"When working with a clinic, you want to make sure that you develop a trusting, working relationship with them. You don't want to make the referral process cumbersome or 'another thing that they have to do.' Because your goal is to create a human habit of providers referring to the WRC, which is essentially creating a systemic change within the clinic, you want the process to engage them and eventually make it their own project. Allowing the space for this process, you will create ownership, which then leads to the development of leaders, which then results in sustainability. While allowing the flexibility in the clinic's own referral procedures and what the referral form can look like, be sure to get a clear understanding from your Evaluation Team of what data needs to be collected on that referral form in order to accurately report your numbers to funders and other stakeholders. Be prepared for things to not go smoothly right away. Do not be tied to what YOU create because it is something that the clinic needs to create. Also, mistakes will happen along the way; I call them "Learning Opportunities" because that's exactly what they are. If something doesn't work out, let's talk about it, figure out another way to possibly remedy it, and then move forward. This is something that is new for everyone, and if you are able to create that working environment right away, your success will be greater because people will feel more comfortable bringing their ideas and struggles to the table. Our partnerships are key when it comes to developing all of this, especially our communication work. It is because of our Provider Champions that we've been able to get our foot in the door to talk to the care teams, and they are readily available to give us input and feedback to any communication material that we develop. One of the big lessons that we've learned thus far is that although a clinic may be doing great with their referral process, they still need our support. With on-boarding several clinics (we went from 1 to 13 in one year) our attention became more focused on the newer clinics. Although our Champion clinics were doing well, they had new staff come on board, other staff left, and there was still a need for our technical support. We also saw that our monthly in-person meetings where they were to bring their challenges, concerns, successes, and mentor others had almost zero attendance. These Learning Opportunities brought us to create "Virtual Huddles"- which are monthly conference calls - they just use their own jargon for such meetings. These have been better attended, but we still see a need to somehow better advocate for these conversations, which is why we also now schedule quarterly site visits. At these site visits, we supply them with more referral forms, and are available to answer any questions, as well as provide any necessary training to new referring providers." - Valerie Quintana, community Health Manager - community & Clinical Linkages, Center for Community Health, Presbyterian Healthcare Services.