A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

Introduction

The Integrated Services Partnership (ISP) illustrates a common approach to dealing with the multiple problems of children and youth in schools. As stated in Melaville and Blank (1993):

Across America, people are recognizing that all of the institutions and agencies whose mission is to nurture and strengthen children and families must collaborate. They realize that no single institution has the resources or capacity to do the job alone. (p. vii)

The important findings from the ISP are:

1. Outside funding stimulates action.
   
2. Each participating bureaucracy is challenged to change policies and procedures to accommodate a new way of providing service.
   
3. Partnership approaches need to be adapted to each participating school's needs.

Brief Description

• the principals of the participating schools;
  
• the director of the Welfare Department;
  
• representatives from two departments of the City University Medical School (CUMS);
• a representative from the City University School of Education;
  
• the chief executive officer of a local hospital;
  
• management representatives from the State Department of Health;
  
• the city planner; and
  
• executive officers from not-for-profit agencies.
  

During the course of the project, those directly involved in providing service also met as part of the steering committee. The original role of the steering committee was to influence the allocation of resources and services.

ISP activities at each school were choreographed by a school-site coordinator, who worked closely with school staff members, staff from the other participating organizations, and parents and community members. Organizations participating in the ISP included:

• City Public Schools (CPS);
  
• City University Medical School (CUMS);
  
• City University (CU)
  
• the Welfare Department; and
  
• the Center for Conflict Reduction (CCR)

The services provided at the school sites included medical services, conflict reduction, parent services, welfare, and counseling services. Each of these will be described in turn.

Medical Services

Giant High School had a school health clinic prior to the inception of the ISP, which expanded physically as part of the project. In addition, the principal allowed health personnel to dispense birth control. At Giant, the medical staff worked fairly independently from others involved in the ISP.

The nurse's and counselors' offices were rearranged to accommodate the provision of health services at Padres Middle School. Although the rooms were not private because fire department regulations prevented full closure to the ceiling, the doctors found ways to adjust. For example, during private conversations, doctors often played the radio to keep from being overheard. Often, the health clinic was the initial point of contact for students. After the initial medical service was provided, students frequently were referred to another service offered by the collaborative, such as counseling or dispute resolution. According to a participating nurse practitioner, students using the clinics at the middle school and high school saw a staff person an average of two times.

The elementary school chose not to have a medical clinic on site. Instead, the services offered at Dodger Elementary School focused on health education and entry exams for kindergarten students on campus, as requested by parents.

Conflict Reduction

A conflict resolution program at the high school pre-dated the partnership. The CCR held conflict and dispute resolution classes and sessions at the middle and high school. The students were provided with conflict reduction services and training in mediation techniques.

At the middle school the on-site coordinator frequently referred students to CCR (or other) services. Usually, students' conflicts were a result of disagreements with teachers or caregivers and were addressed in private sessions.

The conflict resolution program originally was seen as a way to decrease truancy and dropouts at Giant High School, but the program was unable to gain commitment from teachers and other staff, and staff from CCR were unwilling to change their approach.

Parent Services

The ISP provided parent services for students and families. The elementary school offered activities and workshops for both parents and children. Students at the middle school participated in a sibling group. At the high school, the parent coordinator sponsored a parenting course for pregnant and parenting students. Although the target population for the group was young women, fathers and fathers-to-be also participated. Approximately 40 students received services at Giant through the parent group. Speakers and workshops were coordinated with other social service agencies, and services were provided to students on campus. Fathers and fathers-to-be were referred to a service provider sponsoring an off-campus group specifically designed for teen fathers.

Welfare

The Welfare Department moved caseworkers to the three participating schools, where they interviewed applicants and processed applications, as well as provided the required follow-up support. The long-term goal was to move all welfare activities to the schools, including reassigning welfare recipients who had applied through welfare headquarters. In addition, the caseworkers and other ISP personnel, particularly the school-site coordinator, were supposed to share information so that an integrated plan for family services could be developed. This worked best at Dodger Elementary School and least well at Giant High School.

Serving welfare clients at sites other than headquarters not only required changes in personnel assignments and interactions, but also involved networking computers so that material entered at the schools would be on file at headquarters, where further processing occurred. The ISP experienced some problems with the computers, which slowed progress and led to some morale problems. The problem was greatest at Padres, but the caseworker at Dodger helped with the intake.

Counseling Services

Social workers from CU counseled students at each school. At Dodger Elementary School, students were referred to the social workers by the school counselor, teachers, and principal. The same process, with the addition of the assistant principal as a member of the team, was used at Padres Middle School. Each referral was discussed at a weekly meeting involving the school team and the social workers, which facilitated communication and gave greater insight into the needs of particular students. In addition, the social workers taught some classes to fifth- and sixth-grade students.

