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An important role collaboratives can play early on is to make sure state or county welfare plans reflect the best information available about the challenges facing families in the communities they represent.
Collaborative members know the people of the community and their special needs and assets. For example, a governance collaborative in a small rural town might know that the majority of the people in poverty in that community are young, single women who won't be able to hold down jobs without a major expansion in infant and toddler care in the area. An urban collaborative in the same state might know that most of the parents seeking employment lack the education to qualify for the jobs available in the area--and don't have access to transportation to get to them. Collaboratives need to inform state and county agencies about concrete, specific problems so they can design strategies to address them.
Figure 3 offers examples of the kinds of facts collaboratives need to know to provide accurate, useful information to policymakers.
A possible product
Just having this information is not enough. Collaboratives need to make sure the information gets into the hands of the officials carrying out the state and county welfare reform strategy--and that they use it. Package the data you have concisely, and send it to the agency in charge of implementation and to state legislators. If you can't get all the data you want, do the best you can with what you have, and make sure it gets into the hands of the people in charge of welfare reform. The gesture will put policymakers on notice that your community has high expectations for welfare reform implementation.
