School & Main Institute’s Executive Director, Andy Beck, spoke recently at the National Association of Workforce Professional Development Youth Symposium, November 12-14, 2012. Andy had the opportunity to present to participants School & Main’s dynamic approach to “Making Collaboration Work”. This presentation specifically covered keys to collaborative success including exploring mutual self-interest, taking collective action and organizing as partners to get the work done. Andy posed two very important questions:
- If collaboration is such a good idea and there is general agreement about the need to do so – why is it so hard?
- How can we make the case for needing more (programs, pilots, etc.) when we haven’t connected what we already have?
A second presentation on Collaborative Case Management was made. Here, Andy went into greater detail describing SMI’s technique with at-risk youth support and community services.
“Frontline youth service professionals bring their most challenging youth cases to a regular, structured case conferencing forum where they strategize wraparound supports with colleagues from across the community or region. In the process, youth receive more holistic support, tailored to their needs, and program staff develop a much deeper knowledge of how to navigate and manage the vast array of services and opportunities available for their most at-risk clients. On a parallel track, SMI works with organizations to develop a more seamless and collaborative system – one intake form, one permission form, one treatment plan, collaborative data access and other critical system features. “
