Doubletree International Plaza Hotel

THEME: “What Works! Successful Tales of Integrating Services for Children and Youth”

BACKGROUND: This year, the Sparrow Lake Alliance is trying to assess the progress we have made in improving the integration of services for the children and youth of Ontario.

The daylong Symposium was an opportunity to hear about four success stories from across the province, where communities have made some progress in their efforts, and to identify some of the common themes and success factors shared by these projects.

	Common Elements of Success
	Agency Roles and Approaches to Successful Service Integration
	What can Government / Funders do to Support Service Integration?
	What Are the Benefits of Doing Things Differently?
	What is the Role of Funding in Service Integration?

This year’s Annual General Meeting (May 4-5, 2007) will build on these findings as we take a closer look at the challenges of service integration and system change and the impact of policy reforms in Child Welfare, Youth Justice, and Children and Youth Mental Health – positive and negative.

Metro Hall, Toronto

THEME: Board Governance: Accountability and System Wide Outcomes for Children
and Youth

BACKGROUND: Across Ontario, community-based organizations are increasingly being challenged to improve service integration and take a more collective responsibility for the outcomes of local children, youth and families. Certainly, creating a “system” of more integrated services, built on the
cooperation and goodwill of independent, self-governed agencies, has been,
and continues to be, a significant challenge.

A critical, but largely overlooked, aspect of this effort has been the role and responsibilities of individual agency Boards. How can the practice of Board Governance enhance efforts to make a more integrated and effective service system for children, youth and families in Ontario? More specifically,

	What practices and approaches assist or prevent Boards from understanding how their agency supports – or thwarts – efforts to improve service system effectiveness?
	What approaches, models, or processes could be developed to ensure individual agency Boards assume some broader accountability for system wide outcomes?
	What specific steps could agencies, funders and governments take to encourage and support a shift in the practice of Board governance?

Metro Hall, Toronto

THEME: Service Integration - Vision or Illusion?

BACKGROUND: Since the publication of Children First in 1990, services for children, youth and families in Ontario have witnessed initiatives designed to increase the integration of service delivery. Despite the attention and cyclic expenditure of time and resources, the current situation is still “siloed” to a disturbing extent.

The aims of this session were to determine how can we understand our failure to move ahead on initiatives which stakeholders have consistently agreed represent important, positive objectives? Have other jurisdictions achieved a greater degree of integration? If so, what models have they used (e.g., school as “hub”)? Given what we now know is integration an achievable or still desirable goal? Would our energy be better spent on other goals?

Download Event Materials
(in Adobe pdf format)
Integration Agenda
Integration Participants List
Integration Planning Slides
Integration Presentation 1
Integration Presentation 2
Integration Policy Recommendations

Metro Hall, Toronto

THEME: Crossover Kids

BACKGROUND: The SLA held a one-day symposium to discuss youth who have problems cutting across school, mental health, substance abuse, child welfare, and youth justice service systems – youth who have been termed “crossover kids” by the youth justice system.

The aim of the workshop was to understand more clearly who these youth are, what their needs are, to try to identify how they are “falling through the cracks”, and to develop specific strategies to deliver services and improve outcomes.

In addition to presentations, the second half of the day centered on the concrete objective of developing a joint set of recommendations that can be brought forward to government in an upcoming SLA consultation meeting early this winter.

Download Event Materials
(in Adobe pdf format)
Crossover Kids Agenda
Crossover Kids Participants List
Crossover Kids Planning Slides
Crossover Kids Presentation 1
Crossover Kids Presentation 2
Crossover Kids Policy Recommendations