By Leslie Dunn, Deputy Director of Children & Families Division • Office of Court Services
Judicial officers have a unique perspective on the family and societal issues that children in our communities may face, often seeing them in their courtrooms long after some kind of damage is already done. But as local leaders, judges are also in a position to bring together child welfare stakeholders and community members to collaborate and identify the strengths, assets, resources, and needs of their local communities. That’s exactly what Upstream—a project framework developed by the National Center for State Courts—is designed to do: empower local communities to build effective cross-system collaboration.
The Upstream process facilitates open communication between participants, breaks down silos and barriers, builds upon existing partnerships and initiatives, and identifies new areas for improved outcomes for children and families. The Upstream framework is inspired by the Sequential Intercept Model and informed by the public health model of prevention, social determinants of health, and the risk and protective factors for child abuse and neglect.
With support from the State Justice Institute, and at the recommendation of the National Judicial Opioid Task Force—co-chaired by Chief Justice Loretta Rush—NCSC launched the Upstream framework in 2019. They selected Indiana to participate in developing an Upstream model for child welfare and invited our state to join the National Upstream Consortium, which is supported by the Conference of Chief Justices and Conference of State Court Administrators.
NCSC consultants came to Indianapolis in September 2021 to teach Office of Court Services staff how to facilitate an Upstream workshop in a local community. The vision of the workshop is for all families to have access to community-based, coordinated, and comprehensive prevention and intervention networks that result in safe, stable, and nurturing homes. The mission of Upstream is to support data-driven and evidence-based practices, facilitate and enhance communication, collaboration, and coordination among partners across systems and reduce the risk of child abuse and neglect, family disruption, and trauma.
LaPorte
After many discussions, meetings, and extensive state and local-level planning, the first Upstream mapping workshop was piloted in LaPorte County from March 15 to17 and facilitated by Court Services staff. The primary goals of the mapping process are:
- identify prevention services to avoid child welfare system involvement
- develop a comprehensive picture of how families encounter and flow through the child welfare system, including the local practices and programs at each stage
- identify resources and gaps in practices, protocols, and programs
- develop priorities designed by local stakeholders to improve system and service level responses
In preparation for the March workshop, LaPorte Circuit Court formed a planning committee to complete a community readiness assessment, identify workshop participants, and determine relevant local, state, and national data to share at the workshop. Judge Thomas Alevizos opened the workshop and encouraged participants to fully engage in thoughtful discussions about improving outcomes for families. Participants each shared their wishes for improvement.
After setting rules for engagement, the participants were provided with demographics and data on various aspects of the community such as poverty, housing, and child welfare cases. Participants also completed computer-based polls to gauge the level of collaboration and communication currently taking place between community agencies. Facilitators led the mapping discussion of the child welfare process from the first call to the child abuse hotline all the way to permanency for children.
Following this discussion, LaPorte County workshop participants identified key priorities for change and ranked the priorities, which were grouped into three main categories:
- Services and Service Improvements
- Collaboration, Education, and Training
- Data and Information Sharing
Some of the key priorities identified include improving recruitment and retention of family case managers, enhancing communication on child welfare related matters with the schools, providing cross-agency training, and increasing prevention and wrap-around services. Participants then divided into work groups to begin the process of making an action plan addressing the top priorities in each category. To carry the work forward, the participants agreed to reconvene a steering committee to further plan and implement changes.
Tippecanoe
Utilizing a similar process, a second Upstream pilot workshop was held in Tippecanoe County from May 11 to 13 under the leadership of Judge Faith Graham. Community members identified the lack of mental health providers and access to timely mental health services as a barrier for families. They also identified the need to streamline the pre-trial process in Child in Need of Services cases through case triage, pre-trial evidentiary stipulations, mediation and/or facilitation. To continue the communication and collaboration, Judge Graham formed a committee made up of diverse stakeholders to meet at least quarterly to work on implementation. Judge Graham recently reported that the new community-based committee had met and that some of the issues that they identified were easy fixes and have already been addressed.
For more information about Upstream, please contact Angela Reid-Brown at [email protected].