COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS & LINKAGES: REACHING OUT TO WORK TOGETHER

module 1: WHY Are Community Partnerships & Linkages So Important?

(80 minutes)

Overview

Module One provides an orientation to community partnerships and linkages: the rationale for why this service strategy is so important in child welfare practice. It also provides an experiential exercise and a real-life example to demonstrate why community partnerships and linkages are so crucial in the lives of children and families who come into the child welfare system.

Competencies and Learning/Performance Objectives

       Competency 1:   Participants understand, concretely and practically, why community partnerships and linkages are an essential strategy in good child welfare practice.

           Objective 1.1:   Participants can explain to others, particularly potential community partners, the importance of community partnerships and linkages for successful child welfare practice.

           Objective 1.2:   Participants understand how critical community partnerships and linkages are in having a successful Child and Family Services Review.

           Objective 1.3:   Participants are able to describe the key principles and components of family-centered practice in child welfare and why community partnerships are essential for the successful implementation of family-centered practice.

           Objective 1.4:   Participants know and value how crucial community partnerships and linkages are in helping specific children and families who come into the child welfare system achieve safety, permanence, and well-being.


Handouts & Transparencies

Handout & Transparency 1.1: The Need for Community Partnerships and Linkages

Handout & Transparency 1.2: Essential Elements of Family-Centered Practice

Materials & Equipment

Overhead projector

1 Flipchart (for trainer)

Markers

Masking Tape

Ball of yarn (or string if yarn not available)

Index cards with one of the following written on each card (20 cards):

Child Protective Services

Court System

Foster Family

Supervised Visitations

Transportation Assistance

Substance Abuse Services

Domestic Violence Services

Adult Mental Health Services

School

Child Mental Health Services

Employment/Training/Voc. Rehab.

Parenting Classes

Income Assistance/TANF

Food Assistance/Food Stamps

Housing

Parent Aide Services

Clothing

Utilities Assistance

Early Intervention Services

Community/Faith-Based Mentoring


ACTIVITY 1: The Yarn Exercise

(20 minutes)

Step 1: Set up the exercise

Ask the participants to gather in a tight circle and give each participant a printed index card.

Explain that this exercise should help us experience the importance and complexities of community partnerships and linkages.

Hold up the ball of yarn and explain that the ball of yarn represents a family who has come into the child welfare system.

Step 2: Tell the story of Mr. and Mrs. Jones and make a visual portrayal of their services and supports needs

Mr. and Mrs. Jones and their family have been reported to the public child welfare agency for possible neglect and abuse of their two children. (Give the ball of yarn to the participant with the index card that says Child Protective Services.)

The child welfare worker investigated the report and substantiated the abuse and neglect. The child welfare worker goes to the court system to obtain temporary custody of the children for out-of-home placement.  (Child Protective Services holds onto the end of the yarn and passes the ball of yarn to the participant with the index card that says Court System.)

The children are then placed with a foster family while the agency works with the family's strengths to remedy the underlying issues that have contributed to the abuse and neglect. (Court System holds onto the yarn and passes the ball to the Foster Family.)

Because the plan is for reunification, the family, the foster family, and the worker arrange for supervised visitations to begin immediately. (The Foster Family holds onto the yarn and passes the ball to Supervised Visitations.)

The Jones family doesn't have a car and will need to use public transportation to get to the supervised visitations as well as to access the services and supports they need. (Supervised Visitations holds onto the yarn and passes the ball to Transportation Assistance.)

Now for the services. Mr. Jones has been abusing substances and needs treatment. (Transportation Assistance holds onto the yarn and passes the ball to Substance Abuse Services.)

Mrs. Jones has been the victim of domestic violence and needs services to help her cope with the effects and to protect herself. (Substance Abuse Services holds onto the yarn and passes the ball to Domestic Violence Services.)

She could also benefit from getting individual therapy. (Domestic Violence Services holds onto the yarn and passes the ball to Adult Mental Health Services.)

In foster care, the oldest child, William age 6, is experiencing school problems and needs to be evaluated. (Adult Mental Health Services holds onto the yarn and passes the ball to School.)

After evaluation, it is determined that William needs therapy. (School holds onto the yarn and passes the ball to Child Mental Health Services.)

So the Jones family is now receiving services to address the underlying issues that may have led to the abuse and neglect. Reunification remains the goal. Now we have to help the family "get the basics" before the kids can come home. The first thing is for Mr. Jones to get work. But first he'll need job training. (Child Mental Health Services holds onto the yarn and passes the ball to Employment/Training/Voc. Rehab.)

In preparation for the return of the children, Mr. and Mrs. Jones are required to take parenting classes. (Employment holds onto the yarn and passes the ball to Parenting Classes.)

