Engaging%20Community%20Stakeholders%20and%20Building%20Community%20Partnerships

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Engaging Community Stakeholders and Building
Community Partnerships

• The National Child Welfare
• Resource Center for Organizational Improvement

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Why Stakeholder Involvement is Critical

• The child welfare system is much larger than the
  public child welfare agency.
• No single agency can fulfill the responsibility
  of keeping children safe, in permanent homes, and
  achieving well-being.
• The goal is to empower stakeholders so that the
  entire community takes child protection as its
  responsibility.

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Why Stakeholder Involvement is Critical
(continued)

• Partnering with community stakeholders helps
  create a constituency for child welfare, so that
  when the agency needs support it gets it (for
  example, legislation, finances, respect even in
  the fact of a child injury or death).
• Partnerships also strengthen community
  stakeholders.

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Successful Stakeholder Involvement

• Means
• Collaboration and partnerships as a way of
  life for the public child welfare agency, not
  just for the Child and Family Services Review
  (CFSR) and the IV-B Child and Family Services
  Plan (CFSP).

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Stakeholder Involvement in

• CAPTA
• Chafee
• Title IV-B
• CFSR

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Successful Stakeholder Involvement is Achieved by

• Gathering input from stakeholders
• Including stakeholders in decision making
• Giving feedback to stakeholders
• Continuous communication
• Making stakeholder involvement an integral part
  of agency operations
• Practicing true collaboration, not cloberation

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Who are Potential Stakeholders?

• Internal to the child welfare agency
• External

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Levels of Community Partnerships

1. Basic, effective referrals of families for other
   services (case level).
2. Joint case planning with other service providers,
   the family, and the familys network (case
   level).
3. Joint program development to create needed new
   programs and services (intermediate level).

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Levels of Community Partnerships (continued)

1. Shared organizational infrastructurewritten
   agreements for information sharing, joint
   management information systems, staff liaison
   positions, locating staff in another agency, etc.
   (intermediate level).
2. Creating a Stakeholder Collaborative for Child
   Protection in a jurisdiction, with its own
   governance.
3. Creating a State-Level Stakeholder Collaborative,
   or Cabinet for Children, Youth, and Family
   Services.

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Culture Shift The State Public Child Welfare
Agency

• Not the sole provider of child welfare services
• Leadership catalyst and organizer for a
  community-based system
• Retains legal responsibilities for protection of
  specific children

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Culture Shift Community Partners

• More collaboration among previously autonomous
  funders and agencies
• Renegotiation of roles and responsibilities

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Promising Practices in Community Partnerships

• Mental Health Systems of Care
• Child Welfare Systems of Care
• Quality Review Processes (CQI/Case Reviews)
• LAN 29

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Mental Health Systems of Care

• Comprehensive service array
• Coordinated
• Community based
• Child centered
• Individualized for the family
• Culturally competent
• Family driven
• Early identification and intervention

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Child Welfare Systems of Care

• Tbd in Dec.

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LAN 29

• Collaborative integrates traditional and non-
  traditional services/supports
• Membership open to all
• Governance structure elected by members
• Implements Wraparound approach
• QUEST serving DCFS families
• Strong outcomes

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Child Welfare Quality Improvement Peer Network
(sponsored by the National Child Welfare
Resource Center for Organizational Improvement)

• QI roles include
• Review cases (read, interview, discuss, assess)
• Review systems level data and reports
• Make recommendations
• Contribute to written reports
• Dissemination of findings, e.g., presentations to
  other stakeholders

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QI Peer Network (cont1)

• Examples of ongoing issues and strategies
• Ongoing structures for meaningful participation
• QI, foster parent and youth councils (Illinois,
  Kentucky)
• Citizen Review Panels involved in case reviews
  (Idaho, New Hampshire)
• Preparation and support
• Training (Idaho trains semi-annually due to
  turnover )
• Whose meeting making QI relevant to stakeholders
  by focusing on their issues, perspectives and
  involve them in setting agendas and problem
  solving, not just listening to information
  (Illinois)

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QI Peer Network (cont2)

• Other methods for input
• Child welfare attends specific audience councils
  (foster parents and youth) and gathers
  information to bring to CQI councils (Hawaii)
• Targeted surveys - to specific stakeholder groups
  on specific issues. E.g., Kentucky has surveyed
  regarding
• CW/Court partnerships
• Service array assessment
• Youth services
• Fatherhood services
• Family team meetings

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QI Methods to Share Information Wisconsins PEP
website

