g., language, geographic, financial, technological, physical/behavioral/developmental) to ensure equitable service delivery for marginalized and underrepresented groups.

Supporting Strategies

  • Develop staffing plans and flexible schedules as reasonable and within scope of responsibilities that promote access and align with community needs.
  • Track language access plan implementation to ensure individuals are receiving services, materials and communications in their preferred language.
  • Provide welcome packets or digital navigation tools at all intake points to increase understanding of available services and next steps. Use plain language communication and short videos to explain services, how to access them and what to expect.
  • Facilitate and track warm handoffs within the CSB and other human services agencies and private partners by creating/adhering to referral protocols and conducting staff training across programs.
  • Collaborate with teams (Developmental Disabilities and Behavioral Health) to improve service experience and outcomes for individuals with developmental disabilities whose co-occurring or otherwise intensive needs intersect across service areas.
  • Promote and track completion of Mental Health First Aid and Understanding Developmental Disabilities training within the organization and among CSB community stakeholders.
  • Establish an internal resource hub with cultural and language-specific engagement resources.
  • Share equity-related data publicly through dashboards and reports to build community trust and demonstrate progress.
  • Expand access to trauma-informed behavioral health and developmental disability services to address gaps in high-need populations.

Goal 3: Enhance positive work culture to foster engagement and retention

Outcome Statement: Cultivate a supportive, inclusive, and empowering workplace where staff feel valued, engaged, and connected to the organization’s mission, resulting in enhanced person-centered services and consistent, compassionate care.

Goal 3-1: Strengthen workforce engagement through inclusive communication, transparent leadership and recognition programs.

Supporting Strategies

Strengthen the onboarding process.

  • Evaluate the current onboarding program and actively engage employees by conducting a survey to gather feedback and suggestions for enhancing the onboarding experience.
  • Develop onboarding materials focused on helping staff and board members explain programs, referral pathways, and service navigation in ways that are accessible to individuals.

Increase staff engagement.

  • Improve use of suggestion box, readership of Bulletin and all staff executive communications.
  • Ensure that all CSB stakeholders understand the full range of CSB services so they can more effectively guide individuals and their families, answer questions accurately, and connect them to the appropriate level of care at the right time.
  • Share monthly “Benefits Spotlights” via existing communication platforms on how different offerings support staff wellbeing and individual outcomes.

Expand inclusive communication.

  • Increase opportunities of joint development and bi-directional communication between leadership and staff when implementing agency-wide policy changes or initiative.
  • Share clearly identified key information through existing communication tools with leadership and disseminate them to teams.
  • Enhance the CSB SharePoint site with resources that help educate staff and better prepare them to engage individuals served more effectively.
  • Launch an interactive, accessible newsletter with success stories, highlights and impact stats to keep staff informed and engaged.

Goal 3-2: Address capacity and resource challenges while promoting a culture that supports personal boundaries, staff wellness and person-focused services.

Supporting Strategies

Develop unit-based standards for each program, using internal and external benchmarking, and ensure they are communicated to all staff.

  • Monitor average caseloads per staff member and type of service to assess workload trends.
  • Develop a process for cross training staff in critical roles.
  • Establish backup staffing plans to ensure continuity of services for individuals and reduce burnout risk.

Develop guidance to support staff work-life balance.

  • Integrate wellness messaging into routine communications to promote long-term capacity for high-quality service delivery.
  • Identify and implement wellness and self-care practices.
  • Ensure executive team/senior leadership team/managers prioritize sharing success stories that reflect individual outcomes as well as remind teams of their value.

Goal 3-3: Provide robust training, supervision, and professional development with an emphasis on best practices, inclusive leadership, and organizational culture.

Supporting Strategies

Expand professional development and training.

  • Enhance participation in leadership development programs for emerging leaders, supervisors and managers in the CSB.
  • Embed principles of empathetic, inclusive leadership into supervisory development and training.
  • Provide training through various modalities that integrate trauma-informed care and cultural competence when relevant.
  • Implement 360-degree feedback for supervisors to collect input from team members and improve supervisory effectiveness.

Incorporate mentoring and coaching as part of our culture.

  • Launch (develop and implement) a mentoring and job-shadowing program for new hires within 90 days of start date to strengthen understanding of individual needs and organizational standards.
  • Develop a virtual library for leaders that includes tools that reinforce coaching, feedback, and continuous learning in alignment with dignity, equity, and service excellence.
  • Offer a leadership development program that includes coaching that supports resilience, communication and impact on the well-being of those served.

Goal 4: Expand the use of data to support decision-making, track progress, and report on goals and outcomes

Outcome Statement: Foster a data-informed culture where accurate, timely, and secure data is used to improve individual experiences, track progress toward person-centered outcomes, and ensure equity and accountability across all services.

Goal 4-1: Improve data quality, accuracy, and use across all service and operational areas.

Supporting Strategies

Strengthen data integrity and effectively track progress towards goals and outcomes.

