Because families at risk of child abuse or neglect often face challenges in other areas of their lives, effective collaboration with other service providers and systems is essential to supporting families' many unique needs. Common systems with which child abuse prevention professionals may need to collaborate include early childhood, substance abuse, and domestic violence systems. See the Interagency and Cross-System Collaboration web section for information on collaborating in those areas and more.
The following resources address forming effective partnerships across systems to prevent child abuse and neglect, including State and local examples.
Best Practices for Maximizing and Sustaining Collaborative Efforts (PDF - 156 KB)
FRIENDS National Resource Center for Community-Based Child Abuse Prevention (2009)
Highlights creative and successful State efforts to identify and overcome challenges that impede progress to sustain collaborations among community organizations to prevent child abuse and neglect.
Building and Sustaining Child Welfare Partnerships (PDF - 595 KB)
National Technical Assistance and Evaluation Center for Systems of Care (2011)
Highlights the importance of interagency collaborations and community partnerships and describes steps and strategies that child welfare agencies can use to forge partnerships with child- and family-serving organizations and communitymembers.
Conceptualizing and Measuring Collaboration in the Context of Early Childhood Care and Education (PDF- 1,443 KB)
Chien, Blasberg, Daneri, Halle, King, & Zaslow (2013)
U.S. Administration for Children and Families, Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, & Child Trends
Presents work on the conceptualization and measurement of collaboration in the field of early childhood, identifies key components of collaboration, and encourages the development and use of measures of collaboration in the early childhood field. The brief presents a State-level collaboration logic model that depicts the key components of collaboration and identifies and considers existing measures of collaboration. Recommendations for future research design are included.
Creating and Maintaining Coalitions and Partnerships
University of Kansas Community Tool Box
A framework and supports for creating coalitions or collaborative partnerships.
Creating and Sustaining Cross-System Collaboration to Support Families in Child Welfare with Co-Occurring Issues: An Administrator's Handbook (PDF - 1,481 KB)
Capacity Building Center for States (2017)
Provides information relevant to using collaborative practices and models across human service systems in order to better serve families in contact with child welfare who are dealing with co-occurring issues. The handbook defines co-occurring issues and challenges families in child welfare might face in gaining access to individualized services.
Rebuilding Communities Initiative
Annie E. Casey Foundation
Seeks to establish effective neighborhood collaborations and demonstrate that troubled, low-income communities can become safe, supportive environments where children and families can thrive.
Success Stories From PREVENT: Building Capacity for Child Maltreatment Prevention
PREVENT Institute
Describes examples of successful multidisciplinary efforts from across the country to plan, implement, and evaluate prevention strategies.
Understanding the Common Ground Between Systems of Care and Child Abuse Prevention
FRIENDS National Resource Center for Community-Based Child Abuse Prevention (2010)
Shares lessons learned about fitting the prevention of child abuse and neglect into existing systems of care and provides recommendations for collaboration.
Wilder Collaboration Factors Inventory
Amherst H. Wilder Foundation
This online tool assesses 20 factors that influence the success of a collaboration.
State and local examples
Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Strategic Plan, SFY 2012-2015 (PDF - 5,762 KB)
Indiana Department of Child Services & Indiana Kids First Trust Fund (2011)
Describes the State's plan to prevent child maltreatment by addressing parent support, health care, early childhood, education, and economic stability. One of the four goals is to promote the coordination and collaboration of prevention strategies at the local, regional, and State level within the public and private sectors.
Hampton Healthy Families Partnership
Hampton (VA) Healthy Families Partnership is a team effort in which city and community agencies have joined together with public and private organizations such as hospitals, restaurants, businesses, and banks to help families become healthy, happy, and self-sufficient. Through home visitation, parenting classes, newsletters, library resource centers, and a variety of other programs, the Partnership works to ensure that every child in Hampton is born healthy and enters school ready to learn.
Partnerships for Families: Stories and Lessons From Los Angeles Communities(PDF - 2,970 KB)
First 5 LA (2010)
Describes the Partnerships for Families concept and model and its success in building a comprehensive network of community services and supports for families. The report includes information on developing and maintaining collaboratives, achieving and sustaining improvements among at-risk families, and recommendations for communities, systems, and funders.
Prevention Initiative Demonstration Project (PIDP) Year One Evaluation Summary Report (PDF - 1,440 KB)
McCroskey, Christie, Lorthridge, Chambers, Pecora, & Azzam (2009)
Describes an initiative in Los Angeles County, California, to develop and implement approaches to child abuse prevention that are tailored to the needs of the community. The initiative relied heavily on partnerships among the public child welfare agency, community organizations, and residents.
Site Visit Report: State of Connecticut Department of Children and Families-Early Head Start Partnership, Early Childhood Child Welfare Collaboration Project (PDF - 128 KB)
U.S. Children's Bureau (2014)
Explores a collaborative effort among the Connecticut Department of Children and Families, Head Start, and partner programs/organizations that provides staff training to enhance services and case management for families and builds collaborations to help ensure that children in foster care, ages birth to 5, are referred for quality early childhood services to meet developmental milestones and education-related performance markers.