Building a New Model for Child Well-Being in Washington D.C.: OPT-In Initiative

Project Context: 

• Washington D.C. Child and Family Services Agency (CFSA) is committed to connecting families to needed resources without unnecessary child welfare involvement whenever possible. 
• CFSA relaunched a city-wide 211 Warmline to provide residents with centralized access to resources and referrals and ensure they were reaching families at higher risk of child welfare involvement. 
• The GPL is working with the Doris Duke Foundation on their Opportunities for Prevention & Transformation Initiative (OPT-In for Families), which focuses on identifying families that may be at higher risk of child protection interactions and then connecting them to voluntary, community-based supports. Washington D.C. is one of the demonstration sites. 

 How the GPL Supported: 

• Helped CFSA design the 211 Warmline process and protocols for outreach, engagement, and follow-up with families based on feedback from lived experts, front-line staff, and agency leadership. 
• Developed training materials for the front-line staff on outreach, engagement and warm hand-off practices for effectively serving families referred to the pathway.
• Helped design data collection systems and dashboards to identify key program success metrics. 
• Set up performance management structures including ways to collect feedback from front-line staff and providers to identify improvement areas, challenges, and inform practice adjustments.