  • Conduct quarterly reviews with program leadership on data quality and progress reports on outcome measures and goals.
  • Ensure that data is entered in a timely manner based on established timelines and state reporting requirements.
  • Identify business data to measure and continuously audit and track the most common errors that may impact care coordination or service planning.
  • Implement a system for reporting and addressing recurring data and workflow challenges.

Goal 4-2: Strengthen staff data literacy and accountability, and establish standards for how staff will use data to drive business decisions.

Supporting Strategies

Train staff in data literacy.

  • Perform baseline surveys for identified strategic plan goals to evaluate and assess the current data literacy status of all programs and divisions and measure goal achievement through staff surveys.
  • Establish and maintain clear roles and responsibilities for data entry, management, analysis and quality improvement to support consistent, efficient, high-quality service delivery across all divisions.
  • Provide training in data access, interpretation and data-informed decision-making and how data connects to improving individual outcomes and equity across all platforms (DBHDS and CSB dashboards).
  • Maintain up-to-date job aids, user guides, cheat sheets, and troubleshooting tools related to data requirements.
  • Ensure staff awareness and understanding of available resources.

Define/establish expectations for data use in decision making.

  • Use individual-level data to make improvements in programming, resource allocation, and service design through reports/dashboard reviews in supervision and team meetings.
  • Define expectations for data use in decision-making and embed data expectations into all roles.

Goal 4-3: Modernize data infrastructure and implement enhanced system capabilities.

Supporting Strategies

Electronic Health Record.

  • Assess and determine what dashboards or other requirements we need to have in the Electronic Health Record (EHR) system prior to EHR launch.
  • Implement the EHR to track services, goals, productivity and outcomes.

Expand our automation and efficiencies.

  • Implement additional technologies to reduce documentation and duplication for service areas to realize efficiencies.
  • Transition software to more modernized platforms.
  • Integrate equity-related data into dashboards and reports shared with leadership and the public.
  • Automate key data processes (e.g., analysis, reporting) to free up staff time and improve the accuracy of information used in service planning.
  • Implement automated processes to ensure compliance with Medicaid enrollment, increase appointment attendance and payment/revenue collection.

Goal 5: Improve our business practices to become more efficient, maximize services, optimize revenue streams and maintain quality

Outcome Statement: Implement efficient business practices that enhance service delivery, optimize revenue generation and maintain high quality standards across all programs and functions.

Supporting Strategies

Streamline internal processes for operational efficiency.

  • Identify bottlenecks and redundancies and develop, implement and monitor standard operating procedures (SOPs) for high-volume, high-impact workflows.

Maximize service capacity and productivity through strategic resource allocation.

  • Establish clear service standards for each unit and implement productivity benchmarks for key positions to ensure efficiency and accountability across the agency.
  • Use real-time data to monitor service utilization and reallocate resources as needed.

Strengthen revenue cycle management and explore new funding streams.

  • Review billing and coding practices to ensure compliance and reduce claim denials.
  • Provide staff training on accurate documentation tied to reimbursement standards.
  • Identify and pursue diversified funding sources.
  • Establish a formal quality improvement process to address identified deficiencies in business operations, clinical services, and compliance, ensuring timely resolution and continuous improvement.

Establish and measure critical revenue cycle key performance indicators in the following areas: scheduling, patient access, registration, average days to drop a bill, average days in accounts receivable, percent claims denied, no show or cancellation rate.

  • Strengthen front-end accuracy through automation and staff training.
  • Analyze denial trends and proactively resolve root causes.
  • Reduce the need for appeals through standardized clinical documentation improvement protocol and training to clinical and billing teams Claim appeal rate less than 3 %
  • Prioritize aging accounts and improve claim cycle time.
  • Implement automated A/R dashboards and assign staff to follow up A/R aged over 90 days.
  • Conduct monthly reconciliation of net revenue vs. payments and initiative recovery workflows for all underpaid or denied claims.
  • Audit 10% of all encounters monthly to ensure correct coding and alignment between clinical documentation and billed charges.
  • Establish a claim rejection resolution that is reviewed daily, with tracked reasons for resubmission and staff retraining.
  • Integrate real-time insurance verification tools within EHR and require eligibility confirmation as part of the patient check-in workflow.
  • Train front desk staff on financial conversations and implement real-time patient estimations and payment plans at check in.
  • Use tracking tools to monitor claim acceptance and timelines and follow up with payers on all claims not paid within 25 days.
  • Reduce uncollectible balances through proactive financial counseling and early reminders with payment plan options.

FY 2026 - FY 2028 Strategic Plan PDF

Cover of the CSB's Strategic Plan document.
Click the image above for a printable PDF of the FY 2026 - FY 2028 CSB Strategic Plan.

Countywide Strategic Plan

Cover of the Countywide Strategic Plan document.

Learn about Fairfax County's unified, community-driven vision for the next 10-20 years.

FY 2018 - FY 2020 Strategic Plan

Cover of the FY 2018 - FY 2020 CSB Strategic Plan document.

Read the FY 2018 - FY 2020 CSB Strategic Plan.

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