Early Childhood
Early childhood has become WRMA’s largest practice area and includes work in training and technical assistance; monitoring of federal regulations within state, Tribal, and territory grantee programs; and research and evaluation on child care eligibility programs. WRMA’s experienced early childhood project staff include subject matter experts and employees who were Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) program administrators at the state level. Our experience with program administration dates to the passage and implementation of the Title VI-A Family Support Act (FSA) of 1988 and the CCDBG Act of 1990.
Education
WRMA is involved in the Department of Education’s mission to improve student achievement by fostering education excellence and ensuring equal access. Through our work with the National Center on Subsidy Innovation and Accountability (NCSIA) our technical assistance (TA) and subject matter experts (SMEs) provide training and TA to states, territories, and Tribes to help young children prepare for school. Aligning with the department’s Early Learning goals, our infant/toddler and preschool SMEs provide TA to promote family friendly policies and improve social and emotional outcomes. WRMA also works directly with the National Center on Afterschool and Summer Enrichment (NCASE). By providing training and TA to CCDF lead agencies and their designated networks, we ensure that school-age children in working families of low income have increased access to high-quality afterschool and summer learning experiences that contribute to their overall development and academic achievement.
Child and Family Welfare
WRMA brings a long history of working with child welfare programs and an understanding and appreciation for the direction and goals of child and family welfare agencies at both the federal and state levels. WRMA was originally founded to provide automated solutions to state and local child welfare agencies with child welfare case management and data systems. Having been a consistent contractor for the Administration on Children, Youth, and Families’ (ACYF) Children’s Bureau since 1988 with the development and implementation of the National Child Abuse and Neglect Database System (NCANDS), WRMA has supported HHS and state administrative agencies in their work to enable better outcomes for children and families.
Justice
WRMA brings clients law enforcement knowledge melded with expertise in child care and adult protective services. Developed in collaboration with the Department of Justice and the Department of Health and Human Services, one of WRMA’s flagship projects focuses on elder justice and adult protective services. Our national subject matter experts continue to build a community of best practice, providing states with case studies and other tools to assist professionals who investigate fraud and abuse of vulnerable adults. Our child care technical assistance team supports child care agencies in all states, territories, and Tribes by providing guidance and expertise for conducting federally required comprehensive background checks. We work closely in support of the Office of Child Care and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) along with local, state, and Tribal law enforcement agencies and state ID bureaus and repositories to ensure child care agencies have access to the resources and data needed to conduct thorough background checks. Additionally, we provide technical assistance and tools to states to prevent, detect, and investigate fraud within child care systems.
Adult Protective Services
Over the last decade, WRMA has committed itself to the issues of older adults and elder justice. Since 2014, WRMA has worked with the Administration for Community Living (ACL) to develop a comprehensive national data collection system and build a technical assistance resource center to support the independence and well-being of adults subject to abuse, neglect, and exploitation. WRMA has partnered with the National Adult Protective Services Association (NAPSA) and University of Southern California (USC) to form the WRMA Team, offering access to subject matter experts familiar with adult protective services (APS) policies, practices, research, and information technology.
Information Technology
For more than 40 years, WRMA has partnered with government and private industry clients to achieve desired IT results. Our clients often require the latest technology and management methods to solve problems and continuously improve program efficiency and outcomes. We are skilled in conducting needs assessments, evaluating commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) technology, and custom design options. Our staff create or improve the effectiveness of web presences or reporting dashboards. We also apply data analytics techniques to evaluate policy, predict program outcomes, automate decisions, and answer business questions. WRMA has built large cloud-based national data collection and reporting systems, web applications, performance measurement systems, and data warehouses and helped our clients achieve system security authorizations.
Learning and Resource Supports
WRMA’s Learning and Resource Center (LRC) is a center of excellence housing a team of adult learning experts, graphic and instructional designers, and 508 compliance specialists. Our team brings the expertise, skills, and creative know-how to help clients and subject matter experts effectively train or support their audiences by transforming their knowledge into refined print and digital content and innovative learning solutions. The LRC guides content from concept to publication—checking off design, effective delivery models, copy editing and quality assurance, and 508 compliance along the way. We also offer virtual meeting planning and can support your online event across various industry leading platforms.
Program Integrity Solutions
WRMA brings more than a decade of experience providing program integrity strategies and solutions to state and federal programs. As part of our National Center on Subsidy Innovation and Accountability for the Office of Child Care (OCC), we manage the methodologies and reporting needs to meet the Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Act (IPERA) requirements, provide direct technical assistance to states and territories around improper payments and fraud detection, and have developed a Fraud Toolkit for state and territory administrators to use in reviewing their local program integrity policies and processes. WRMA has also provided improper payment reduction support to the Office of Community Services (OCS) for its Social Services Block Grant and worked with the U.S Department of Agriculture (USDA) in improving program integrity for the SNAP and WIC programs.
HIV/AIDS Programs and Policies
WRMA is proud to have over 15 years of experience serving the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program (RWHAP) which is the largest federal program focused exclusively on HIV/AIDS care, with 533,758 people receiving services from RWHAP-funded providers in 2018. Through our support of the RWHAP Parts A, C, and D programs, as well as our technical assistance to RWHAP recipients, WRMA has continued its commitment to providing supports to the HIV/AIDS community through its ongoing work for the Health Research and Services Administration (HRSA), HIV/AIDS Bureau (HAB).
Other Health and Human Service Supports
WRMA is always looking for ways to leverage its experience and capabilities in new program areas that align with its mission of serving and improving the lives of vulnerable families and individuals. Our ability to provide targeted technical assistance, conduct meaningful evaluations and studies, and develop cost effective information technology solutions has us poised for new customer areas and work that makes a difference. We demonstrated this ability in 2018 by collaborating with the Office of Adolescent Health (OAH), now Office of Population Affairs (OPA), to develop a data system to track teen pregnancy prevention efforts.
