ABSTRACT
Throughout North America there is a groundswell of interest in holistic approaches to overcoming structural barriers to the integration of services for children. It is generally agreed that these barriers have been created by the interactions of the myriad of agencies that comprise the interdependent complex of federal, state/provincial, and local levels of government. The resulting fragmentation across services is seen as contributing to the precarious conditions of the growing number of children living in poverty, who come from single-parent families and from minority or limited-English-proficient backgrounds (Gardner 1989; Kirst et al. 1990). It is increasingly recognized that many of the problems of the poor, ‘and of high-poverty neighborhoods as a whole, are interrelated and difficult to separate’ (Edelman and Radin 1991:10). A synthesis of lessons from past efforts suggests that although such problems cannot be solved without money, money alone will not solve the problems. There is growing agreement that ‘measures to make services more comprehensive, and better coordinated’ are fundamental components of the structural agenda for the new community (Edelman and Radin 1991:9). The calls for interagency collaboration and coordination that flow from this agenda stem from the realization that each agency deals with the ‘same person, the same client’ (Hodgkinson 1989:25).
