Inter-Agency Collaboration in Baltimore’s Comprehensive Communities Program: A Case Study
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Inter-Agency Collaboration in Baltimore’s Comprehensive Communities Program: A Case Study
Introduction
Inter-agency collaboration entails the process of different agencies joining their taskforces to work together interdependently to solve a certain problem. Inter-agency collaboration creates positive aspects and these aspects are clear from Baltimore’s Comprehensive Communities Program. Organizations have a responsibility to ensure they maximize the benefits while reducing the challenges. It is important to widen the scope of collaboration to reach out to more people and impact society effectively. Inter-agency collaboration provides a holistic approach to the problems affecting society. Organizations can offer a comprehensive approach that will solve problems efficiently unlike when companies are dealing with problems in isolation. The partner agency that I find less effective in the initiative is the Community Building Partnership in Stark County. The purpose of the essay is to examine the inter-agency collaboration in Baltimore’s comprehensive communities program.
Benefits of Inter-agency Collaboration
Inter-agency collaboration entails the process of different agencies joining their taskforces to work together interdependently to solve a certain problem. Inter-agency collaboration creates positive aspects and these aspects are clear from Baltimore’s Comprehensive Communities Program. One of the positive aspects of inter-agency collaboration is that it brings different multiple services together (Roth et al., 2004). The benefit is effective since different agencies bring their competencies and experience in dealing with the problem affecting society. Baltimore’s comprehensive communities program requires integration of different agencies to address issues holistically.
Multiple services working together create effectiveness in the process of problem-solving. When agencies are working together they can combine their capacities and strengths. Companies need to generate better results from their best practices (Lovell & Dissell, 2021). For instance, employees can provide suggestions on how to offer the best solutions to the issues affecting a company or society.
Another positive aspect of inter-agency collaboration is that it reduces duplication of the services the agencies offer and, in the process facilitating the agencies use the public resources effectively (Lovell & Dissell, 2021). Organizations working in a state should reduce duplication of services since it leads to a waste of resources. Duplication undermines the concept of working together to generate quality outcomes (Lovell & Dissell, 2021). For instance, providing healthcare services in a state without collaborating with federal or state agencies such as CDC is less impactful. Collaboration reduces duplication of roles and effectively utilizes the public resources.
Inter-agency collaboration provides a holistic approach to the problems affecting society. A holistic approach that is effective will lead to better results and a futuristic problem-solving approach (Strnadova et al., 2017). For instance, agencies can collaborate to deal with the problems affecting society by providing data and evidence-based practices that will lead to better outcomes (Strnadova et al., 2017). Organizations can offer a comprehensive approach that will solve problems efficiently unlike when companies are dealing with problems in isolation.
The partner agency that I find less effective in the initiative is the Community Building Partnership in Stark County. The Community Building Partnership agency commits to restoring health and prosperity. The reason why I find the Community Building Partnership less effective in the initiative is because it mainly focuses on the welfare of Stark County (Roth et al., 2004). Community Building Partnership can be more effective if it focuses equally on the neighboring counties as it does in Stark County. Another reason why I consider the Community Building Partnership agency less effective is that there are other federal agencies addressing health welfare largely such as the CDC organization (Roth et al., 2004).
Community Building Partnership should identify the challenges and address them effectively to ensure the company is offering the best services to the public. For instance, it is important to spread out the collaboration to other counties and states to ensure wider coverage (Strnadova et al., 2017). The collaboration should comprise other agencies offering quality services to the public. Another approach is to embrace regular monitoring and evaluation to determine if the company is meeting the objective of collaborating with other organizations effectively (Strnadova et al., 2017). The approaches are effective in ensuring the organization is promoting better collaboration and reducing the risk of duplication of duties.
The criminal justice entity that I feel could have played a significant role in the success of the initiative is the correctional entity. The correctional entity is the most crucial in the three criminal justice systems since it handles offenders (Roth et al., 2004). The correctional entity can play a significant role in the initiative by providing a strategy that will reunite an offender with society at large. The correctional entity can achieve this strategy of reuniting the offender with the society through offering mass education to the society on how to treat the offender (Roth et al., 2004).
A non-criminal justice entity that I believe could have made a significant impact on the initiative is the mass media. The mass media plays a significant role when it comes to communication and it is impactful to society (Wright & Unah, 2017). The initiative can use the mass media channels in creating awareness concerning the objectives of the initiatives and the role of society in the initiative. Therefore, both the mass media and correctional entities can increase the effectiveness of the initiative (Wright & Unah, 2017). The two agencies should collaborate to provide quality information to the public to ensure an understanding of their collaborative relationship.
Conclusion
Inter-agency collaboration is effective in delivering the best services to the community through the quality utilization of resources. A study on Baltimore’s Comprehensive Communities Program shows the benefits and challenges of inter-agency collaboration. Agencies collaborate to solve problems by ensuring effective problem-solving approaches. The collaborative effort minimizes duplication of roles and effective utilization of the public resources leading to better outcomes. Providing the best solutions in the community requires a holistic approach. Collaboration improves the chances of generating comprehensive approaches to address recurrent problems in society. Community Building Partnership should improve the quality of the results by assessing their performance to address their recurrent problems. The future of providing lasting solutions in society is to embrace a collaborative effort across agencies.
References
Lovell, R. E., & Dissell, R. (2021). Dissemination and Impact Amplified: How a Researcher–Reporter Collaboration Helped Improve the Criminal Justice Response to Victims With Untested Sexual Assault Kits. Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, 37(2), 257-275.
Roth, J. A., Kelling, G. L., BOTEC Analysis Corporation, & United States of America. (2004). Baltimore’s Comprehensive Communities Program: A Case Study. Report prepared for National Institute of Justice. NCJRS document, 204627.
Strnadova, I., Cumming, T. M., & O’Neill, S. C. (2017). Young people transitioning from juvenile justice to the community: Transition planning and interagency collaboration. Current Issues in Criminal Justice, 29(1), 19-38.
Wright, V., & Unah, I. (2017). Media exposure and racialized perceptions of inequities in criminal justice. Social Sciences, 6(3), 67.
