ABSTRACT
Linking schools and social services has become a nationwide and, as the authors of these chapters show, an international movement. There are a variety of definitions of what constitutes linking schools and social services. Almost all of the definitions include the following:
• families and children ought to be able to access all necessary services at a center located at a local school or some other facility in their neighborhood;
• a wide variety of services should be available such as health, mental health, recreation, job development, child development and care, education, and housing;
• the service providers should work collaboratively to meet all of the needs of children and families in a holistic way;
• the services should stress community development and family support that prevents problems rather than being crisis-driven;
• planning to meet the needs of the community should empower both families and the line workers who provide direct services;
• organizations that provide community and family services will have to develop new ways of working together;
• more flexibility must be created in how categorical funding can be used; or, ideally, new blended funding streams should be created to support collaborative services on an ongoing basis;
• professionals who work in community and family services will need training to develop new skills, and the preparation of professionals also needs to be changed; and
• to achieve these goals systemwide changes will be necessary. The statistics and political processes that have propelled these issues toward center stage in the policy arena are well documented in this volume. In an attempt to provide a framework for this discussion, organizational, economic, and political issues will be outlined. This will be followed by a discussion of two important themes which are raised by many of the authors-the necessity of explicitly defining the ethos that supports linking schools and social services, and the central role of interpersonal ties in the collaboration process.
