3.1 ESTABLISH AND MAINTAIN PARTNERSHIPS
It is important to identify key stakeholders in your state; these stakeholders should become your partners in child maltreatment prevention. All states are different, and each state must determine the right partners for their efforts.
Identify Partners
Partners can be identified based on:
- ✓ selected child maltreatment prevention strategies
- ✓ available and needed resources
- ✓ opportunities to work together and
- ✓ other state-specific factors
In order to establish and maintain strong partnerships, states may want to begin by:
- mapping out current and potential partners
- identifying gaps and
- engaging potential partners
Although the “right” mix of partners will vary in every state, that mix should, at the very least, include stakeholders involved in providing services to mothers and young children. Collaborating with these organizations can lead to integrated services and programs that form a comprehensive system of prevention. Ideally, partners would represent both traditional (e.g., health and human services, child welfare) and non-traditional sectors (e.g., housing, job training, education) and government agencies, for-profit entities, and non-profit organizations (e.g., community and faith-based organizations, private foundations).
- Invite staff from stakeholder organizations to sit on your committees
- Exchange information and educational materials
- Share data
- Share resources
- Serve on each other’s advisory committees
- Develop a state plan for child maltreatment prevention together
- Joint policy development
- Joint evaluation activities
- Child Care
- Child Welfare & Protection Agency
- Children’s Trust Fund
- Community Based Child Abuse Prevention (CBCAP) Lead Agency
- Department of Early Education
- Employment services
- Housing
- Injury Control Research Centers
- Prevent Child Abuse America state affiliate
- Strengthening Families state advisory group
- Universities
Consider:
- What organizations currently partner with the health department for child maltreatment prevention?
- Who is missing from your current partners - specific agencies, topical expertise, types of service providers, etc.?
- What individuals, programs, and agencies define their work as child maltreatment prevention?
- What organizations define their work in broader terms, such as family strengthening, supporting parents, improving school performance, workforce development, preventing crime or substance abuse, community organizing, etc.?
- Who are non-traditional stakeholders in your state (e.g., urban planners to affect the built environment and engineer safer communities; civic organizations to increase community engagement; housing authorities/regulators to affect safer homes for families)?
- What coalitions work on issues related to child maltreatment prevention? How does the health department interact with them?
- How can informal or formal collaboration provide missing perspectives in your efforts?
3.2 Aligning Programs