While Mr. Jones is in training, the family will need income assistance. (Parenting Classes holds onto the yarn and passes the ball to Income Assistance/TANF.)

The family will also need food assistance. (TANF holds onto the yarn and passes the ball to Food Assistance/Food Stamps.)

And better housing. (Food Assistance holds onto the yarn and passes the ball to Housing.)

The Jones family now has new housing and also gets the assistance of a parent aide to teach home management skills. (Housing holds onto the yarn and passes the ball to Parent Aide Services.)

Before the kids return home, the family needs some additional clothes. (Parent Aide Services holds onto the yarn and passes the ball to Clothing.)

And some assistance with their utility bills. (Clothing holds onto the yarn and passes the ball to Utilities Assistance.)

The children have now been returned home. For preventive purposes, it is decided that for the sake of the healthy development of the youngest child, Vanessa, age one, that the family could benefit from Healthy Start visits. (Utilities holds onto the yarn and passes the ball to Early Intervention Services.)

It's also decided that the oldest child, William, could benefit from some mentoring in the neighborhood and is referred to a community/faith-based mentoring group.  (Early Intervention Services holds onto the yarn and passes the ball to Community/Faith-Based Mentoring Group).

Now the family needs to keep developing its strengths and well-being, supported by all these services.

Step 3: Debrief the exercise‹you can't do it alone!

Ask the following:

What did you learn from doing this exercise?

Generate responses that could include:

-      This family needed a lot of supports and services. It's obvious that no single agency could do this alone.

-      We created quite a web of services.

-      It would be very easy for this family to feel overwhelmed. From their perspective, perhaps all they think they did was spank their kids and now look what they have to go through.

-      It showed why all the different service systems need to talk and coordinate‹otherwise, this family could end up with about 20 different plans!

-      With all the referrals made, it wouldn't be hard for the Jones family to "slip through the cracks (between the yarn/string)!"


ACTIVITY 2: Why Community Partnerships Are Essential for Good Child Welfare Practice

(15 minutes)

Step 1: Discussion about why community partnerships are essential for good child welfare practice

Begin a discussion on the importance of community partnerships and a team approach by asking a series of questions. Ask the questions below to elicit the suggested responses from participants.

Ask the following:

Why are community partnerships and linkages essential for good child welfare practice?

Generate responses, which could include:

-      The public child welfare agency cannot do it alone; we must extend our partnerships into the community.

-      No single set of services will be adequate to restore families to a level of functioning that ensures that their children are safe, live in permanent homes, and the well-being of family members is enhanced.

Ask the following:

Why would we be interested in a partnership?

What makes an organization a partner?

Why would that other entity want to be a partner with us? What's in it for them?

Generate responses, which could include:

-      Partnering will help us address needs that child welfare may not have the capacity or even interest to fill.

-      By working together, we are more likely to have successful outcomes.

-      It builds on the strengths of a community.

-      Partnering is more than simply referring clients to services or resources; it's shared decision-making with the client and working together concert toward a common goal.

-      Child welfare has access to expertise and resources that other organizations could benefit from.

Ask the following:

In community partnerships, we have the concept, "the power of reciprocity." What do you think this means concretely?

Generate responses, which could include:

-      Reciprocity means that if one agency or organization does something for another, the other does something back. It means working together to capitalize on each other's strengths.

-      It means that each community sector, organization, or agency has a role in providing resources and services to children and families.

-      By definition, reciprocity is all about community partnerships. Agencies, organizations, and individuals work together on behalf of a common cause.

Step 2: Summarize the importance of community partnerships and linkages

Make the following points:

-      We've had a lot of good ideas already today about why community partnerships are essential for good child welfare practice.  I want to sum up our discussion by identifying three core reasons why they are so essential: (1) prevention; (2) shared responsibility; and (3) individualized responses.

Place Transparency 1.1: The Need for Community Partnerships and Linkages on the overhead projector and refer participants to their handout.  Go over the points made on the Handout/Transparency.

-      Do you have any comments or questions about these three core reasons why community partnerships are so essential in child welfare practice?


ACTIVITY 3: Why Community partnerships are Essential for the State's Success with the Child and Family Services Review

(5 minutes)

Step 1: Discuss the importance of community partnerships and linkages in the Child and Family Services Review

Introduce this activity by saying the following:

-      Another reason why community partnerships are so important is because states are undergoing the new federal Child and Family Services Review (CFSR).

-      Unlike previous reviews that were 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.

-      So, 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.

Step 2:  Conclude this activity

Conclude this activity by asking the following questions:

-      How many of you have already heard about the state's upcoming Child and Family Services Review?

-      (If there are raised hands or affirmative answers:) What have you heard?

-      Do you have any questions about the Child and Family Services Review and the place of community partnerships in that review?


