Family First/Kansas Strong Interagency and Community Advisory Board Team Charter

Purpose

The Interagency and Community Advisory Board (ICAB) has two overarching purposes.

First, the ICAB provides an accountability structure for ensuring the implementation of the Kansas Family First Prevention Services (Family First) and support for Kansas Strong for Children and Families (Kansas Strong). As such, this Board makes recommendations for early and midcourse corrections that will increase the likelihood of consistent, high-fidelity implementation of these initiatives.

Second, the ICAB reviews and interprets data to inform recommendations and action to ensure a robust, statewide service array, spanning the spectrum of prevention, child protection, and permanency, in alignment with the goals of Family First and the Kansas Strong initiatives.

Assumptions

The primary assumption underlying the ICAB is that leadership across systems is required to implement and sustain successful prevention, protection, and permanency services and improve the service array. This assumption is based on a belief that the individuals with authority to address successful implementation and effective service array are leaders internal to and external to the child welfare system. Families need services and supports that are under the authority of different agencies, including those responsible for court/legal systems, mental health services, substance abuse treatment, health services (including Medicaid), housing, workforce development, child support, juvenile justice, etc. A secondary assumption is that increasing leaders’ knowledge of these two key domains (Family First/Kansas Strong implementation and our local communities’ service needs/gaps) and engaging leaders in data driven, continuous quality improvement (CQI) processes can result in action plans that can be implemented to address implementation challenges and service needs and gaps.

In sum, the ICAB pathway of change may be stated as:

Ensure successful Family First and Kansas Strong implementation and improve the service array by establishing a cross-system interagency and community advisory board of leaders, so that:

  • Cross-system knowledge of Family First and Kansas Strong implementation and service needs/gaps is improved,
  • Leaders hold shared ownership and accountability for outcomes, and
  • Data-driven CQI and action planning can address implementation barriers and systemwide service needs and service gaps.

Core Elements of ICAB

  • Membership includes cross-system leaders and managers
  • Members commit to collaborative processes
  • ICAB uses data and continuous quality improvement processes 
  • ICAB builds knowledge of Family First and Kansas Strong implementation and communities’ needs and service gaps (both statewide and local)
  • ICAB creates action plans to address implementation barriers and communities’ service gaps

Structure

The ICAB is comprised of both statewide and regional groups that meet three (Regional) or four (Statewide) times each year. Figure 1 details the structural support and feedback loops between the statewide and regional groups and the Kansas Department of Children and Families and the Family First and Kansas Strong teams. The Statewide ICAB is led by two co-chairs from the KU Evaluation team, with support from DCF. Regional ICABs are led by two co-chairs who represent DCF and community-based services in the region.

Kansas Department of Children and Families has dotted line to the FFPSA Evaluators University of Kansas and KS Strong Implementation Evaluation Team University of Kansas and a solid line to the statewide Interagency and Community Advisory Board and regional boards: Northwest, Southwest, Wichita, Kansas City, Northeast and Southeast Regions. The FFPSA Evaluators and KS Strong Implementation Evaluation Team also has a solid like to the Interagency and Community Advisory Board Statewide and Regional Boards.

Scope and Objectives

General Objectives (apply to both Statewide and Regional ICAB)

  • Support and provide leadership for action plans that will be developed to strengthen grantee capacity for Family First services and Kansas Strong strategies
  • Develop administrative policies and procedures to ensure consistent implementation of Family First services and Kansas Strong strategies
  • Support and provide leadership for Family First services and Kansas Strong strategies throughout each organization represented by the ICAB
  • Develop communication feedback loops between the statewide ICAB and the Regional ICABs to ensure timely and efficient communication of feedback to inform successful implementation of Family First services and service array change strategies
  • Install and sustain Improvement Cycles – planning, studying the impact of the plan, planning again
  • Disseminate information about Family First services, Kansas Strong strategies, and service array change efforts
  • Engage other key stakeholders to seek input, communicate information, and execute strategies to support the goals of the ICAB

