Collaborative Process for the Child Welfare System:

Improving the system to achieve better outcomes for children and families

Assessing Our Common Values:Building a Shared Vision

What was the purpose of completing the Common Values Survey?

• Highlighting where we have common values that create a platform for collective work

• Understanding where there is dissonance in our views and the challenges those differences present

• Appreciating the reasons for areas of dissonance based on the role that we play in the system, our background, level of experience, etc.

The Arm Exercise: A fun activity

The Arm Exercise

Rules• Pair up• NO TALKING• You get a point each time the back of your

exercise partner’s hand touches the table• Goal: To get as many points as many points as

you can for yourself

Analyzing the survey results:

• Demographics• Values (Shared or

dissonant) • Important Programs

Age

Experience in the System

Gender

Race/Ethnicity

Stakeholder Role

The most important function of the D&N system is to provide children

with safe and stable homes.

All families that in the child welfare system should have an opportunity to receive treatment so that

children can remain in their family of origin.

The problems of Native American children are significant in our community.

The problem of overrepresentation and disparate treatment of children and families

of color is significant in our community.

There are things we can do as a community to effectively eliminate or significantly reduce this

overrepresentation or disparate treatment.

Dealing with familial problems related to alcohol and drugs, domestic violence, mental illness, & chronic neglect will create better outcomes for

children.

Rank these problems and corresponding treatments in order of importance in creating

community based solutions.

Rate these same programs in terms of their individual importance in creating a system that

will improve outcomes for children and families.

Break time!

People who abuse or neglect their children should be held responsible for their actions.

Our first choice should be that children are never removed from their families of origin.

Providing people who abuse or neglect their children with treatment is the best way to help their children achieve safety and permanency.

Extended family members provide important resources for children and families in the

child welfare system.

Parents who do not comply with their treatment plans should face contempt and

possible jail time as a consequence.

If parents show that they have been using drugs contrary to court order, they should be sanctioned through limitation of visitation with their children.

The time frames for permanency for children under 6 (one year from the date of removal) is unreasonable

in light of the problems faced by parents.

It is appropriate that we treat cases with young children in a more expedited

fashion than we do for older children.

Delivering services closer to the family will improve outcomes for children and

families.

In our community, the “system” should involve people from the community to plan and evaluate

programs that serve families affected by child abuse/neglect.

In our community courts do a good job of involving community members in planning and

evaluating programs that serve our families.

Judges as well as managers and supervisors at DHS have a responsibility to lead collaborative

community responses to the problems posed by abuse and neglect.

Government cannot provide the primary answer to the problems posed by abuse and neglect. Instead, the family, community organizations and community

members must act in concert with courts, attorneys and DHS.

Significant barriers to interagency cooperation would be removed if DHS, treatment providers, judicial

officers and court system stakeholders were involved in training that stresses the values of collaboration.

AgendaAssessing our Common Values: Building A Shared

Vision• Systems Thinking: The Inter-Connectedness of

Systems• Networking Lunch• Afternoon Session

– Effective Assessments– Strategic Planning– Your leadership commitment– Conclusion and evaluation

Contact Information

Presenter’s NameTitleEmail

AddressPhone #

Calvin’s Solution to Complex Systems

Systems Thinking

What I do influences the actions of others in two ways:The expected, andThe unforeseen

What are your assumptions about the system?

Who is your Community?

Small Work Groups (20 minutes)

• What are your assumptions about the problem?

• Are the assumptions accurate?• Who are the people who must be at the

table?• What are the possible solutions?• What intended and ancillary consequences

are likely?

Agenda

Assessing our Common Values: Building A Shared Vision

Systems Thinking: The Inter-Connectedness of Systems

• Networking Lunch• Afternoon Session

– Assessment and Strategic Planning: Getting from Here to there

– Conclusion and evaluation

Strategic Planning: Getting From Here to There

First:Get the Right People on the Bus and the Wrong People Off the Bus . . . and seek diversity

Communicate!

