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.

Learn about the range of practices comprising the continuum of youth engagement to youth empowerment.

Get guidance, tips, and strategies for assessing agency culture and climate. 

Learn the importance of effective, ongoing collaboration between child welfare agencies and community-based partners.

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

Browse the “Leading Your Agency Through a Disaster” tip sheet to see how common elements of child welfare leadership can be adapted for effective disaster management and an example of action during each phase of disaster management.

Find information about using collaborative practices and models across human service systems to better serve families dealing with co-occurring issues.

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.

Learn strategies to address the mental health needs of children, young people, and families.

Defines prepermanancy services for prospective adoptive and guardianship families and raises awareness about the need for more prepermanency services supports alongside postpermanency supports.

Find out where evidence-based programs and services are being implemented to prevent children from entering foster care.

Browse a list of organizations that offer training activities with defined learning objectives, including self-paced e-learnings, webinars, or videos.

Explore strategies for redesigning the child welfare service array to meet the needs of youth and young adults currently and formerly in foster care.

Identify data sources to explore service array and resource development.

Use this brief to help your agency coordinate strategic and long-term planning, monitoring, and reporting processes—such as the Child and Family Services Plan (CFSP) and Child and Family Services Review (CFSR)—with agency continuous quality improvement (CQI).