Modeling Collaboration and Social Services Integration:

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Abstract
The building of social service collaboratives and systems of integrated services have become a primary administrative policy objective of state social service executives, child and family advocates, welfare policy experts, foundation leaders, and many state legislators. The author examines two models of collaboration building-a developmental model and a reiterative or interactive factor model. Presented is a case study of one state's efforts to build a collaborative social service system in a number of local sites. This state's experiences are examined in light of the two contrasting models. The author concludes with a discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of these models, their potential uses as management tools for reforming systems, and a call for development of a more practice-based model of service integration.