Public Child Welfare and a Multi-Agency Collaborative: Lessons Learned From the DREAMR Project

A five-year federal demonstration project funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Children’s Bureau, guided by an implementation science model, sought to increase well-being in youths age 12–21 who had involvement with the child welfare system. By increasing the youths’ relational competency skills, the project targeted the reduction of multiple risk factors, including teen pregnancy, depression, anxiety, stress, and other indicators of adverse psychosocial well-being. The project, led by the local child welfare authority, was implemented by a multi-organization collaborative comprising several private nonprofit child- and family-serving agencies, public health, legal entities, private sector (i.e., technology software company), and university researchers. Various barriers to successful program implementation were experienced while at the same time the project witnessed key markers of implementation success. Reported here are some of the strategies used to overcome barriers to implementation success. Also described are the results of an implementation evaluation in which collaborative members assessed the project on its overall effectiveness in meeting indicators of success that were decided a priori and included youth involvement, adherence to program goals, involvement of all partners, accountability, communication, and stakeholder satisfaction. Implications and strategies for promoting interagency collaboration in the context of child welfare are offered