Title: Improving Child Welfare Outcomes Through Systems of Care Grant Cluster An Overview
1Improving Child Welfare Outcomes Through Systems
of Care Grant Cluster An Overview
- Childrens Bureau All-Hands Meeting
- Wednesday, July 26, 2006
2National Technical Assistance and Evaluation
Center on Systems of Care Building Integrated
Service Systems for Child Welfare
- Presentation Goals
- To gain a greater understanding of systems of
care for children and families involved with
child welfare - To hear lessons learned from the NC grantee on
development of their SoC planning and
infrastructure development - To learn information gleaned from the base-line
evaluation and technical assistance support to
grantees
3National Technical Assistance and Evaluation
Center on Systems of Care Building Integrated
Service Systems for Child Welfare
- National Context for the Improving Child Welfare
- Outcomes Through Systems of Care Demonstration
Initiative - Change in focus on results and outcomes of child
and family services in state child welfare
systems - Clear indication of needed change from first
round of Child and Family Service Reviews - Many states had difficulty achieving consistently
positive outcomes in areas of safety, permanency,
and child and family well-being - Emphasis on system change and accountability for
state child welfare and its partner agencies
4National Technical Assistance and Evaluation
Center on Systems of Care Building Integrated
Service Systems for Child Welfare
- Prime Objective of the Improving Child Welfare
Outcomes - Through Systems of Care Demonstration Grant
Program - This demonstration program seeks to answer one
central question - Does a system of care approach have merit in
helping achieve positive outcomes for children
and families involved with child welfare and its
partner agencies?
5National Technical Assistance and Evaluation
Center on Systems of Care Building Integrated
Service Systems for Child Welfare
- Grantee Overview
- In FY2003 the Childrens Bureau funded nine (9)
grants through the Improving Child Welfare
Outcomes Through Systems of Care Demonstration
Grant Initiative - Sites are awarded up to 500,000/yr for five
years - Grantees were funded to do a year of strategic
planning - Grant applicants focused on developing
intra-/inter-agency infrastructure to support and
maintain a local system of care for children and
families in child welfare
6National Technical Assistance and Evaluation
Center on Systems of Care Building Integrated
Service Systems for Child Welfare
7National Technical Assistance and Evaluation
Center on Systems of Care Building Integrated
Service Systems for Child Welfare
- Defining a System of Care
- A system of care approach is based on the
development of a strong infrastructure of
interagency collaboration, individualized care
practices, culturally competent services and
supports, child and family involvement in all
aspects of the system and measures of
accountability. Stroul, 2001
8National Technical Assistance and Evaluation
Center on Systems of Care Building Integrated
Service Systems for Child Welfare
- System of Care Guiding Principles/CFSR Practice
Principles
9National Technical Assistance and Evaluation
Center on Systems of Care Building Integrated
Service Systems for Child Welfare
System of Care Concept
Philosophy
Infrastructure
Services Supports
10National Technical Assistance and Evaluation
Center on Systems of Care Building Integrated
Service Systems for Child Welfare
- Infrastructure Components
- Planning
- Governance
- System Management
- Coordination of Services and Service Array
- Communication
- Policy
- Finance
- Continuous Quality Improvement
- Human Resources and Staff Development
11National Technical Assistance and Evaluation
Center on Systems of Care Building Integrated
Service Systems for Child Welfare
Alamance County, NC Child and Family Team
One Family, One Team, One Plan
12National Technical Assistance and Evaluation
Center on Systems of Care Building Integrated
Service Systems for Child Welfare
Reorganization of Alamance Child-Serving
Committees
Childrens Executive Oversight Committee
School CFT Support Team
Community Collaborate
Juvenile Crime Prevention Council
Partnership for Children
Com Child Protection
Care Review
Subcommittees
Education Publicity Events
Monitoring
Needs Assessment
Membership
Funding
13Lessons Learned in Alamance County, NC
National Technical Assistance and Evaluation
Center on Systems of Care Building Integrated
Service Systems for Child Welfare
- IV-B Training funds do not support SOC framework
- Have to have dedicated staff
