Building and Sustaining Collaborative Community Relationships

Highlights the importance of effective, ongoing collaboration between child welfare agencies and community-based partners to strengthen assessment and decision-making, increase understanding of the family’s needs, promote communication and information sharing across systems, and provide better overall support to children and families. Guidance in this publication is modeled after the systems of care approach to promote best practices around building and sustaining collaborative relationships with community-based partners. The tip sheet defines key elements of successful collaboration and describes potential community-based partners. It also discusses challenges and strategies for building partnerships and assessing current collaboration practices, and outlines foundational steps for effective collaboration.