ACTIVITY 4: Why Community Partnerships Are Essential for Successful Family-Centered Practice

(20 minutes)

Step 1: Introduce Activity 4

                  Introduce Activity 4 by making the following points:

-      Now we're going to talk about another reason why community partnerships are so important.

-      The Child and Family Services Review, as well as other federal legislation, mandates that family-centered practice is the essential way for conducting child welfare.

-      And we know from child welfare experience that you cannot be successful in doing family-centered practice unless you use community partnerships and linkages.

-      To understand the link between community partnerships and family-centered practice, let's briefly review the essential elements of family-centered practice.

Step 2:  Introduce the essential elements of family-centered practice

Make a brief presentation about family- and community-centered practices, focusing on the following points:

-      Child welfare policy often swings like a pendulum. At one end is concern for child safety and, at the other, concern for preserving the autonomy of families. At times, concern for child safety gives way to an interest in preserving families and the pendulum swings from one end to the other. Sometimes his swing then "goes too far"‹ for example, when there is a death of a child‹and the pendulum swings back towards greater caution and a renewed emphasis on child safety.

-      Family-centered practice is an approach to child welfare based in the belief that the best way to protect children in the long run is to strengthen and support their families (whether it be nuclear, extended, foster care, or adoptive).

-      The family-centered approach emphasizes providing services to the family by mobilizing formal and informal resources in the community in which they live.

-      The following describes essential elements of family-centered practice (refer to Handout 1.2: Essential Elements of Family-Centered Practice and put the transparency on the projector), covering the points made in this Handout/Transparency:

Essential Elements of Family-Centered Practice

1.     The family as a unit is the focus of attention.

Family-centered practice works with the family as a collective unit, ensuring the safety and well-being of family members.

2.     Emphasis is placed on assessing and building on family strengths and on the capacity of families to function effectively.

The primary purpose of family-centered practice is to strengthen the family's potential for carrying out its responsibilities.

3.     Families are engaged in designing all aspects of the policies, treatment, and evaluation of the agency.

Family-centered practitioners partner with families to use their expert knowledge throughout the decision- and goal-making processes and provide individualized, culturally responsive, and relevant services for each family.

4.     Families are linked with a comprehensive, diverse, and community-based network of supports and services.

Family-centered interventions assist in mobilizing resources to maximize communication, shared planning, and collaboration among the several and/or neighborhood systems that are directly involved with the family.

Step 3:  Identify why partnerships are key in family-centered practice

Using Handout/Transparency 1.2: Essential Elements of Family-Centered Practice, ask participants to think about the essential elements of family-centered practice and, keeping them in mind, answer the following questions:

-      Why are partnerships important to family-centered practice?

-      Can you have family-centered practice without partnerships?

Answers could include:

-      You can't help families build their strengths and capacities without using supports and services, whether they are formal or informal.

-      If we truly believe that the best way to protect children in the long run is to strengthen and support their families, families today in the child welfare system can't do it alone, any more than we can do it alone in our families.



ACTIVITY 5: Why Community Partnerships Are So Essential for Families: Taking a Look at a Real-Life Family

(20 minutes)

Step 1: Summary of earlier activities and transition to Activity 5

Introduce activity by making the following points:

-      We began this module with an exercise about the Jones family that helped us experience the importance of community partnerships and linkages.

-      Then we talked about why community partnerships are essential in child welfare practice, why they're important for the upcoming Child and Family Services Review, and why family-centered practice is not possible without them.

-      Now we're going to complete Module One by meeting a real family and learning from them why community partnerships and linkages were so important in helping them exit the child welfare system.  Let me introduce you to the Wilbur family.

Step 2:  Read the Wilbur family story out loud[1]

The Wilbur Family. Between August 1998 and August 1999, Katie Wilbur (29) and her family of six children (Gina aged 10, Willie 8, Marcus 7, Maria 4, Suzie 3, and Patricia 1) were reported six times to the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS). Six substantiated reports of child neglect included unsanitary hygiene conditions, headlice on the children and a lice-infested home, the children's lack of appropriate coats for winter weather, children left alone at home, and children left in inappropriate care (with a friend whose children were removed by the state and whose live-in boyfriend was a registered sex offender). Some of the neglect reports originated from the children's school. The agency's policy at that time regarding substantiated neglect required workers to return families to the previous minimal standard and close the case. Following policy, in each instance the social worker remedied the situation (for example, fumigating the house), closed the case, and waited Šfor the next report. Because the agency did not have connections with many community-based services, no referrals were made for additional help.

