An evaluation of child welfare design teams in four states

Empowerment-oriented design teams were structured in four states to promote collaborative practices among professionals and former clients. These teams were structured to serve as both learning and training systems, and they identified competencies for collaborative practices. Because these design teams represent a new learning and improvement system for child welfare and related service systems, and because these systems need more effective approaches to learning, training, and improvement, outcomes-oriented evaluations are imperative. The outcomes evaluation reported here relied on two evaluation strategies. First, 48 design team members completed follow-up surveys; these surveys explored individuals' perceptions of their design team involvement. Second, 22 design team members were interviewed directly; they were asked questions about the benefits and accomplishments resulting from their design team experience. These data from both evaluation strategies indicate that design teams promoted family-centered practice and interprofessional collaboration; enhanced service delivery and an understanding of co-occurring needs; and fostered personal growth and self-awareness among participants. These commonalties and similarities were surprising and interesting because design teams in the four states proceeded differently. These findings are discussed in relation to emergent theory on collaborative learning processes and products.