ACT, now one of the oldest public private initiatives of its kind, offers lessons on how to survive political transitions while making a difference in the lives of children and families in New York City communities. Now housed at the Administration for Children’s Services, we are particularly proud to be supportive players in the one billion dollar reconfiguration of New York City’s Child Welfare System (begun by former Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta and subsequently led by Commissioner William Bell, ACT’s public sector co-chair emeritus).
In addition, ACT provides direct assistance to one of the Administration for Children’s Services’ child welfare networks in Brownsville/East New York. Formerly, ACT also assisted ACS liaisons in Central Harlem, Staten Island, Southeast Queens and Bushwick. These networks are staffed by Network Liaisons whose responsibility is to improve the capacity of the ACS Neighborhood Network by providing programmatic and administrative assistance and coordinating special projects unique to its operations.
With this framework, ACT has been able to influence the creation of service delivery models that are family-focused and neighborhood-based, and has initiated a large-scale shift towards more widespread provision of preventive services. Through the vehicle of the ACT Collaboratives, and ACT Central’s relationship to ACS and other city agencies, ACT has been able to initiate and implement many integrated, collaborative approaches to problem-solving that involve public, private and voluntary agencies. |