- Creating a culture of family centered practice is
a long term accomplishment - Must get it right in own agency before moving
into community - Cannot be another initiative has to be a change
in philosophy - Use data and be clear on outcomes
14National Technical Assistance and Evaluation
Center on Systems of Care Building Integrated
Service Systems for Child Welfare
- Lessons Learned Continued
- Waivers like IV-E Waiver provide flexible funding
that supports SOC culture - Engage schools early, they are a key partner
- Child and Family Teams are such a positive
vehicle for families - Must work on all four levels in the system
State, within local agency, interagency
collaboration, and family level
15National Technical Assistance and Evaluation
Center on Systems of Care Building Integrated
Service Systems for Child Welfare
- North Carolina is Building a SOC Infrastructure
- Mental Health has committed a full time person
for each office dedicated solely to SOC - Social Services has implemented Multiple Response
which incorporates CFTs statewide - State Legislative Study Commission has identified
seven Legislative Responsibility Goals concerning
SOC and child safety, permanence and well being - Governor has developed and implemented a
School-based Child and Family Team Initiative in
100 schools
16National Technical Assistance and Evaluation
Center on Systems of Care Building Integrated
Service Systems for Child Welfare
- Center combines technical assistance and
evaluation - Provides full service support for grantees
- Evaluation and TA inform each other
- Strengthens ability to learn and disseminate
- Presentation draws on both
17National Technical Assistance and Evaluation
Center on Systems of Care Building Integrated
Service Systems for Child Welfare
- SoC activities
- Collaborative partnership
- Practice, policies procedures
- Case management
Changes in case planning for the target population
Changes in the safety, permanency well-being of
the target population
Changes in service receipt for the target
population
Changes in the safety, permanency well-being of
the child welfare population
18National Technical Assistance and Evaluation
Center on Systems of Care Building Integrated
Service Systems for Child Welfare
- Baseline data collection
- Site visits conducted at the conclusion of the
sites planning phase - Baseline findings based on
- Collaborative member interviews
- Supervisor interviews
- Focus groups with child welfare and partner
agency staff
19National Technical Assistance and Evaluation
Center on Systems of Care Building Integrated
Service Systems for Child Welfare
- Baseline evaluation findings
- Interagency collaboration
- Key stakeholders
- Grantees (Project Director, Project Coordinators)
- Local Evaluators
- Family Partners
- System Partners
- Community Partners
- Youth
- Locally Organized Systems of Care (Dauphin
County, PA) - Awakening a sleeping giant in the community
bringing the faith-based community to the table. - The faith-based sub-committee raised money to
support a summer youth camp. Local school system
and local organizations support the summer camp. - Co-chair of the youth sub-committee is on the
implementation team.
20National Technical Assistance and Evaluation
Center on Systems of Care Building Integrated
Service Systems for Child Welfare
- Baseline evaluation findings
- Interagency collaboration
- Needs
- Divergent philosophies makes collaboration
challenging - Large caseloads and administrative duties are
barriers to being able to collaborate (lack of
resources) - Key decision-makers at the table
- Assets
- Prior SoC Experience
- Pre-Existing Collaborations and History of
Interagency Collaboration - Committed and Motivated Staff
21National Technical Assistance and Evaluation
Center on Systems of Care Building Integrated
Service Systems for Child Welfare
- Baseline evaluation findings
- Interagency collaboration
- Cross-site Activities
- Strategic Planning An Interagency Effort
- Collecting county-wide statistics to better
understand the needs of the target population - Conducting needs assessments to evaluate project
progress, identify emerging trends, gaps in
service delivery - Extending Outreach
- Social Marketing (KS)
- Engaging Public Officials
- Connecting Communities for
- Kids (CO)
- Data-driven service integration using geo-mapping
technology to map service providers and foster
home families to see if they correspond with the
high need areas. Maps to be shared with agency
partners. - Spring 2006 Resource Fair 45 different child and
family serving agencies/organizations presented.
