In times of shrinking resources within the social services, collaboration is being promoted as a more efficient way of meeting the needs of children and families. A study of a children's initiative collaborative developed to address the problems of children is reported. The authors present and use an evaluation framework which incorporated the dimensions of context, process, and outcomes of collaboration. The findings, based on the initial two years of collaborative effort, suggested the membership of the group and the process and structure governing the group's operations impacted the process and outcomes of the collaboration.

This article describes an innovative statewide collaboration between schools of social work and public mental health departments to transform social work curriculum and address the workforce crisis in public mental health service systems. The collaborative partnership has fostered the development of a Mental Health Initiative that has developed a set of mental health competencies offered in each of the participating master's in social work (MSW) programs in California. These competencies identify critical skills and knowledge necessary to support recovery, resiliency, evidence-based practice, and psychosocial rehabilitation principles. A statewide stipend program to support final-year MSW students in their graduate study and a requirement for a year of employment payback in the public mental health system is also presented, as well as a brief discussion of the organizational and structural principles supporting the collaborative organization. Current successes, future challenges, and strategies for the partnership collaborative in their task of developing a workforce are addressed.

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