Why We Need A Formal System For Communication and Collaboration
I thought I would share a story of why we need a formal system of communication and collaboration for providing wrap-around supports to New Haven’s youth.
A couple weeks ago, a social worker from one of the schools came to our office to talk about an 8th grader who was doing extremely poorly in school. One of the things he told her that he was succeeding at was our Green Jobs Youth Development program. She found us to find out more, and figure out how we could work together to support him so that he stayed in school. Because no one could really tell the other exactly what was going on with the family due to privacy concerns, we worked something out, and committed to stay in touch. The boy has 2 younger siblings who are in our programs as well, attend the school and are not doing well.
Last Friday when we arrived at our office, located in the Westville Manor Public Housing Development, we discovered that this family was being forcibly evicted. It was a sad and very ugly scene. My staff was heartbroken and felt powerless as they witnessed the mother being terrible to everyone around her. The kids had no idea where they were headed to. We had no idea if we would see them again.
We decided to call the school social worker and tell her what was happening. Later as I drove past the school, the same woman happened to be outside. She said that she was incredibly grateful for the call because they would otherwise not have known. The school was now helping the family find a placement in a shelter. Since then we have learned their locations (the kids are spread around at relatives). The oldest boy has come by and says he is still going to school (taking a city bus), and is planning to apply to our winter apprenticeship program.
As a small organization we need to be careful to stay focused on what we are trained to do and what we do well. However, the problems of the youth we work with are often so much greater than what we have the capacity to address. This is what makes the work often heartbreaking. I have seen the negative effects on staff (particularly on myself) and to Solar Youth in general, when we take on more than what we can effectively handle. Over the years we have developed loose connections with individuals who help us problem-solve when situations arise beyond our expertise. And I am in the process of wooing Clifford Beers to form a formal partnership with us so youth (and staff) can have access to mental health support.
I don’t know a lot about what is happening with Boost. But from our experience, more than a program of coordination, there is a need for a process of communication and collaboration. This could include:
(1) A way for schools to know what students are involved in outside of school
(2) A way for youth organizations to have knowledge of the supports and services youth have access to in school
(3) A formal process for school and youth-orgs to communicate with each other, with the ability to share pertinent information, in order to coordinate supports and services.
I know you all know this, and are working on it. I just thought I would share with you a real-world situation that gave me a glimpse of what could be.
Joanne Sculli is the Executive Director at Solar Youth
Comments
I know very little about specifics of the problem described above. But I could sign with both hands under a general call "we need a process of communication and collaboration"! Exquisite Web based tools are out there, the main obstacle remains the same - unwillingness of people involved to learn how to use them effectively.
I am often shocked how narrow is the practical knowledge of effective workflows even within one organization. We are inundated with technical solutions that are not used... starting from ABC of using any word processor or sending emails with 100 recipient addresses visible to everybody.
I am afraid to ask how meny more non-profits in New Haven have a mission parallel to Solar Youth? I see miles of red tape before the official school system will allow anybody to link to their databases of children in the school system. There is absolutely no technical problem in solving 1-2-3 as defined by Joanne.
I could see a single student database for each child in New Haven school system where each child would be given a unique number, set in a way that many interested agencies could feed it but most would not be able to see the full record. However for certain fields it would be easy to created automated responses to relevant parties. So if a single social worker had assigned a group of children - they could easily query e.g. which are not participating in any extra curricular activities. That should be a red flag for all... The same way it would be easy to find out what organizations are having any association with a single child (number).
The system would have as many allies as opponents due to potential privacy issues...
I agree that we need collaboration between teachers and agencies, but we also need to develop early warning systems. When students begin to get off-track, immediate interventions are needed, otherwise the problems can quickly get worse. The best teachers (or anyone else who works with children) can often recognize these trends, but sometimes it is too late.
Given that enormous numbers of teachers are retiring over the coming decade, we'll be seeing a lot of new teachers within our districts. The need for teacher training and early warning systems will become even more pressing.
National and state policymakers, in some areas, are working on ways to create better systems for tracking - see http://www.dataqualitycampaign.org/survey/elements as an example. Statewide and school district data could be combined with inputs from multiple sources (such as housing agencies and nonprofits) in order to allow school districts, child welfare agencies, or any other programs, to quickly and efficiently respond to issues before they arise. This isn't an easy task, but as a state, I'm convinced that we can figure it out if we start to agree why it is such an enormous priority in terms of ensuring that we have a stronger economy and higher quality of life for future generations. There are many examples of integrated systems.
For efficiency reasons, and because state agencies track a lot of information about children and families as well, it would be ideal if state and regional agencies also would be involved in a partnership to share student information. Doing so will require some reforms and investments: See http://www.nhregister.com/articles/2010/12/29/news/doc4d1ac4e7b21a227062... for a recent article on the subject of the state's data systems.
It is also important to note that the growth in child poverty in the New Haven Region is taking place almost entirely in the suburbs, which may not have the capacity to develop the types of data systems that people are talking about building for the New Haven School System. We need an all-hands on deck, smart, statewide approach to this. It is also critical that we expand effective local efforts (like BOOST, if it is ultimately successful, and like the story that Joanne mentions above), but such efforts are unlikely to be systematic enough to address these issues at a statewide level and ensure that every child has a chance to succeed!
Ultimately, growing social inequality and poverty also will make these issues harder to address. The median American family now has a net worth that is 225 times lower than the net worth of the top 1% of families. As this gap widens, inequities will become more and more place-based, and it will be more difficult to provide equal opportunities for children across the entire income and demographic spectrum. Reducing the wealth gap, for example by providing more income supports, high-quality child care and workforce development opportunities to younger families, could "lift all boats" and prevent many of these problems long before they began.
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