Collaborative programs usually involve services that are provided by a variety of local in-stitutions both on-site (in the case of Jobs-Plus, at the housing developments) and more
typically off-site. Some services are provided under formal contracts with an agency or under other types of interagency agreements, while other services may be offered on an informal but routine referral basis. Although the program staff must therefore work to-gether with staff from a dispersed network of providers that are connected to the program in different ways, the goals are to minimize duplication of effort and conflicting require-ments and to ensure that clients get an appropriate and coherent package of services and do not “fall through the cracks.”
√ An operations-level collaborative should be established for securing partners’ advice, promoting information-sharing, and networking.
There can be value in organizing the program’s main service providers into an official operations-level collaborative.2 Members of this network should meet and communicate regularly (for example, monthly, quarterly, or biannually, depending on the maturity of the program) as partners and advisors, but without governance responsibilities. They should share ideas on how the program design or operation could be improved and should exchange information about new resources and service options that may be of value to the program.
Given the purposes of this partnership network, delegates should include midlevel and frontline staff, who are often well positioned to offer specific advice on how partner agencies can best coordinate their day-to-day work with clients. Moreover, their participa-tion in regular collaborative meetings may foster the kinds of informal, personal relaparticipa-tion- relation-ships that can help them to cut through bureaucratic red tape in coordinating their agen-cies’ services.
√ The responsibilities of some frontline workers and the standard operating proce-dures of certain partner agencies may need to be restructured for better coordination of service delivery.
As noted earlier, many residents of the Jobs-Plus housing developments are, or may become, clients simultaneously of a variety of agencies that together provide an array of employment-related activities, job development assistance, and supportive services. In each agency, separate rules and regulations may apply, and separate case managers or other frontline workers may be assigned to work with the client. The potential for duplica-tion of services and for burdensome and possibly conflicting demands on clients calls for some degree of coordination of frontline service delivery across agencies.
To address such problems, agencies that are part of the operations-level network should try to fashion appropriate modifications in their normal procedures and a more efficient interagency division of labor among frontline staff. For example, a common proto-col for accepting and referring residents across affiliated agencies that share a substantial
2For example, if a Jobs-Plus program is operating in several housing developments in a large city, it may be worthwhile to create distinct development-level networks, as was done in Los Angeles.
ties for guiding and monitoring clients’ use of services might also be coordinated across agencies. For example, in the case of Jobs-Plus, lead responsibility for day-to-day case management might be given to Jobs-Plus staff, and procedures could be established through which case managers from all agencies assigned to a particular resident would confer regularly about that resident’s employment progress.
√ Joint training should be conducted for program staff and the frontline workers of partner agencies.
To help frontline workers across a variety of agencies serve program participants bet-ter, efforts should be made to provide some joint training; separate staffs thus would be-come familiar with one another’s services, regulations, and procedures. It is particularly important for Jobs-Plus staff to be trained on TANF participation requirements and time-limit rules that affect many residents but may be complex or confusing. Such training can also help frontline workers develop interpersonal relationships that facilitate the kind of ongoing, informal information-sharing that may be valuable in delivering a package of services and assistance appropriate to residents’ needs and circumstances.3
√ Systems for sharing data are key.
Coordinating case management and other forms of individualized assistance to clients across agencies can be improved by sharing client status and tracking data in a timely way.
At a minimum, steps should be taken to ensure that program staff and partner agencies have up-to-date information on their shared clients. In addition, it may be advantageous for some outside agencies (for example, the welfare department) to build into their com-puter tracking systems specific codes that allow them to identify easily which of their cli-ents are participating in other agencies’ activities. Creating a common database for some measures of client activity that are relevant across a number of agencies may also facilitate interagency communication, assistance, and monitoring. In some cases, however, clients’
consent may be needed before confidential information can be shared.
√ Few private sector employers are inclined to participate in an operations-level net-work or to serve on the collaborative’s governing board or committees, so priority should be given to other ways of engaging employers.
3In the case of Jobs-Plus, opportunities should also be found for program staff to participate in routine departmental or system-wide meetings of the partner agencies. For example, they could attend district or regional meetings of welfare department staff and perhaps could be given time on the agenda to discuss Jobs-Plus. Similarly, frontline welfare staff, in addition to those assigned as official liaisons to the Jobs-Plus program, should be included in meetings of the full collabora-tive (perhaps on a rotating basis). Similar arrangements could be negotiated with other agencies as well.
Employers want prepared workers. Unless an employment program is able to operate at a scale that can provide a steady stream of workers trained in the skills needed by their company, individual employers are unlikely to want to invest the time required to be an active member of a collaborative or its various committees. This was the case for Jobs-Plus during the demonstration. Therefore, to tap employers’ perspectives on program planning and ongoing development, efforts should be directed at involving employer associations, such as the local Chamber of Commerce, as partners in the operations-level collaborative.
The program’s job developers should also cultivate relationships with a pool of firms likely at some time to have jobs suitable for program participants. They need to keep employers informed about the benefits of seeking workers through the program and to urge (and pe-riodically remind) employers to contact the program when appropriate job openings occur.