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Ohio Family and Children First Cabinet Council and County Family and Children First Councils have a unique function to monitor, evaluate, and communicate progress on Ohio’s commitments to child well-being. This Shared Accountability can only be achieved if the other three core functions are operational: engaging and empowering families, building community capacity, and coordinating systems and services. Shared accountability rests on all family and children first council members at both the state and local levels. A solidly funded infrastructure must exist for this work to be accomplished. This infrastructure is governed and supported by FCFC members. It has mechanisms in place to allow for creative and innovative solutions that will streamline and strengthen the local service delivery system for children and families. When all functions of FCFC are working in concert, the elements of collaboration can be found: common mission and goals, interrelated roles that constitute a division of labor, comprehensive planning, multiple channels of communication, dispersed leadership, shared risk, and shared results (Payne, Devol, and Smith; Bridges Out of Poverty; 2001).
An effective practice model has been developed for Shared Accountability.
The OFCF Cabinet Council is mandated to include the following individuals: the superintendent of public instruction; and the directors of aging, alcohol and drug addiction services, developmental disabilities, health, job and family services, mental health, rehabilitation and correction, rehabilitation services commission, youth services, budget and management, and a representative from the Governor's Office. The Governor or his designee serves as Chairperson of the OFCF Cabinet Council.
The OFCF Deputy Directors of the above agencies operationalize the work of the OFCF Cabinet Council. The below resources include the guidelines for the Cabinet to accomplish its work, the 2010 Transition Manual that provides a comprehensive review of the OFCF Cabinet Council and the county FCFCs, an assessment conducted by the Forum for Youth Investment with recommendations for future administrations, and the National Center for Juvenile Justice's Ohio Courts Bulletin highlighting the work of the OFCF Cabinet Council and the county FCFCs.
Effective 2016, the H.B. 289 planning process, the Shared Plan Model, has been updated and revised to include components of the Collective Impact Model. This updated version of the Shared Plan Model places greater emphasis on identifying and developing community-level, mutually reinforcing activities around identified shared priorities and shared outcomes. The revised model includes researching community data-informed plans, but also provides the flexibility to identify other shared priorities by other means such as data collection or a community needs assessment process. The FCFCs may need to do some additional research to support their shared priorities and/or fill any programming gaps, but will not be required to create or develop new FCFC-based strategies. This revised model was developed by OFCF with several county FCFC Coordinators/Directors providing feedback to help refine the model.
Below are materials to assist in the shared planning process: