ACS
NEIGHBORHOOD NETWORKS AND SUPPORTS
The New York City Administration for Children’s Services
(ACS) believes that children and families are best served
through a neighborhood based service system that seeks to
provide every child and family with culturally, linguistically,
and need-driven services within their community. Toward this
goal, ACS works to coordinate its services and activities
at a community level through Neighborhood Networks that aim
to provide comprehensive preventive, protective, and treatment
services to children and families in their communities.
These Networks are the primary vehicles to assess and plan
for local child welfare needs in New York City and serve as
the conduits to share resources, ideas, information, and referrals.
In practice, these Networks function by engaging in joint
planning, coordination, training and advocacy activities.
Networks are first formed with a core membership of child
welfare agencies and continue to expand to include community
based organizations and other local service providers, parents,
youth, and other stakeholders. This strategy is inclusive
and is based on the best practice principle-- the more connected
child welfare agencies are to the community, the more likely
a family can access relevant services and ultimately avoid
out-of-home care. It has been determined that approximately
60% of children entering foster care come from 18 community
districts in New York City. Providing targeted supports for
the Networks in these communities is critical. The Annie E.
Casey Foundation’s support to the Administration for
Children’s Services Neighborhood Networks has allowed
for the provision of four Network Liaison staff whose efforts
are specifically targeted to the communities with the highest
need. Through the Network Liaison Initiative the abilities
of each of the four Networks to create a coordinated service
delivery system at the local level has been strengthened and
technical assistance for the development of these networks
has been intensified.
The ACS Neighborhood Networks funded through
this project have demonstrated a commitment to addressing
the needs of children and families and have provided evidence
of a plan of action to meet the goals and objectives of an
ACS neighborhood based service delivery system. They have
also shown progress in addressing the Ten Components outlined
in the ACS Network Strategy document published in Fall 2001.
Each of the Ten Components acknowledges the developmental
cycle of a network and addresses the set of action steps required
for a well-functioning network.
SELECTION
PROCESS
The Network Liaison Project was designed to be implemented
in two, three-year phases. This grant supports year 1 of Phase
I (which covers the six month period of July 1, 2002-December
31, 2002 with a grant extension to March 31, 2003 and a reporting
extension to April 30, 2003) and provides compensation for
four Network Liaisons. Through the approved extension for
the grant, Phase I began in August 2002 with the distribution
of the Neighborhood Network Liaison Funding Announcement and
Application for Consideration to all Neighborhood Networks.
Twelve networks submitted applications, and in September 2002
four were initially selected by the ACS Commissioner’s
Advisory Board Subcommittee on Neighborhood Based Services,
Network leadership, and the Agenda for Children Tomorrow (ACT).
A fifth was selected with support from the Ira W. De Camp
foundation. The criteria used to guide the selection of the
neighborhood networks to participate in this initiative are
described in the box below.
THE
NETWORK LIAISONS AND SELECTED
NETWORKS
The Network Liaisons’ role is to improve the capacity
of Neighborhood Networks by providing administrative and programmatic
assistance to communities. Liaisons have been responsible
for the general administrative operations of their Networks,
which includes coordinating meetings, organizing agendas,
following up on suggested network initiatives, and coordinating
special projects unique to the network and its operations.
Additionally, Liaisons collaborate with representatives from
various community agencies.
Liaisons do not substitute for the Network co-chairs who
maintain leadership roles within the Network; rather, Liaisons
facilitate the development of relationships among community
stakeholders by maintaining routine communications with local
leadership and ensuring that networks maintain a common purpose
and are on track in meeting their goals and objectives.
The role the Network Liaison is also distinct from the ACS
Network Planners, whose responsibilities include ensuring
that the Neighborhood Networks reflect the ACS vision of neighborhood
based services, ensuring that communication between ACS and
the Networks is maintained, and reporting the overall progress
of the Networks to ACS.
Criteria
used to guide the selection of ACS Neighborhood Networks to
participate in the Network Liaison Initiative
