Main Page
This Issue

© 2004 Jordan Institute
for Families

Vol. 9, No. 3
April 2004

Key Points from this Issue

  • Collaboration between Work First and child welfare offers many potential benefits to families, workers, and agencies.

  • Successful collaboration often requires overcoming various interpersonal, historical, and programmatic barriers.

  • Confidentiality is not a legitimate barrier to collaboration between Work First and child welfare because both programs are housed within the same agency.

  • Increasing the amount of time professionals from different programs actually spend working with each other—attending the same meetings, visiting families together, and co-developing plans—may be the single most effective strategy for promoting collaboration.

  • Other strategies agencies have used to overcome barriers to collaboration include child and family team meetings, cross-training, and innovative intra-program protocols.

References for this and other articles in this issue