State Child Welfare Policy Guide: Part of the Policy Matters Series

9.3 Community-based doorways to services

Communities and government need to work together to ensure that young children have a good beginning and that they are successful in school and ready for the future.  State agency collaboration with neighborhood groups opens up many new avenues for community-based services to achieve positive outcomes. Community-based services are found in the neighborhoods where children and families live and can be provided by grass-roots groups, large community-based organizations or government sponsored programs. The key opportunity of coordinated services at the community level is the prospect of reducing or eliminating fundamental barriers to the delivery of services to children and families both inside and outside the child welfare system. The problem created by categorical funding is only one part of the “iron triangle of specialized funding, specialized professional purviews, and specialized agency organization … that delimit and divide solutions to family problems rather than encourage broader and more flexible responses” [i] . Creating local services gives rise to potential new strategies for child welfare agencies to effectively and comprehensively support children and families in their communities by addressing the range of needs families display.

Service accessibility is defined by the following characteristics: coordinated or integrated eligibility  determination and application for assistance, collocated service delivery systems, coordinated or integrated case management, and service delivery oriented toward customer satisfaction.

Coordinated or integrated eligibility determination and application for assistance is a goal of many human services agencies. Washington State conducted a survey that found families did not complete applications for public benefits to which they were entitled because the process was too cumbersome and confusing. As a result, the State Department of Family and Health Services now has a single online application and eligibility determination process. While a number of states have developed some form of multi-program application, the process often remains lengthy and difficult. Vermont’s approach has been to make a multi-program online application accessible through community based centers to both streamline the process and create linkages with existing services. The application covers approximately 12 different benefit programs including TANF, food stamps, child care, and Medicaid. [ii]  

Collocated services reduce the number of entry points a family must navigate in order to gain access to currently available programs. The Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Family to Family initiative found that a neighborhood location that co-locates child welfare and community services encourages the development of long-term supports for families and improves access to services. ^[iii]   Examples of community doorways include Louisville, Kentucky where leadership noted that co-location of CPS workers dramatically changed the perceptions of families regarding services and supports available to them within the community and through CPS. [iv] Massachusetts formed “Patch Teams” that collocated child welfare staff in family support centers where a wide array of family assistance is provided through a shared decision-making, community-based service model.

Nebraska created community based doorways through Family Resource Centers.  The centers provide social and emergency services such as: Family Preservation case coordination; rent assistance; emergency food; household budgeting workshops; home weatherization; HUD-certified mortgage counseling; Head Start; GED, English as a second language, adult basic education tutoring, computer skills training; education and job skills development, work-related clothing or tools; computer learning lab; one-on-one tutoring, academic support, mentoring, vocational exploration; child care; community gardens; summer camp scholarships; back-to-school fairs; and linkage to other community resources and other supports for families and children. These examples demonstrate the value of  in order to provide comprehensive services in a seamless fashion in communities. 

Coordinated or integrated case management refers to a team approach where services from various agencies are effectively coordinated in a family or child’s service plan. One study found that integrated case management resulted in better coordination among staff, more complete service integration and improved client outcomes. [v] The Maine Children’s Cabinet launched Integrated Case Management (ICM) that brought together child welfare, domestic violence, mental health and substance abuse through a state funded initiative. In an early example of child welfare and domestic violence coordination Oregon located contracted domestic violence specialists in all local child welfare offices. [vi]

Service delivery that focuses on customer satisfaction would strive to address the needs of customers and the quality and accessibility of assistance. Research on the benefits of customer satisfaction goals in the private sector and their application to the public sector suggests that there are important lessons to be derived from a customer service orientation. At the most basic level, both human services staff and the families they serve stand to benefit.  Human services workers have a demonstrated desire to be “helpers”, but there are very few opportunities for them to see the clear benefits of the help they provide. By creating a customer service orientation with a defined mechanism for obtaining feedback from customers, workers would have an opportunity to feel and hear the impact of their efforts.  On the other hand, families who are customers would benefit from motivated workers. A customer service delivery system has the potential to achieve: better informed resident/consumers; improved quality of available resources; and greater access to an appropriate array of services. [vii] A control group study demonstrated that Montgomery County, Maryland’s Department of Health and Human Services improved customers’ satisfaction with service delivery by implementing a customer service approach within a center providing family economic support and housing stabilization assistance.  Key features included designated customer service staff that helped consumers navigate the application, eligibility determination and referral process; customer service training for all staff of the service center; surveys and other customer feedback; and physical improvements intended to make the facility more customer-friendly. [viii]   Although customer satisfaction strategies have not been rigorously tested with child welfare services, Montgomery County is expanding their approach to additional centers that provide family economic support and housing assistance. 

Policy Options:  States can promote service accessibility by adopting 1, 2, 3, or 4 of the following service delivery mechanisms:

·     Coordinated or integrated eligibility determination and application for assistance;

·     Collocated service delivery systems;

·     Coordinated or integrated case management; and

·     Customer service oriented service delivery.