Statewide ICAB Objectives:

  • Develop communication feedback loops with the Regional ICABs to ensure:
    • Regional ICABs have needed information to ensure successful implementation of Family First services and Kansas Strong strategies
    • Regional ICABs have a mechanism for informing the statewide ICAB of critical feedback to guide decision-making on the implementation and evaluation of Family First services, Kansas Strong strategies, and service array changes
  • Use data and feedback from the Regional ICABs to make early or midcourse corrections

Regional ICAB Objectives:

  • Provide region-specific data and feedback to Statewide ICAB regarding regional Family First service implementation and service array needs
  • Develop region-specific priorities for regional ICAB efforts to impact local/regional service array change
  • Communicate regional priorities and efforts to Statewide ICAB and collaborate with statewide representatives to support service array change
  • Engage local/regional organization leaders in disseminating information about Family First services, Kansas Strong strategies, and service array change efforts

Boundaries and Limitations

Authority and Accountability

Both Statewide ICAB and Regional ICABs will be accountable to themselves as well as to KS DCF, and Family First and Kansas Strong teams at the University of Kansas, and other system partners.

Reporting

The Statewide ICAB provides leadership for synthesizing statewide learnings to inform development of strategies to meet the goals of supporting implementation and service array enhancement. The regional co-chairs will provide a communication channel between the Statewide and Regional ICABs, attending the Statewide ICAB as necessary to report on regional efforts. The Statewide ICAB will provide information to Regional ICABs for their input and seek feedback to Regional ICABs regularly. Regional ICAB leadership will provide timely feedback from their region to the Statewide ICAB as requested either in written or verbal format.

Meetings

Statewide ICABs meet quarterly. Regional ICABs will meet three times each year. Timing of Statewide and Regional meetings will be staggered to support between-group communication, information sharing, and joint initiatives. Statewide ICABs will meet in person. Regional ICABs will meet remotely and will meet in person at least one time per year, supported by the University of Kansas.

Membership

The Statewide ICAB shall include representatives who are in advanced and/or executive leadership positions within the agency or organization. Membership should be broad based so as to represent a cross-section of interests related to the prevention, mitigation of child maltreatment, and permanency, including delivery and oversight of services that support children and families. ICABs will represent the gender, racial, ethnic, county populations, and geographic diversity of Kansas. Foremost, the Statewide ICAB should comprise members with sufficient authority and decision-making power to enact needed policy and procedure changes.

Regional ICABs shall include representatives of key stakeholder groups as determined by each region to represent their local constituents and community leaders in the region. The regional ICAB should comprise members with local/regional authority to enact policy changes within their organization and members who can provide critical feedback on the delivery of Family First and Kansas Strong services and the local/regional service array.

Responsibilities of Members

Members agree to:

  • Use data to provide review, input, and guidance for Family First and Kansas Strong implementation and service array change efforts.
  • Provide input to guide and inform implementation team decisions that may help support and facilitate successful implementation.
  • As a part of a continuous program improvement cycle, the Statewide and Regional ICABs will work collaboratively to address implementation challenges and to make key implementation recommendations. Assist in the development of a communication plan to receive regular feedback from and disseminate decisions and system refinements to local jurisdictions, systems, and providers.
    • The local implementation teams (LITs) will develop recommendations on how to effectively communicate and market new initiatives and system improvements to local stakeholders.
    • Regional ICAB members will help to ensure communication of new initiatives and system improvements across service sectors in the region.
    • Statewide ICAB members also play a key role in ongoing communication activities and serve as “champions” of these initiatives. They will facilitate bi-directional communication and play a critical role in bringing information back to policymakers, administrators, and other stakeholders.
  • Give input on strategies that support successful implementation of Family First services and Kansas Strong strategies, and service array change efforts.

Decision Making Process

The Statewide and Regional ICABs use consensus decision making. In the absence of consensus or in time sensitive matters, the ICAB uses majority vote.

Important Links

Go Back to ICAB Homepage