Interagency collaboration among community organizations serving children and families in child welfare

Transformational change to address adversity and nurture resilience requires deep and sustained community collaborations. Interagency collaboration is critically important for child welfare especially during crisis situations. It is clear that when agencies focus on strengths and promote protective factors (individual, familial and community-level) in time, negative consequences of maltreatment are reduced and well-being outcomes are enhanced. However, limited research is available to effectively inform community organizations and collective impact initiatives about how they can strengthen interagency collaboration and collaborative practice. Furthermore, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic elevates the urgency to understand how community organizations work together to serve children and families as it threatens access to safety nets. This mixed methods study examined interagency collaboration among community organizations in a collective impact workgroup focussed on children and families involved in the child welfare system. Results revealed key strengths to collaboration (e.g., strong connections, resource sharing, resilience in staff, more vulnerable children accessing resources and more adults engaged in serving this population) as well as barriers to collaboration (e.g., group composition, funding and lack of clarity/focus). Results also revealed specific ways in which this pandemic has impacted efforts to serve children and families in child welfare. Findings highlight an approach that might assist interagency collaboratives. In addition, findings were also translated into concrete action items that might be helpful to interagency collaboratives focussed on child welfare.