Enhanced relationships among agency partners. - SoC grant funds have helped to offset the
- costs of this service to better identify the
- needs of families involved in the child
- welfare system.
22National Technical Assistance and Evaluation
Center on Systems of Care Building Integrated
Service Systems for Child Welfare
- Baseline evaluation findings
- Family involvement
- Needs
- Workers felt that family involvement was
sometimes token and not always appropriate in
certain cases - Sustainability of family involvement in
collaborative work - Training for family members
- Assets
- Family involvement at the case planning level
- Parent partners help families negotiate the
system - Engagement of extended and non-traditional family
members
23National Technical Assistance and Evaluation
Center on Systems of Care Building Integrated
Service Systems for Child Welfare
- Baseline evaluation findings
- Family involvement
- Improving Permanency Outcomes Project (OR)
- Parent partners are key leaders and role models
for parents involved in the system. - The Improving Permanency Outcomes Project (IPOP)
offers parent leadership training and the
familys guide to CW training. These trainings
provide parents with the tools to be able to
communicate more effectively with professionals
from other partner agencies. - Family partners are co-presenting with project
team members at professional conferences and PIP
trainings. - SoC grant funds have helped to offset the costs
of - these trainings and conferences as well as
highlights - the importance of the family voice in such
system- - change initiatives.
- Cross-site Activities
- Family involvement in collaborative committees
and workgroups - Expanded role of parent partners and advocates
- Family Involvement Summit
24National Technical Assistance and Evaluation
Center on Systems of Care Building Integrated
Service Systems for Child Welfare
- Baseline evaluation findings
- Cultural competency
- Needs
- Language barriers
- Staff culturally reflective of community served
- Multiple underserved communities
- Link training to practice
- Assets
- Introductory Training
- Leadership recognition of cultural competence
needs and willingness to address them - Recruitment methods for new staff
25National Technical Assistance and Evaluation
Center on Systems of Care Building Integrated
Service Systems for Child Welfare
- Baseline evaluation findings
- Cultural competency
- The CRADLE (NY)
- Partnership with the NY chapter of the National
Association of Social Workers and the Peoples
Institute to provide TA and develop training - Training will focus on cultural competency and
racism - Training designed to develop more analytical,
culturally-rooted and effective community
organizers - Goal is to provide quarterly training for all
child welfare staff - SoC grant funds have helped to offset the costs
of these trainings and provide an incentive for
key partnering agencies.
- Cross-site Activities
- Training
- Agency-wide cultural competence assessments
26National Technical Assistance and Evaluation
Center on Systems of Care Building Integrated
Service Systems for Child Welfare
- Baseline evaluation findings
- Individualized strengths-based care
- Needs
- Staff report the approach can be challenging with
some cases - Balancing strengths-based approaches with child
safety - Modeling strengths-based approaches at all levels
within the agency - Limitations of strengths-based assessment tools
- Assets
- Staff have experience providing services from a
strengths-based approach - Staff assignments based on staff strengths
- Dialogue with clients begins with a discussion of
strengths - Data systems and assessment tools focus on
strengths
27National Technical Assistance and Evaluation
Center on Systems of Care Building Integrated
Service Systems for Child Welfare
- Baseline evaluation findings
- Individualized strengths-based care
- Cross-site Activities
- Forms updated to capture family strengths
- New assessment tools
- Training
- Caring Communities (NV)
- DFS hired a consultant who has been working with
the Child and Family Teams and DFS caseworkers to
develop strengths-based case plans. - The consultant also models strengths-based
approaches that are both hands-on and
skills-based. - Trainings at joint collaborative meetings are
organized around individualized-strengths-based
approaches. - The SoC initiative has been linked to a culture
change within DFS toward more strengths-based
approaches in how staff work with each other and
with families.
