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The Bureau learns so much from the States and the Tribes
that we work with.
We learn a lot from our grantees, from Federal reviews,
and also from our data collections systems,
and all of this knowledge helps to inform our policies.
It helps us to make decisions about discretionary grants
that we fund and also it helps us to determine
what types of training and technical assistance
that we deliver to the States and Tribes.
When I think about collaboration and the work that OCAN does
within the Children’s Bureau and with our partners,
our Federal and non-Federal partners,
the phrase that I often use is that child abuse and neglect
is a multi-disciplinary problem.
No one person or one agency or one grant can solve the problem
of child abuse and neglect.
And, again, we’ve learned this
from our research over the years.
We know that there are many factors that impact families.
We know that there are many disciplines
that need to be involved
and at our level, at the Federal level,
I think not only are we mandated by our legislation to, you know,
have this collaboration but we hope that it’s a way
to model for the State and local communities
that same spirit of collaboration.
I’m inspired by visiting in the field and listening
to case work staff, to supervisors,
and more importantly to families--to parents, to kids,
to youth--who talk about where they were and where they are now
as a result of their involvement in child welfare systems.
And those outcomes are good outcomes
in many, many instances.
No one can do it alone.
There is no one agency, one answer
for children and families.
They live in a very complicated, challenging world that touches
many different systems and aspects,
and unless you have the important components
that are impacting their lives involved
and improving their lives, we’ll never have a complete package.
We’ll never have the kind of approach that’s necessary
to move kids and families in the direction they want to go.
On a day-to-day basis, we’re always thinking about ways
to collaborate and work with other agencies
to work with States and communities.
Because I think the Children’s Bureau is really clear
that it takes a multi-system approach,
you have to have different systems coming together
to really impact the needs of children and their families.
We’re working with mental health, with education,
with community providers, prevention providers,
substance abuse,
and everybody’s got to work together.
Everybody’s got to be playing in that sandbox well
in order for us to be seeing the outcomes
that we’re looking for
and those partnerships happening at all levels of government.
Meaningful systems change, systems reform,
improved outcomes can’t be done in a bubble.
They can’t be imposed upon anybody.
It’s something that needs to be done in partnership
or it’s not going to happen at all,
and that spans not only our work together with our States
but then our States’ work with their Tribal partners,
with their court partners, with their community partners,
their advocacy groups,
because we can’t "thou shalt" our way to the outcomes
that we’re trying to see for kids and families.
We’re going to have to work together and hold hands
and figure out the best way to make that happen
and where accommodations need to be made,
where more TA needs to be provided,
where more resources are needed,
for where more flexibility is needed,
where more cultural tailoring/adaptation is needed
to make sure that the work that we’re doing is meeting the needs
of the communities that we’re working in.
We have a vision of a system in which educators,
mental health providers, the courts, physicians,
social workers sit down at a table, assess what’s happening
in the family and include the family and sit down with them
and have a discussion on what’s happening in their lives,
where are their strengths, where are their needs,
how can we support them so that they can achieve their goals
and function in a way that they want to
and lead the lives that they want to live.
That’s our vision, is to have a coordinated system
in which everyone who has a part is at the table
and comes up with a collective understanding
of how we’re going to support children and their families.