COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS & LINKAGES: REACHING OUT TO WORK TOGETHER
This
curriculum, Community Partnerships and Linkages: Reaching Out to Work Together,
was developed by staff and consultants of the National Child Welfare Resource
Center for Family-Centered Practice (a service of the Children's Bureau, U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services), with assistance from the staff of
the State of Maryland Department of Human Resources, In-Home Services, and
Department of Social Services staff from Baltimore City. It was designed as
a one-day event to train child welfare workers in the knowledge, values, and
skills needed to create, use, and sustain working community partnerships and
linkages for the benefit of children and families who have come into care
in the child welfare system.
Training
involves a mix of presentations, exercises, role plays, and small group discussion.
The training is relevant to the current work of staff and managers and respectful
of the personal and work experience that staff bring to the training.
The lives
and needs of families coming into the child welfare system today are complex
and challenging. Almost without exception, no one set of services will be
adequate to restore families to a level of functioning that ensures that their
children are safe, have permanent homes, and the well-being of family members
is enhanced. These families' needs cut across service areas and frequently
include services needed for mental health and/or substance abuse issues, economic
support, housing, and a variety of others.
Over
the past decade, we have come to realize that ensuring the safety, permanence,
and well-being of children in child welfare is beyond the capacity of any
one agency. While the public child welfare agency retains responsibility for
child safety, this mandate cannot be accomplished today without all community
stakeholders sharing that responsibility and participating in supporting these
families.
A
community-based and team approach requires that workers have the knowledge,
skills, and values that can create real, concrete, and productive partnerships
between the child welfare team, the families, community-based services providers
(such as health, mental health, schools, housing, economic supports), and
other community stakeholders (such as the faith and business communities,
law enforcement and the courts, and neighborhood and civic organizations).
These partnerships result in better outcomes for children and families.
Community partnerships help
child welfare agencies respond to families by providing:
Prevention
is the soul of permanency. The current child welfare system emphasizes identifying
child maltreatment and holding parents and other caregivers responsible. But
families also need a focus on prevention, including supports and services
that help prevent maltreatment or its reoccurrence. Children need services
that will help prevent them from growing up to be abusers themselves.
No one
sector or agency can respond to all of the needs of families in the child
welfare system. Instead, every sector of society plays an important role and
has the responsibility to prevent child maltreatment and/or to deal with the
consequences when abuse has occurred. The shared responsibility can be expressed
through collaborative partnerships to respond to families' strengths and needs.
Families
may enter the child welfare system for a wide range of reasons‹from children
going to school with inadequate clothing to life-threatening neglect and long-term
sexual abuse. In addition, families that enter the system may be confronting
a variety of other challenges such as unemployment, substance abuse, and mental
illness. Each one of these families needs an individualized plan that responds
to their needs.
In addition,
the states are undergoing the new federal Child and Family Services Review
(CFSR). Unlike the previous review, which was a compliance-oriented case file
review, the new review process is intensive, involving hundreds of people
in the State to evaluate how the state is doing in achieving seven child welfare
outcomes and in assessing seven systemic factors that affect the achievement
of those outcomes. Community partnerships and linkages are a critical element
in the new review process. The state will be evaluated on how effectively
workers use community partnerships and linkages to develop the required individualized
service plan for each family, and on how the child welfare system involves
community stakeholders in all of its work. Using community partnerships and
linkages is so critically important not just for the families you work with
but for the State to have a successful review.
The Curriculum consists of an Introduction and Closing,
and four modules:
1.
Why Are Community Partnerships and Linkages
so Important?
2.
What Are Community Partnerships and Linkages,
and Who Are My Potential Partners?
3.
How Do I Create, Use, and Sustain Community
Partnerships and Linkages? Begin with Assessments.
4.
Developing My Personal Action Plan.
Follow-up
and ongoing support and training is necessary if the curriculum training is
to go beyond a one-shot experience and to change the practice culture. Staff
need to believe that the training they receive is important enough that they
will be supported in implementing the skills they have learned. Follow-up
plans are in development at this time.
The training
room should be set up so the 20 participants are seated at four round tables.
Competency 2:
Participants are able to describe who are their potential partners
and collaborators from three different perspectives.
Objective 2.1:
Participants can describe the full universe of potential service providers
they may need to work with in child welfare practice.
Objective 2.2:
Participants can identify potential partners and collaborators ranging
from the formal to the informal.
Objective 2.3:
Participants can identify potential partners and collaborator that
might be needed in implementing family-centered practice at each stage in
the casework process.
Competency 3:
Participants are able to apply their knowledge about potential partners
and collaborators to working with specific families.
Competency 1:
Participants understand the characteristics of successful partnerships.
