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Policy Goal 3: Support local cross-system collaboration efforts.
1. Does the state support the creation of local councils or similar entities to advance cross-system strategic planning and systems change at the county or regional level?
RATIONALE: Establishing effective local cross-system collaborations to guide decision-making is critical yet challenging to operationalize at the local level without state support. Largely decentralized local systems are often composed of many agencies, each led by an elected or appointed official with a fair amount of independent authority. There can also be significant organizational and cultural differences between systems—even between agencies within one system. This can make bringing these separate agencies together to voluntarily give up some of their autonomy (i.e., engage in a collaborative decision-making process) no small feat.
The complex work of cross-system collaboration benefits from a designated coordinator to manage the overall process. This role is one that many counties and cities are unable to support without dedicated funding for such a position.
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Ways to do it
- Consult local stakeholders from different justice and health perspectives, as well as different parts of the state, to understand what sorts of local cross-system structures already exist and what positions such efforts for success.
- Based on this information, establish local councils through an administrative order from an existing state agency or collaborative body, providing maximum guidance and maximum flexibility based on local needs.
- Pass legislation to create local councils to strengthen county planning structures and formalize and facilitate state-county engagement.
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Things to consider
- Determine the scope of responsibilities of local councils and determine whether additional funding is necessary to ensure adequate staffing and support.
- Issue guidance, such as minimum standards, and provide technical assistance to support local-level collaboration.
- Create a mechanism for a direct feedback loop from the local councils into the state-local collaborative body, such as providing funding for local coordinators for the local councils.
- Tie efforts to common goals and metrics, such as those established by a statewide commitment or strategic plan.
- Create a mechanism for direct input from people with lived experience.
- Require a local point of contact to serve as a designated bridge between state and local efforts. Create opportunities for local contacts to come together to shape state policy and funding strategies to advance local efforts.
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State Examples
2. Does the state support local system assessments, such as Sequential Intercept Model (SIM) mapping, that help communities identify system gaps and resources and build strategic plans?
RATIONALE: While many communities have successfully implemented individual programs to divert people at specific points along the criminal justice continuum, communities often need help to maximize the impact of their efforts by ensuring that their interventions and programs are guided by an overarching strategy focused on data and the locally determined factors that are driving the problem.
In addition to identifying and quantifying system gaps, conducting a system mapping exercise will enable communities to
- Use existing resources—including state funding—in ways that maximize opportunities for improving public health and safety and providing the most appropriate responses to their target population;
- Streamline current operations;
- Eliminate duplicative efforts; and
- Increase efficiency.
It will also position them to communicate and quantify requests for the state based on their most pressing needs and gaps.
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Ways to do it
- Provide training (e.g., system assessment train-the-trainer workshops) and technical assistance for local collaborative bodies on mapping processes and resources.
- Fund local system assessments and mapping through grant programs.
- Stand up a statewide training and technical assistance (TA) center or establish a common TA provider to conduct system assessments, support strategic planning, and provide program evaluations throughout the state, ensuring consistency across jurisdictions.
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Things to consider
- In the Conducting a Comprehensive Process Analysis brief, the Stepping Up initiative recommends counties do the following:
- Map local criminal justice, behavioral health, and housing systems.
- Identify opportunities for policy and process improvement to bridge gaps, reduce duplication, and adjust policies to better meet the needs of people with behavioral health needs.
- Develop a list of existing programs and services and analyze details such as eligibility criteria, costs, waitlists, and whether programs are evidence based.
- Conduct a qualitative analysis (e.g., community surveys, focus groups, needs assessments) for a fuller picture of the scope of need and gaps.
- Review relevant statutes, standard operating procedures, and other state and local policies.
- Observe existing programs.
- A popular methodology and process is to conduct a mapping exercise using the SIM, with many communities hosting SIM workshops.
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