This monograph chronicles the Health and Education Collaboration Project's (HEC) learning and development of family-centered interprofessional collaborative practices during 1994-95. The project involves the development and field-testing of a personnel preparation model for preservice and in-service professional training to provide family-centered, community-based, coordinated care, as well as dissemination of the best practices of family-centered interprofessional collaboration locally and nationally. Part 1 describes four Maternal and Child Health Bureau demonstration projects. Part 2 defines family-centered interprofessional collaboration, and Part 3 outlines its principles. Part 4 discusses each stage of the HEC project and what has been learned. Lessons learned from the five stages were: (1) collaboration is based on relationships, must occur at all levels, and functions best when it is the result of "bottom up" rather than "top down" efforts; (2) leadership sets the tone for the project; (3) staff personality should be considered in recruitment; (4) commitment to collaboration is essential; (5) training should be early and ongoing, should incorporate team- building skills, should emphasize both process and product, and should provide "in vivo" training models; (6) staff turnover compels supplementary training and attention to group process; (7) it is impossible to foresee all contingencies; and (8) dissemination of lessons learned through collaboration is essential to realize fundamental changes in service delivery systems. Appendices include a list of commission members and a discussion of the role of the medical home and interprofessional collaboration. (Contains 15 references.) (KDFB)