28National Technical Assistance and Evaluation
Center on Systems of Care Building Integrated
Service Systems for Child Welfare
- Baseline evaluation findings
- Community-based resources
- Needs
- Community-based resources often lacking,
particularly in neediest areas - Need centralized and comprehensive effort to
identify community-based resources - Inconsistency in knowledge among frontline workers
- Assets
- Relationships with community providers
- More community-based resources available in some
areas - Existing practices for identifying
community-based resources
29National Technical Assistance and Evaluation
Center on Systems of Care Building Integrated
Service Systems for Child Welfare
- Baseline evaluation findings
- Community-based resources
- Cross-site Activities
- Increased interagency collaboration has helped
identify community-based resources - Presentations to agency staff
- Development of resource guides
- SoC in Mecklenburg County (NC)
- Development of an on-line resource tool focusing
on grassroots and non-traditional services. - Community social workers identifying gaps in
services and working with communities to fill the
gaps. - Open houses held with agency staff to orient them
to community partners and services available. - Interagency collaboration with non-traditional
partners may help identify more community-based
resources.
30National Technical Assistance and Evaluation
Center on Systems of Care Building Integrated
Service Systems for Child Welfare
- Baseline evaluation findings
- Accountability
- Needs
- Balancing performance-based indicators with
spending quality time with families - Information feedback from data collection is
lacking - More knowledge of the value added from data
collection needed
- Assets
- Data used to develop new policies and address
deficiencies - Data provide information on placements, resources
and meetings with multidisciplinary partners
31National Technical Assistance and Evaluation
Center on Systems of Care Building Integrated
Service Systems for Child Welfare
- Baseline evaluation findings
- Accountability
- Cross-site Activities
- Local evaluation plans mapped to project goals
- Plans to develop an online documentation system
- Local evaluation involvement with strategic
planning and implementation activities
32National Technical Assistance and Evaluation
Center on Systems of Care Building Integrated
Service Systems for Child Welfare
- Family-to-Family SoC (CA)
- Multidisciplinary evaluation committee
- Evaluation activities mapped to each project goal
and implementation activity and continuously
updated - Local evaluation data regularly presented to
county districts and key stakeholders - Local evaluation activities provide regular
- updates to monitor progress and re-evaluate
- initiative priorities and activities where
- indicated.
- Medicine Moon Initiative (ND)
- Primary Goal All ND Tribal child welfare
agencies will have an adequate management
information system (MIS) to automate case filing. - Local ND SoC staff have been involved in all
stages of implementation of this MIS with the
four participating tribal child welfare agencies - Trouble-shooting
- Training
- Sustainability
- The local evaluator provides training and
- support as well as provides a booster training to
- tribal child welfare staff during the
- implementation of the MIS system.
33National Technical Assistance and Evaluation
Center on Systems of Care Building Integrated
Service Systems for Child Welfare
- Baseline evaluation findings
- Implications for ongoing work in the
demonstration communities - Strategic planning and needs assessment
activities have helped guide planning and
implementation in many sites. - Previous collaborative work has established
strong practices around family involvement,
strengths-based approaches and cultural
competency in several demonstration sites. - Fewer accountability activities were identified
at baseline as compared to other SoC principles
and some sites identified gaps in community-based
approaches and cultural competency. - A key finding across sites was the perceived gap
between frontline workers and supervisors/administ
rators and challenges to effective collaboration.
34National Technical Assistance and Evaluation
Center on Systems of Care Building Integrated
Service Systems for Child Welfare
- Information Dissemination Sharing Lessons and
Innovations with the Child Welfare Field - NTAEC on Systems of Care is in the process of
finalizing a three-booklet Systems of Care for
Child Welfare Toolkit based on lessons learned
from the demonstration sites. It includes - Improving Child Welfare Outcomes Through Systems
of Care A Strategic Planning Guide - Building the Infrastructure to Support Systems of
Care in Child Welfare and - The Good Fit Selecting the Best Evaluation
Partner for Your Program - NTAEC is sharing this work with the CB TTA
network, the Federal Interagency Workgroup
Systems of Care Subcommittee, and other entities
connected to the Childrens Bureau to get this
knowledge out to the field. - Documents will be available for download through
the Child Welfare Information Gateway.
35National Technical Assistance and Evaluation
Center on Systems of Care Building Integrated
Service Systems for Child Welfare
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