This guide is designed to support administrative leaders in states and other jurisdictions in using data to assess and identify ways to improve their service array.

Browse the themes and key takeaways from the How We Partner With the Community to Improve Service Options podcast series.

Learn about the importance of successful collaboration and engagement for implementing prevention-focused systems.

See how coordination can improve identification, reporting, and services for youth who are victims or at risk of becoming victims of sex trafficking.

Shares Stephen’s story about being a community-based provider and policymaker in Florida, the need for laws that empower caregiver decision-making, creating Florida’s reasonable and prudent parent standard (RPPS), and the effect RPPS and normalcy laws can have on foster care.

Listen to child welfare agency leaders in the District of Columbia, service providers, partners in community collaboratives, and sister agencies talk about how they coordinate service planning and delivery, are culturally responsive to the community, and provide seamless services to families.

Listen to child welfare agency leaders in the District of Columbia talk about how they work with partners to use their different data lenses to understand the needs of families and to structure a set of services to best meet the full spectrum of needs. In Kentucky, child welfare agency leaders describe the process of finding the story behind the numbers to transform their system.

Explore the efforts agencies, community collaborative organizations, and others are making to bring families, youth, and communities to the table as they strive to improve the child welfare system in this podcast. 

Explore this tip sheet to learn about child welfare agency and court responsibilities related to APPLA provisions and strategies to achieve permanency.

This “Service Array Data Inventory Sample Worksheet” (Worksheet) is a companion tool to A Data-Driven Approach to Service Array Guide developed by the Capacity Building Center for States. To use the Worksheet, you can print it out and fill in the blank squares, or use the questions as a guide.

In this episode leaders from the District of Columbia child welfare agency and a community collaborative organization discuss their longstanding partnership. The commissioner for Kentucky's child welfare agency describes the agency’s strategic communication plan and considers the role of the agency as part of the larger child welfare system.

Explore sex trafficking prevention best practices for implementing provisions of the Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act (P.L. 113-183).

Read about the value of collaboration as the key to prevention, safety, and long-term stability for children and families.

Engage staff and partners with activities in this guide to start a dialogue and create a vision for a more prevention-focused child welfare system.

The infographic provides a visual reference for the cultural shift needed to protect children through strengthening families.