Changing Perceptions streamlines service delivery with Bonterra Apricot

Overview

The leadership team fundamentally believes in cultivating a robust ecosystem of partners to elevate their service offerings. To achieve this community-centered impact, they partner with several local organizations to coordinate care and ensure participants have access to every resource they need.

Changing Perceptions has cultivated strategic partnerships with organizations that meet critical needs across food access, mental health, crisis intervention, hygiene support, housing placement, legal advocacy, and court-related coordination. Through these collaborations, participants are connected to essential services that support stabilization at the point of reentry and beyond. The organization has also worked alongside judicial stakeholders to strengthen and streamline both in-person and digital intake processes, helping make access to services more efficient and responsive.

By leveraging this coordinated network and aligning multiple forms of support around the needs of each participant, Changing Perceptions is able to reduce service gaps, strengthen continuity of care, and build a more effective foundation for long-term success.

The Challenge

Overcoming data management and process challenges

Changing Perceptions faced significant barriers due to inefficient systems and fragmented data management.

Previously, the organization relied on Excel spreadsheets for case management. Program participant data was scattered and cumbersome to track. The lack of a single, accessible database made it extremely challenging to keep information up to date. Data retrieval and report building were also challenging, as staff members were limited in their access to individual files.

“Our case management processes were very manual,” said Johnathaan L. Pannell, Chief Administrative & Program Officer at Changing Perceptions. “Individualized Service Plan data entry was hard because we couldn’t auto-populate inputs from a centralized source. It involved a lot of copying and pasting values from Excel spreadsheets.”

To truly advance its mission, Changing Perceptions needed a case management partner that could provide a centralized, user-friendly solution to streamline workflow and data collection.

The Solution

With the adoption of Bonterra Apricot, Changing Perceptions gained several efficiencies within its operational processes.

Organization-wide accessibility greatly improved, empowering anyone with access to participant records to view associated forms and relevant data. This universal data visibility created stronger collaboration and reduced the time previously spent searching for information. Apricot’s dashboards enabled the team to easily monitor key program metrics, including financial assistance payments, funding requests, program waitlists, caseload levels, and recidivism rates.

The organization’s communication log within Apricot has enabled the staff to clearly document the purpose of all communications with program participants. By capturing engagement history, staff member involvement, and required documentation, Apricot has provided Changing Perceptions with a complete view of participant journeys.

Automated email triggers also proved to be a key upgrade for the organization. Today, when staff members are unable to reach a participant over the phone, Apricot sends an automatic notification to participants, ensuring timely follow-up. Changing Perceptions’ case managers also receive alerts when participants complete their Self-Sufficiency Matrix (SSM) form and make program selections. These alerts contain the selections in the body of the email, saving the case managers valuable time previously spent manually developing program referrals.

The team’s Apricot Connect Portal implementation addressed the administrative burden associated with gathering participant signatures for program consent forms. Thanks to Connect Portal, signatures are captured seamlessly, and the organization can now streamline compliance while simultaneously improving the participant experience.

Impact

Demonstrating measurable impact and efficiency gains

Apricot’s intuitive nature helped Changing Perceptions achieve critical outcomes that have propelled both team performance and participant results. By reducing the administrative burden that was plaguing its staff members, the organization has been able to turn its attention toward providing tailored care to each of its returning citizens.

In fiscal year 2025, Changing Perceptions’ case management and social work teams served 138 participants, delivering 850 hours of support and documenting 725 direct service notes. 96 housing referrals were issued during the same period. In Q4 alone, the team issued 10 vital-records referrals, 26 workforce referrals, and 11 other human-services referrals. A new partnership also saw the organization facilitate nine food and grocery referrals in the same three-month span. 

The removal of the administrative burden associated with follow-up communications and manual data entry was vital to Changing Perceptions’ service team. ISPs now auto-populate using data collected from each participant’s self-sufficiency matrix (SSM) — including housing, employment, and income.

Previously, staff were hindered by labor-intensive steps required to document ISP entries over the phone. Apricot has enabled these team members to rapidly complete these plans, even during brief participant phone calls. This change has allowed the team to redirect their attention toward intentional prevention and high-value, strategic participant support.

Perhaps most notably, Changing Perceptions maintained a 95 percent anti-recidivism rate in Q4, with 58 out of 61 participants avoiding rearrest, reconviction, or reincarceration.

“Apricot has allowed us to focus more deeply on the people in our programs. We can provide better service because we’ve gained a sense of structure within our systems,” said Johnathaan.