The Training Process of the Maryland Guardianship Assistance Project: A Collaborative Model for Kinship Foster Care.

Understanding models of multidisciplinary collaborations in child welfare has become essential for policy development, program success, and improving outcomes for children in foster care. The authors present the state of Maryland's Guardianship Assistance Project (GAP) as a model of multidisciplinary collaboration in child welfare and describe the training process that supported the development of the model. Key components for effective collaborative practice, lessons learned, and recommendations from the GAP collaboration are presented. Recent national efforts to address the growing numbers of children in out-of-home care have encouraged collaborative approaches to solving problems in child welfare. A particular focus has been placed on expanding permanency options that consider both reasonable timeframes and preserving family ties whenever possible (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services [DHHS], 2000). To improve permanency outcomes, new government funding initiatives have mandated collaborations, including those among states, child welfare agencies, community-based programs, and schools of social work (Mizrahi & Rosenthal, 2001; Rivera, 2002; Zlotnik, 2001). Government initiatives have also required testing the efficacy of new programs through short-term evaluations before funding practices on a longer-term basis or translating findings into policy (DHHS, 2000). However, because these evaluations usually involve research designs and language that are not ordinarily used within child welfare contexts, it has become essential to create training methods for this purpose. Understanding how to develop such processes for collaborations between human service organizations and research institutions is important for policy formulation, program success, and ultimately, improving outcomes for children in foster care. The purpose of this paper is to: 1) describe the training process of a federally funded multidiscip Unary model (the Maryland Guardianship Assistance Project), 2) summarize the lessons learned and recommendations from the collaboration, and 3) briefly discuss outcomes of the training process. Multidisciplinary Collaborations Collaboration primarily describes a process of bringing together two or more individuals (usually professionals) or organizations to coordinate efforts toward achieving a common goal (Nicholson, Artz, Armitage, & Pagan, 2000). While no two are identical, all collaborations involve partnerships that are ultimately concerned with outcomes, but rely heavily on the subtle processes of relationship building. Two basic types of collaborations are multidisciplinary and interorganizational (Rivera, 2002). A multidisciplinary collaboration involves two or more professionals from different disciplines (Nicholson et al., 2000; Rivera, 2002). An interorganizational collaboration involves different agencies or institutions that partner to accomplish a common goal (Rivera, 2002). Many multidisciplinary collaborative practices, therefore, may be interorganizational in nature as well. The most fundamental concept of a collaboration whether it is multidisciplinary or interorganizational, is that no one partner or agency has a complete understanding of the issues or can fully address the problems alone (Nicholson et al., 2000). For the purpose of this paper, multidisciplinary is being used because it not only emphasizes the process of cooperation, but the term also highlights making use of different disciplinary expertise, values, and experiences at one time. Components of Multidisciplinary Collaborations Although appropriate methods for collaborative practice depend on the context and goals of the work (Nicholson et al., 2000), major components of the process that should be considered include: leadership, communication, cooperation, and shared vision. Competent leadership has been recognized as a key element of collaboration success (Abramson, 1990; Mizrahi & Rosenthal, 2001; Sanfort, 2000). …