Governor

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Governors Action Group for Safe ChildrenWork
Group 3Seamless System of Placement Options
Community Partnership

• Draft for discussion 7-24-02

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Collaboration

• A mutually beneficial and well-defined
  relationship entered into by two or more
  organizations to achieve common goals.

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Collaboration

• Includes
• A commitment to mutual relationships and goals.
• A jointly developed structure and shared
  responsibility.
• Mutual authority and accountability for success.
• Sharing of resources and rewards.

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Community Collaboratives

• Tangible ways of stretching available resources.
• Raise visibility on local issues.
• Assist communities in setting priorities for the
  allocation of resources.
• Unleash new talents and resources to address old
  problems.

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Findings

• Collaboratives are creative problem-solving tools
  for local communities, utilizing resources and
  personnel.
• Significant, sustained commitment.
• Rewards are systemic civic and community change
  in specific policy areas.

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Findings
2. No statewide effort of collaboration to
prevent and reduce out-of-home placement
primarily initiated by foundations in a few
cities around the nation.
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Findings
3. Each of the Clark Foundation Community
Partnerships for Protecting Children (CPPC) sites
met or exceeded the indicators of progress for
Phase I.
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Findings

• Phase II Challenges
• Sustaining/improving efforts.
• Developing/implementing tracking and monitoring
  system on outcomes.
• Improving quality/scope within target communities
  before rollout to other communities.

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Findings

• 4. The Iowa Director of Human Services, Jessie
  Rasmussen, cites several roll-out considerations
  and obstacles.

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Rollout Considerations

• Number of sites should be balanced to maintain
  integrity of the initiative.
• Technical assistance needs and capacity should
  match.

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Obstacles to Expansion

• Levels of understanding
• Lack of resources
• Approach to change

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Findings

• 5. Family to Family evaluation of program impact
  showed the most consistent finding as being the
  reduction in the number of placements experienced
  by children in care.

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Findings

• 6. Two changes in patterns of permanent
  placements occurred in Family to Family sites
• Sites that expanded use of kinship care
  increasingly placed children in the guardianship
  of relatives when they left custody.
• Some sites improved reunification rates.

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Findings

• 7. No one central source of information or single
  contact point for information on
• faith-based organizations and their services to
  support out of home placements.

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Findings

• 8. In Family Connection collaboratives, resources
  invested by the General Assembly (50,000 for
  most counties) are being more than matched by
  local or external investments in a majority of
  the communities.

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Findings

• 9. Georgias Child Protective Service Task Force
  saw the need for a comprehensive, community-based
  system that connects families with service
  providers, the faith community, schools, courts
  and others concerned about the well being of
  children.

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Excerpt

• The State should build on existing efforts such
  as Family Connection and coordinate all state
  resources more effectively in partnership with
  communities. Phasing in of the new coordinated
  system should begin with several counties that
  demonstrate high need and/or readiness.

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Proposed Recommendations

1. Investigate and review national models of
   collaboration specifically related to child
   welfare reform, such as the Decategorization
   Program in Iowa and the Edna McConnell Clark
   Foundation sites. Transfer knowledge and lessons
   learned to communities in Georgia for possible
   replication.

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Proposed Recommendations

• 2. Develop a strategy with major faith-based
  organizations to enhance the involvement of the
  faith-based community in local and state-level
  collaborative efforts around the issue of child
  protective services.

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Proposed Recommendations

• 3. Building on the existing network of county
  collaboratives, create a process to communicate
  local priorities, best practice, and policy
  barriers to state partners to influence state
  policy and decisions. Conversely, develop a
  strategy to connect major policy initiatives at
  the state level to communities who are
  demonstrating results in related priority areas.

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Proposed Recommendations

• 4. Evaluate initiatives across Georgias
  communities, specifically related to out-of-home
  placements that have been successful for
  replication to other communities who have an
  interest in similar collaborative work and
  strategies.

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Proposed Recommendations

• 5. Determine and support a statewide vehicle to
  direct the development, implementation, and
  capacity-building of local collaboratives with
  built-in measures of accountability and
  monitoring.

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Proposed Recommendations

• Establish through a Memorandum of Agreement or
  interagency agreements, a similar model of
  collaboration at the state-level which will
  support local decision-making, address barriers
  to collaboration experienced by communities, and
  will promote state priority initiatives such as
  child welfare in communities through resources
  and technical assistance.

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Proposed Recommendations

• 6. Add an out of home placement benchmark to
  the set of indicators used by Family Connection
  to measure the well-being of children in Georgia.
  Use the current process of the Family Connection
  Partnership in reviewing the 26 benchmarks which
  communities follow in determining results.