“You never want a serious crisis to go to waste . . .”

Rahm EmanuelFormer White House

Chief of Staff

Critical Components:

• Environmental Scan(internal and external)

• Strategic Planning

Tools for Conducting the Environmental Scan:

• FAMJIS

• Colorado Trails

FAMJIS Management Reports

• Timeliness• Placement• Permanency• Removals• Service of Process• Adoptions Resulting from TPR• Subsequent Petitions Filed

Assessing the extent to which racial and ethnic equity is an issue for your system:

• American Humane Association’s Colorado Disparities Resource Center Website

http://www.colodrc.org/

Using Your Team to Analyze the Environment:

Discovering Your Vision

“Vision is the best manifestation of creative imagination and the primary motivation of

human action. It’s the ability to see beyond our present reality, to create, to invent what does not yet exist, to become what we not

yet are. It gives us the capacity to live out of our imagination instead of our memory.”

Stephen Covey

“Strategic Plans are worthless unless there is first a strategic vision.

The process of strategic planning is a process of learning.”

Building a Better Collaboration - NCJFCJ

How do leaders reinforce the group’s shared vision?

• Leaders should repeatedly share stories that reinforce the theme of the shared vision;

• Group members should be invited to share their own stories at the beginning of each meeting so that team members refocus on the reasons for their efforts, i.e. to help children and families

Creative Tension: The difference between what is and what we

imagine it could be

• The Vision (our world view)• SMART Goals to achieve the vision• Actions steps (activities) to achieve the goals

Central Tenet: Thinking Forward

– Working Backwards

Harnessing the Team’s Creative Tension

A better idea!

• Design your idea generating process to allow group members to alternate time between working with the group, in small groups and alone

• Assure that the team members feel equal and that authority figures follow the same rules as other members

• Assemble and group the ideas generated through this process and allow team members to vote for the two or three that they believe are most important.

Develop Provocative Goal Statements

• Allow team members to self-select which action area they are committed to promote

• Allow team members in their smaller teams to reflect on what the topic area would look like at its best– What does it look like? What is being done

differently?

• List the key elements of the topic at its best and prioritize the list

62

A Provocative Propositions Is…

An expansive statement of how participating members plan to organize themselves in pursuit of their dreams

They are provocative in the sense that they stretch the status quo, challenge common assumptions, and offer bold possibilities for change.

An Example: Communication—City Government

Communication with our citizens is the cornerstone of a responsible city government. We openly and honestly communicate with the residents of our city using equitable and participatory processes. We actively solicit input from citizens and guarantee a response. Systems within our organization are designed and redesigned with input from citizens.

64

Great Provocative Propositions…Are provocative – they stretch and challengeAre desired (people want to create them)Describe what is wanted in a positive way

(rather than saying what is not wanted)Are written in the present tense, as if they are

already happeningRemain grounded / linked to the stories of our

past when we were at our best

Action Planning

• Break the work down into short and long term actions that will promote the overall goal

• Be specific! Answer the questions “What” “How” and “Who”

• Plan to meet

Small Work Groups (35 minutes)

• Design a Provocative Statement using the hypothetical from this morning

• Complete the Action Planning Worksheet to chart the path to achieve your goal(Handout 3f)

Work Group Activity :Co-creating the Ideal

1. Each person say why you might have chosen this area 1 min. each

2. Take a few minutes to imagine this topic area at its best and Discuss this with each other

• What does it look like? What is being done differently? 10 minutes

3. Collect a list of key elements of this topic at its best3-5 minutes

4. Prioritize the top 3-4 elements and draft the proposition 8minutes

5. Create Action Steps using the Action Planning Worksheet 10 minutes

Report Back(2 minutes each)

Next Steps

• Write and communicate your plan to your team and to the world

• Establish a regular meeting schedule for communication and accountability

So Why Does It Matter?

The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago . . .

The second best time is today . . .Chinese Proverb

Contact Information

Presenter’s NameTitleEmail

AddressPhone #