Can we imagine different ways of working together to secure better outcomes for children and families? What are the complex issues that underlie the apparently simple call for "joined-up" services? Children's services in many countries around the world are being transformed as part of the call for "joined-up working for joined-up…

Designed to celebrate family/interprofessional collaborative partnerships, this publication describes high-quality examples of how families and professionals at the family, community, state, and national levels have worked together to create programs and practices that are family-friendly and responsive to what families have said they want and…

Parent Services Project (PSP), the first comprehensive program of resources and mental health activities for parents offered at child care centers in the San Francisco Bay Area (California), has expanded to centers in six states, serving over 19,000 families. This report describes the program's history, aims, and achievements, along with specific…

This step-by-step guide gives librarians the information to develop successful, collaborative ventures with other organizations in an effort to provide comprehensive and integrated services for children and families. Each chapter outlines steps to take in the creation of a family-centered library environment. The topics discussed are: serving…

This book describes Boysville's 5-year effort to design, implement, and evaluate an agency-based computerized management information, program evaluation, and clinical decision-making system, BOMIS (Boysville Management Information System). The goal of BOMIS is the integration of the four intervention programs, through the collection, analysis,…

This book explores why past efforts to reform the human services system have had marginal impact in improving the quality of life for children and families, and offers new directions for future social service reform. Chapter 1 examines the sociopolitical antecedents of service integration that have emerged from the uniquely democratic experience…

Drawing on the field of family therapy, this step-by-step guide applies principles of brief, solution-focused therapy to family-based services (FBS) in ways that empower clients, increase cooperation, and aid the survival of social workers. Based on the author's experience at the Brief Family Therapy Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the book is…

The research reported in this book develops a theme introduced in a previous work published by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, "Our Children at Risk" (1995), which noted the integration of services as a way to provide more effective services for families and children at risk of school failure. Part 1 of this…

This book presents the results of an extended study of service integration efforts in Colorado, Florida, Indiana, and Oregon, highlighting the nature of existing service integration and the potential of systemic reform efforts. The first part of the book examines the range and complexity of current service integration efforts, offers a definition…

This handbook offers step-by-step guidelines for practitioners and community leaders who desire to upgrade the human services available to students and their families. Specifically, the book offers strategies for developing school and community collaboration to improve the benefits provided to students in a school district. The book describes the…

Based on a study conducted in an intervention program for parents of maltreated children, this book examines the well intended but often ineffective efforts of the child welfare system to prevent maltreatment, as illustrated by the experiences of three parents targeted by the state's child protection agency, and urges more far-reaching policy…

This book gives practical advice to students and professionals for developing truly collaborative relationships with families. Long-term goals and proposed support models are outlined to help practitioners learn to address families' unique needs. Chapters of case examples highlight service integration problems. Section 1, "A Model for Practice,"…

As federal, state, and local policy makers attend to the economic, educational, social, and health-related needs of children, they are beginning to share a vision of a "seamless web" of high-quality, comprehensive, continuous services for children and their families. It remains a challenging goal because of the complexity of children's needs and…

This book is about children who are living dangerously close to the edge, the edge of delinquency, mental illness, and poverty. Beginning with a discussion of the role of Joy Dryfoos in the development of comprehensive schools, this work is based on the Full Service Schools program which began in 1998 in three elementary inner-city schools in…