• Stakeholders access website for the four program
  enhancement plan (PEP) work groups (adoption,
  case process, QI, and Out-of-Home Care) to review
  policy initiatives, ask questions, comment and
  read others comments, questions and answers
• http//dhfs.wisconsin.gov/cwreview/bulletinBrd.htm
  

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CFSR Collaboration with Community Stakeholders

• Principles
• Partners
• Processes
• State examples

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CFSR Collaboration Principles

• Shared responsibility
• Partnerships
• Family centered and community based
• Purposes, goals, time and effort

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CFSR PartnersChildrens Bureau Resource Guide, p
2

• Court
• Tribal
• Youth
• Child welfare agency staff
• External partners
• Diversity-of-state representatives
• Other

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CFSR Collaborative ProcessesChildrens Bureau
Resource Guide, p 2

• Common goal
• Benefit to all parties
• Vehicle for collaborating
• Ability to come to consensus
• Strong leadership
• Meaningful involvement
• Shared success
• Engage new partners
• Shared vision for the future
• Ongoing evaluation

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Engaging Collaborative PartnersChildrens Bureau
Resource Guide, p 5

• Continually promoting CFSR
• Match specific stakeholders to processes
• Statewide assessment
• Onsite review
• PIP development
• PIP implementation
• Targeted outreach through effective channels
• With each stakeholder
• Review advantages of CFSR and PIP collaboration
• Jointly assess contributions, time commitment and
  resources
• Explore how to sustain involvement
• With stakeholder group
• Establish rules of engagement
• Communicate timelines for all activities and
  products

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Using the CFSR to Build PartnershipsChildrens
Bureau Resource Guide, p 6

• Existing collaborations
• Volunteers
• Allocate child welfare resources and time
• Communication vehicles

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Finding Evidence of Strong Collaboration Nine
Elements Childrens Bureau Resource Guide, p 8

• Engagement of Other Partners
• Communication
• Needs assessment
• Joint strategic planning
• Sharing of resources and structural changes
• Sustainability
• Policies, laws, regulations
• Research/data/evaluation
• Leadership

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Finding Evidence of Strong Collaboration An
Exercise Childrens Bureau Resource Guide, pp 8
- 10

• You are in one of four element groups
• Engagement of other partners
• Communication
• Needs assessment
• Sustainability
• Read your element from the CB Guide
• Discuss examples from your state
• Brainstorm other examples
• List best examples so your group can report out

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Critiquing Collaborative Efforts

• Read your Case Study (1, 2 or 3)
• Select people to
• Take notes on Hand Out 9
• Report a synopsis of your case during plenary
• Report your answers from HO 9 during plenary
• In group, discuss each question and take notes
• In plenary, report out
• Synopsis of case
• Answers to questions on Hand Out 9

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Your States Previous CFSR Involving
Stakeholders

• Identifying and recruiting
• Preparing them for and sustaining involvement
• and of the processes
• According to stakeholders
• Your assessment
• Ongoing involvement?
• Same groups?
• Stakeholders involved in other child welfare
  agency work?

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Agency Partners Eco-map

• What additional partners should be added?

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Stakeholder Engagement Plan How, Who, When

• Greens Keeping positive involvement
• Yellows Improving relationships and enhancing
  involvement
• Reds Healing and re-involving
• No Dot Developing relationship and beginning
  involvement

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Overall Strategy Reflection and Planning

• What was the overall process for the previous
  CFSR?
• What should be the overall strategy for the
  second CFSR?

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Planning Stakeholder Involvement at Each Phase of
The CFSR

• Statewide Assessment
• Onsite Review
• Program Improvement Planning
• PIP Implementation
• PIP Monitoring / Revisions

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Planning Stakeholder Involvement for CFSR
Outcomes and Systemic Factors

• Outcomes
• Safety (2), Permanency (2), Well-being (3)
• Systemic Factors
• Statewide Information System
• Case Review System
• Quality Assurance System
• Staff and Provider Training
• Service Array
• Agency Responsiveness to the Community
• Foster and Adoptive Parent Licensing,
  Recruitment, and Retention

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Plans to Monitor Stakeholder Involvement and for
Continuous Communication

• Overall stakeholders involvement
• Stakeholder involvement re the seven outcomes and
  seven systemic factors
• Preparing for the Next Review
• Reviewing drafts of Statewide Assessment and PIP

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Wrap Up

• No single agency, including the public child
  welfare system, can fulfill the responsibility of
  keeping children safe, in permanent homes, and
  achieving well-being.
• Community collaboration of a full range of
  involved and committed stakeholders is the best
  hope and strategy for this.