Competency 2:
Participants can assess their own agency and its readiness
for community partnerships and linkages.
Competency 3:
Participants can map their jurisdiction for potential
partnerships and linkages and assess their agency's and their own current
relationship with these resources.
Objective 3.1:
Participants can use this information to begin planning how to create,
use, and sustain more successful community partnerships and linkages.
Competency 4:
Participants can assess the cultures of key child welfare
partners and use this information to plan for more successful and productive
relationships.
Objective 4.1:
Participants are able to describe the "culture" of their
agency, compare/contrast it with the culture of agencies they work with, and
identify the implications for the development of partnerships.
Competency 1:
Participants can identify practical strategies to use in creating,
using, and sustaining community partnerships and linkages.
Competency 2:
Participants can strategize on ways of preparing to approach and work
with potential collaborators.
Objective 2.1:
Participants will develop a personal action plan for achieving successful
partnerships.
Introduction to the Curriculum for
the Trainers
Introduction to the Curriculum for
the Training Participants
Module 1: WHY Are Community Partnerships & Linkages So Important?
Activity 1: The
Yarn Exercise
Step 1: Set up
the exercise.
Step 2: Tell the
story of Mr. and Mrs. Jones and make a visual portrayal of their services
and supports needs.
Step 2: Debrief
the exercise‹You can't do it alone!
Activity 2: Why
Community Partnerships Are Essential for Good Child Welfare Practice
Step 1: Discussion
about why community partnerships are essential for good child welfare practice.
Step 2: Summarize
the importance of community partnerships and linkages.
Activity 3: Why
Community Partnerships Are Essential for the State's Success with the Child
and Family Services Review
Step 1: Discuss the importance of community partnerships and linkages in the
Child and Family Services Review.
Step 2: Conclude the activity.
Activity 4: Why
Community Partnerships Are Essential for Successful Family-Centered Practice
Step 1: Introduce
Activity 4.
Step 2: Introduce
the essential elements of family-centered practice.
Step 3: Identify
why partnerships are key in family-centered practice.
Activity 5: Why
Community Partnerships Are So Essential for Families: Taking a Look at a Real-Life
Family
Step 1: Summary
of earlier activities and transition to Activity 5.
Step 2: Read the
Wilbur family story out loud.
Step 3: Debrief
the Wilbur family.
Module 2: WHAT Are Community Partnerships & Linkages, and WHO Are My
Potential Partners?
Activity 1: WHAT
Are Community Partnerships, and What Are the Different KINDS of Linkages and
Partnerships?
Step 1: Introduction
to Module 2.
Step 2: Defining
community partnerships and linkages.
Step 3: Defining
the different kinds of community partnerships and linkages.
Activity 2: Who
Are My Potential Community Partners?
Step 1: Introduce
this activity.
Step 2: Defining
the full universe of potential service providers we may need to work with
in child welfare.
Step 3: Identify
potential partners and collaborators ranging from the formal to the informal.
Step 4: Identifying
potential partners and collaborators that might be needed in implementing
family-centered practice at each stage of the casework process.
Activity 3: Applying
Knowledge about Who Are My Potential Partners to Working with Specific Families
Step 1: Introduce
this activity.
Step 2: Small group
reports.
Module 3: HOW Do I Create, Use, and Sustain Community Partnerships and
Linkages? Begin with Assessments.
Activity 1: What
Makes a Partnership Successful?
Step 1: Introduce
Module 3
Step 2: Characteristics
of Successful and Unsuccessful Partnerships
Activity 2: Assessing
Your Agency
Step 1: Introduce this Activity
Step 2: Assessing
your agency
Step 3: Debrief the exercise
Activity 3: Mapping
My Community and Assessing Relationships with Potential Collaborators
Step 1: Introduce
the Mapping Exercise and Form Groups
Step 2: Mapping the Neighborhood
Step 3: Defining My Agency's Current Relationship with
Potential Neighborhood Collaborators
Step 4: Assessing Your Own Personal Comfort Level/Relationship
with Your Neighborhood's Potential Collaborators
Step 5: Drawing Meaning from the Completed Map
Activity 4: Assessing
the Partners/Agencies You Need to Work With
Step 1: Discuss cultural competency
Step 2: Examining an Agency's Culture
Step 3: Strategies for Successful Partnering
Module 4: Developing My Personal Action Plan
Activity 1: Practical
Strategies for Creating Partnerships
Step 1: Introduction
to Module 4
Step 2: Some Practical
Collaboration Strategies
Activity 2: Developing
My Personal Action Plan
Step 1: Preparing
Your Plan
Step 2: Sharing
Your Plan with a Partner
Step 3: Large Group
Debriefing
Closing and Evaluation