Front Page
The first step for some collaboratives is to understand how welfare reform relates to its current priorities and develop an explicit action strategy to advance the goal of moving low-income parents from welfare to work.
Community collaboratives typically begin their work by establishing a set of priorities, which usually reflect pressing community problems and the achievement of desired results. One collaborative's top priority may be enhancing the safety of children in a specific neighborhood, while another sets its sights on curbing adolescent pregnancy. Welfare reform's impact is so sweeping, though, that it will affect every collaborative's agenda. Collaboratives that avoid addressing this issue head on may not be taken seriously, and are less likely to be able to make headway in addressing other priorities.
Community collaboratives need to figure out how welfare reform will influence their existing plans. Which families will welfare reform affect most? Is the collaborative already focusing attention on these families? To what extent will the collaborative's goals be easier or more difficult to achieve as welfare reform takes effect? Should the collaborative alter the service delivery and policy strategies it plans to use to improve results for children and families because of welfare reform? For example, let's say a collaborative has been developing a family center, school-linked services, or a comprehensive child protection strategy. As welfare reform takes hold, the collaborative needs to consider how many of the participants in these programs will be required to go to work, and how to adjust its service delivery strategy to fit that scenario.
A possible strategy/product
Once a collaborative has decided how welfare reform affects its current plans, it may be productive for members to develop a revised mission statement or specific policy statement specifying how they intend to be involved in welfare reform. Will the collaborative, for example
- be an advocate on behalf of their community and its families?
- help plan the welfare reform strategy in their area?
- be a "watchdog" on behalf of the most vulnerable children affected by policy changes?
- be one of many partners--with business, public agencies, and other civic interests--involved in implementing a welfare reform strategy?
- negotiate changes in existing services and supports so that they more explicitly promote welfare-to-work strategies?
It is important to communicate effectively about the collaborative's ideas and plans with regard to welfare reform, so that its members and the broader community have a clear idea of what the collaborative intends to do.