At Giant High School, the social workers counseled a number of students with very serious problems. Four such students counseled by the social workers were hospitalized. Other students had problems related to alcohol and other drug (AOD) abuse and violent crimes.

Context

The city in which the ISP is located serves just under 100,000 students in over 100 schools. The ISP itself served a neighborhood with a largely low-income, ethnically diverse population. Three schools, in a feeder school relationship, were involved in the ISP: Dodger Elementary School, Padres Middle School, and Giant High School.

The elementary school, Dodger, provides educational services to about 500 students. Over 55 percent of the students are Hispanic, and about 15 percent are American Indians. A little over 20 percent are white, and the remaining 10 percent are African American and Asian American students. Most of the Asian American students have roots in Vietnam. Free or reduced price lunch is provided to about 90 percent of the students, and the mobility rate is about 94 percent.

Padres Middle School is more evenly split, with 41 percent Hispanic and 37 percent white students. Only 20 percent of the students are on free or reduced price lunch, but the mobility rate, although lower than at Dodger, is high (60 percent). The middle school includes students from widely different economic backgrounds. A majority of the white students live in a middle class community, and the Hispanic and Asian American students reside in a highly mobile, largely immigrant community with a high poverty level.

Giant High School has demographic characteristics similar to those of Padres.

CPS prides itself on being a "progressive city school system," participating in numerous innovations over the years. All CPS schools were involved in state-based management and shared decisionmaking school restructuring efforts, and several CPS schools were pilot sites for a state program. The state and the district are deeply involved in the National Science Foundation's State Systemic Initiative. In addition, the district had been involved in other types of systemic change efforts. However, a newly elected majority on the school board was critical of some of the innovations, and staff members were unsure of how much support for improvement efforts they would continue to receive.

The university had a historic commitment to working with the city and its schools. For example, neighborhood clinics were purposely sited near schools so families could easily have access to them. Medical students were required to work with the clinics early in their training and encouraged to develop relationships with the community by volunteering at schools or coaching community-based sports activities.

The ISP steering committee met for approximately two years prior to the receipt of OERI funds. The group made an earlier, unsuccessful attempt to receive outside funding. Although members of the steering committee expressed disappointment about their failure to receive money, they believed that actually writing the proposal helped them sharpen their thinking about what they wanted to accomplish. When they responded to the EPP grant announcement, they were more focused and, consequently, successful in receiving funds. According to all participants, the steering committee might have died slowly if no outside money were received to give impetus to implementing activities. The two years of discussion, however, provided a strong base on which to build a program.

Initiation

The ISP was viewed by all CPS participants as a " natural " outgrowth of the school restructuring efforts. They believed that the district's restructuring process led to increased awareness of students' and families' needs for social assistance in addition to educational services. In addition, some elements of a comprehensive child and family support system had been in place for quite some time, including the clinic at Giant High School. The district and the medical school, which sponsored the clinic, recognized that the school-based clinics reached students who otherwise would have not received health services. The ISP enabled the district to increase the scope of the collaborative model.

The school district staff thought that the school-based model of service delivery created better access to services for students and their families than the provision of services off campus. Service providers believed that students and their families may not follow up on referrals for several reasons, including language barriers, unfamiliarity with service providers, or basic distrust of the system. Changing the service venue required that social service providers change their mode of operation. With the support of the superintendent, the project director and the grant writer championed these ideas throughout the school district and local community.

The social service agencies had their own motives for participating. For example, the medical school and the community-based health clinics had successful ventures with the school district, including the clinic at Giant High School. The CCR previously had provided services in the schools. Both the social service agencies and the CCR wished to expand their services.

The steering committee saw the receipt of EPP funding as the mechanism pushing the group to work collaboratively instead of individually. Members of the steering committee believed that funding provided the impetus for the committee to move forward and each participating agency to assess its role in the collaborative and determine how to work with the identified schools.

As the ISP began, the project director was its political advocate. Supported by the superintendent and directors of participating organizations, she was the individual primarily responsible for promoting the project and establishing connections. The ISP coordinator, though not involved in the project from the beginning, was the single most important influence on the success of the project and its activities. She established an effective rapport with agency directors, principals, and staffs. Her work was noted by almost all participants as the glue holding the collaborative together and the force enabling it to move forward. The ISP coordinator has an especially keen knack for knowing when to push an issue and when to back off, letting someone else handle the situation. So far, advocacy with the participating partners has been effective.

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[Introduction]

[Integrated Services Partnership Part B]

This page was last updated January 8, 2002 (jca)