Areas of Work

Reforming Systems
Contact(s): Sally Leiderman and Sam Stephens

Current systems providing services to children and families frequently offer only piecemeal solutions to complex social problems. The barriers to putting best practices in place on a broad scale are often cited: categorical and/or short-term ("soft money") funding, disciplinary and agency boundaries and turf issues, focus on targeting particular problems or crises for children and families rather than supporting holistic approaches, accountability for service delivery rather than outcomes, difficulty in convincing policy makers and the general public to support long-term multi-dimensional solutions to complex issues, reluctance to raise societal factors such as institutional racism and cultural pluralism, and difficulties in balancing community-driven "bottom up" strategies with centralized "top down" approaches. Some of the strategies that have been developed to overcome these barriers include integrated fund pools or funding streams, cross-agency and/or community-wide collaborations, cross-disciplinary training and service delivery teams, focus on long-term community-wide outcomes, public education and advocacy efforts, and development of institutional and/or political "champions" for change.

Related Web Sites:

• Center for the Study of Social Policy
• National Conference of State Legislature
• National Governor's' Association