By September of 1999, when the seventh report was received and substantiated, the agency had developed a new resource for Ms. Wilbur. Rock Island had worked hard for two years to create a child welfare community collaborative in partnership with DCFS. The collaborative consisted of an integrated services network of all traditional and nontraditional community-based services and supports. It started a new program, QUEST, through a contract with DCFS. In 1999, DCFS began referring families, like Ms. Wilbur's, with substantiated reports of abuse and neglect whose children still lived in the home to QUEST. Ms. Wilbur was referred to QUEST and she voluntarily agreed to participate in the program. Referred cases are assigned to one of QUEST's Family Advocates who provides case management services; works with the family to create a Child and Family Team consisting of family members, extended members, friends, and others (for example, church members); and community-based workers who will provide services. The team develops an action plan, and the Family Advocate makes sure all services are coordinated and integrated.

By way of background, Ms. Wilbur was on TANF and had never been employed. Three different men were the fathers of her children, but she was not currently involved with any of them. While the house in which she lived was owned by her grandmother, she had severe conflicts with her extended family. She also had hostile relationships with her neighbors. She was not involved in a church or any social organizations in her community. Most importantly, the three older children, Gina, Willie, and Marcus, were having significant difficulties in school, and Ms. Wilbur thought the school personnel treated her with little respect.

Ms. Wilbur and the QUEST Family Advocate began constructing the Child and Family Team. They decided that the Team should consist of Ms. Wilbur and her children, the Family Advocate, representatives from the children's school, some extended family members, the worker from the community-based agency that would be providing family preservation and support services, and Ms. Wilbur's TANF worker. The first Team meeting revealed some surprises for everyone. The school sent seven people to the meeting, including the principal and the janitor and each of the children's teachers. The school personnel were heavily invested in the children. They knew that the school would be involved with the Wilbur family for a long time because the children were all so young and there were so many of them. The school personnel were eager to identify the strengths of each of child and were willing to build on those strengths. During the first meeting, the Team identified five goals:

-      To help the children do better in school and for Ms. Wilbur and the school personnel to develop a better relationship. Ms. Wilbur would be in weekly contact with the school.

-      To help Ms. Wilbur develop job skills.

-      To help Ms. Wilbur learn better who were appropriate child care providers.

-      To increase Ms. Wilbur's support from her extended family for things such as child care, respite care, and finances, particularly if she was going to seek and retain employment.

-      To help Ms. Wilbur develop a supportive social network in her neighborhood and elsewhere.

Now, a year later, many things have changed for the Wilbur family:

-      Ms. Wilbur completed hair stylist school, and in September took her first job. She and her TANF worker developed a trusting relationship, and Ms. Wilbur sought her advice and assistance in going to school, developing job retention skills, and seeking employment.

-      The children's school performance improved, and Ms. Wilbur developed a better relationship with the school personnel. Through testing, two of the children were determined to be learning disabled. With medication and some special education instruction, their school performance has significantly improved. The children now have excellent school attendance, are punctual, clean, and have appropriate clothes. Over the course of the year, Ms. Wilbur has become increasingly involved in the school. This began with the weekly contact. Now, Ms. Wilbur picks up her children at school each day and uses the opportunity to talk to the teachers to learn how the day went and what homework has been assigned.

-      Ms. Wilbur's relationship with her extended family improved. Her family supported her while she was in school, providing child care and financial assistance when needed. She's developed an especially close relationship with her grandmother.

-      Ms. Wilbur, isolated socially a year ago, is developing friendships and a support network for herself. She has a few good friends now in the neighborhood, and she made two solid friends in training school and sees them socially as well.

-      After another substantiated neglect report in April, again leaving her children with the woman with the sex offender boyfriend, she has a better understanding of who are appropriate child care supports.

Ms. Wilbur, her Family Advocate, and the Team have decided that she and her family are ready now to leave QUEST. But "closing the case" is different in QUEST than in some other programs. QUEST will continue to provide support in a different way. At the final Team meeting, QUEST's Family-Centered Service worker participated, and together they planned how Ms. Wilbur can call on this worker when she needs help that she can not get elsewhere. Family-Centered Services can provide access to a family resource center, which includes after-school activities for her children, linkages to services in the community, and parenting training.

Step 3:  Debrief the Wilbur family

Ask the following:

What did you learn from this family's experience?

Generate responses, which could include:

-      I was really impressed with the investment of the school in this family. I guess they realized they were going to be working with this family for many years and preferred to have successful kids versus problem kids.

-      So much depends on the goal. In the first substantiated reports, the goal was just to return the family to a minimal level of functioning and not address underlying causes. This time, the basics were done to ensure that the family could be successful.

-      The community partnerships and linkages really worked cooperatively in this case. This is one of the reasons the family was successful.

 


[1] Note to Trainer: Rather than reading this family story out loud yourself, it may be more effective for you to provide several participants with the text and ask them to take turns reading the different paragraphs.