Why is collaboration a priority area for CBCAP?

Collaboration and coordination is a focus for CBCAP in order to maximize the use of limited prevention dollars. By working with other existing efforts and coordinating service delivery, states and communities can prevent service overlap and reach more families. To emphasize this, the 2011 CBCAP Program Instructions states, "Given the limited funding available for prevention services, lead agencies are strongly encouraged to find ways to partner with other public and private organizations serving the same populations and sharing the same goals and objectives." In addtion, Attachment 4 of the 2011 PI provides a list of programs for potential coordination and collaboration with CBCAP.

What does collaboration in CBCAP mean?

The best way to illustrate this is to turn to the PI again. Around collaboration, the 2011 CBCAP Program Instructions states,

The most effective way to meet the challenge of preventing child abuse and neglect is for all child abuse prevention and treatment programs, public and private, to work together in partnership with families and other disciplines such as social services, health and mental health, substance abuse treatment services, domestic violence, child care, early childhood, education, law enforcement and other advocacy groups in the community to achieve their common goals.

As this illustrates, collaboration in CBCAP means thinking outside the box and exploring other efforts to protect children in the state and communities that CBCAP dollars are serving.

In addition, a key area of focus for CBCAP in the last several years has been the collaboration across prevention and child welfare programs. CBCAP lead agencies are important stakeholders in the Child and Family Services Review (CFSR) process underway in every State. In 2006, the National Review Team's Collaboration Work Group developed some guidance for states in engaging and working with stakeholders in the CFSR process. The result of that work is a document that highlights the various stakeholders that can be involved with the child welfare agencies in their CFSR process from the initial Statewide Assessment, the onsite review, and the resulting Program Improvement Plan. View Collaborating During the Child and Family Service Reviews.

How does collaboration tie into the efforts of CBCAP to move along the continuum of evidence-based and evidence-informed practice?

Collaborations are often an integral part of community-based prevention work. State Lead Agencies can learn effective ways to strengthen their collaborative efforts by accessing the existing research base available on collaborations. Examples of areas where this might be helpful are in intra-agency workgroups or in supporting your statewide networks. A resource that State Lead Agencies might find helpful in evaluating their existing collaborations can be found at www.fieldstonealliance.org. This site has a resource, the Wilder Collaboration Factors Inventory, on evaluating collaborations that helps to identify key factors in strong and effective collaborations. This is just one example of the resources available. Please see the resources section below for many more links.

What resources are available to support CBCAP Lead Agencies in developing or maintaining collaborations?

There are many sources for good information on this topic and below we have collected some of our favorites.

Web Links

National Network for Collaboration
This site has a wealth of information and links to useful resources. One tool you may find helpful is the Spider Web Tool.

Collaborative Capacity Instrument
The Collaborative Capacity Instrument was developed by staff at Children and Family Futures to be used as a self-assessment by County (and/or State) alcohol and drug and child welfare service agencies who are preparing to work with each other or who may be seeking to move to a new level of cooperation after some initial efforts. The questions were designed to elicit discussion among and within both sets of agencies about their readiness for closer work with each other.

Collaborative Values Inventory
The Collaborative Values Inventory is a questionnaire to be completed by cross-disciplinary teams of professionals who are seeking a better understanding of the values that guide different disciplines and systems. After completing the questionnaire anonymously, it is helpful to have the items scored and then a formal meeting(s) to discuss the similarities and differences across systems. The intent of the questionnaire is to assist community members and professional staff in developing common principles for their work together

Framework and Policy Tools for Improving Linkages between Alcohol and Drug Services, Child Welfare Services and Dependency Courts
This paper explains a framework for assessing the components of collaborative efforts to address the substance abuse issues among families in the child welfare and dependency court systems. This ten-element framework is a tool for assessing collaboration across systems, specifically the identification of benchmarks for improving system linkages, which are fundamental to improving outcomes and long-term well-being for families in the child welfare system with substance use disorders.

Collaboration: What Makes it Work
This resource reviews and summarizes the existing literature on collaborations and identifies factors that influence the success of the collaboration. This resource includes a copy of the Wilder Collaboration Factors Inventory.

Partnership Self-Assessment Tool
This assessment was developed by the Center for the Advancement of Collaborative Strategies in Health and is available at this address for free download. The toolwas designed to help partnerships 1) understand how collaboration works and what it means to create a successful collaborative process; 2) assess how well their collaborative process is working; and 3) identify specific areas they can focus on to make their collaborative process work better.

Evaluating Collaboratives: Reaching the Potential
This report from the University of Wisconsin Cooperative Extension breaks down the evaluation of collaboration into manageable sections and defines the different areas. If you experience difficulty with the link, you can download the pdf report here.

Community Tool Box
This link guides you to a Community Tool Box developed by Tamarack: An Institute for Community Engagement. The toolbox talks about a four step process using some of the tools referenced above to get a comprehensive picture of your collaboration. It also includes some helpful information on necessary components for community based programs.

NRCCPS Region IV Collaboration Site

FRIENDS Technical Assistance Resources

 Understanding the Common Ground Between Systems of Care and Child Abuse Prevention
 Best Practices for Maximizing and Sustaining Collaborative Efforts
 Region 4 Collaboration Overview Presentation
 Summary of Collaboration Activities Among CBCAP and PSSF
 Collaborating and Coordinating: A Listing of Potential Partner Organizations for CBCAP

If you have questions about your collaboration efforts in CBCAP or want to know more about how FRIENDS can provide targeted technical assistance in this area, please contact your TA Coordinator.