COLLABORATIVE MANAGEMENT MULTI-AGENCY SERVICES

I am the prime sponsor of this bill, which comes from the Economic Opportunity & Poverty Reduction (EOPR) Task Force. It is being sponsored by Rep. Gagliardi in the House. The bill allows and encourages multi-agency collaborative groups created by county departments of human services for the purpose of supporting youth and their families to include early childhood councils and community colleges – for a P-20 focus – as well as family resource centers and workforce centers. 

The bill was proposed by the Education Subcommittee of the EOPR Task Force with the idea that children and families in poverty need extra support and intervention, and this would be especially effective through collaborative efforts of various agencies.  The multi-agency collaboratives created in law several years ago seemed the perfect groups to provide this support, but they need to be broadened to include support from early childhood through adulthood.  Youth coming out of the child welfare system in particular need support beyond age 18 to ensure that they have postsecondary or workforce preparation.

The bill was amended on 2nd Reading in the Senate to remove all the agencies being added in the bill except the family resource centers.  This amendment was put on by Senator Boyd in response to concerns raised in the Senate Health and Human Services Committee by the organization representing counties.  The counties believe that the multi-agency collaboratives need to stay focused on dealing with abused and neglected children - i.e., child welfare issues - and that the addition of agencies for which this is not the main mission would dilute the process.  I reluctantly agreed to accept this amendment.

The bill was signed into law in its amended form on April 21, 2010.