Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS)
THE CHALLENGE
The Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS), within SAMHSA, leads federal efforts to promote the prevention and treatment of mental health disorders—supporting states, providers, and communities in delivering care to individuals with serious mental illness and children with emotional disturbances. To fulfill this mission, CMHS must engage a broad network of stakeholders, including federal agencies, grantees, clinicians, researchers, and community organizations, while ensuring that critical policies, research, and program guidance are effectively communicated and implemented.
This work requires the coordination of complex, large-scale meetings and initiatives—ranging from federal advisory committees and interagency coordinating bodies to national grantee convenings and technical expert panels. Many of these efforts involve hundreds of participants across in-person, virtual, and hybrid environments, requiring seamless logistics, clear communication, and strong facilitation. At the same time, CMHS must maintain ongoing engagement with grantees, support knowledge sharing across programs, and translate research and policy into actionable resources. CMHS needed a partner capable of managing these efforts at scale while enhancing the overall quality, accessibility, and impact of its stakeholder engagement.
Event Planning
Strategic Planning
Stakeholder Engagement
Project Management
Our Approach
A-G Associates served as a strategic delivery partner to CMHS, leading the execution of complex, high-visibility initiatives that required precision, coordination, and scale. By integrating event management, stakeholder engagement, and programmatic support, A-G ensured that CMHS could operate efficiently while maximizing the impact of its national mental health efforts.
A-G directed the end-to-end planning and execution of meetings, conferences, webinars, and national convenings—managing all logistics including travel, venue coordination, registration, and communications. The team implemented standardized processes and proactive coordination to ensure seamless delivery across in-person, virtual, and hybrid environments, even for large-scale, multi-stakeholder events.
A-G played a central role in convening and aligning diverse stakeholder groups, including federal leaders, clinicians, researchers, and community partners. Through structured facilitation and engagement strategies, A-G transformed meetings such as the National Advisory Council (NAC) and ISMICC into high-value forums for collaboration, insight generation, and policy alignment.
A-G strengthened the impact of CMHS initiatives by supporting technical expert panels, policy academies, and grantee meetings. The team translated complex research, policy, and program data into clear, actionable materials—including reports, presentations, and resource documents—ensuring that insights could be effectively applied across programs and communities.
A-G maintained consistent, high-touch communication with stakeholders through listserv management, outreach, and follow-up engagement. At the same time, the team coordinated closely with federal staff, consultants, and subject matter experts to align messaging, streamline workflows, and ensure continuity across multiple concurrent initiatives
THE Impact
A-G's staff provides programmatic support to planning committees, by facilitating meetings (virtual, in-person, hybrid). Examples of these meetings include CMHS's National Advisory Council (NAC); Interdepartmental Serious Mental Illness Coordinating Committee (ISMICC); and National Older Adults Mental Health Awareness Day 2020 webinar, where we had an unexpected turn out of over 3,900 people attend during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our knowledge and expertise contributed to the webinar's success, as we could accommodate technical issues and support the active engagement of participants.
More projects from A-G
FREE READINESS GUIDE
Uncertain about your agency’s path forward? Our strategic planning readiness assessment offers a practical, step-by-step guide to getting clarity on mission-critical priorities fast.