Centers and Clinics

Working Paper: Multidisciplinary Collaboration


Center on Children and Families

I. Activities
II. Faculty
III. Scholarship
IV. Links
V. Conference/ Events
VI. Advisory Board
VII. Working Paper
VII. Contact

Conference Information

The University of Florida Fredric C. Levin College of Law Center for Children and Families and First Star co-sponsored the conference “Bridges to Excellence: Building and Sustaining Multidisciplinary Collaboratives for Children” March 31-April 1, 2006. Designed as a small, working conference to maximize interaction and information sharing, the core group of participants consisted of representatives from leading law school-based centers on children. Approximately 25 centers participated.

The sessions were geared around successes in multidisciplinary collaboration; challenges and barriers to collaboration; and envisioning the future.

This working paper is meant to disseminate the information generated by the conference to other centers and to other teachers of family law, as well as colleagues in other disciplines, for further discussion and collaboration.

Keynote Address: Social Science Collaboration with Lawyers: Dr. James Garbarino

Dr. James Garbarino in his keynote address urged us to think from an ecological perspective that recognizes the complexity of the interacting systems that come into play with each child, and also recognizes the difficulty of universal solutions. The multiple systems and layers of systems call for complex solutions, and the lack of universality means that solutions change over time and also child to child.

A second theme of his address was to recognize all the elements of toxicity that are present in children’s environments, social as well as physical, and that children vary in their resiliency and ability to resist those toxic factors.

All of this presents difficulties for lawyers whose training leads in very different directions. The challenge, then, is to learn and incorporate the knowledge of the social sciences in holistic solutions that nevertheless are likely to continue to evolve.

Garbarino Talk Notes [31kb PDF]

Centers and Programs: Diverse Models

The centers and programs represented at the conference, as well as those invited but unable to attend, represent a broad range of models. They include established programs as well as those just beginning to operate; clinically oriented programs; policy oriented programs; university based centers, and others.

Workshop Participants and Contact Information [54kb PDF]

Multidisciplinary Success Stories

Participants in the conference were asked to identify areas of successful multidisciplinary practice. Detailed comments from participants at the link below. The following were some common themes in the papers submitted and the discussion at the conference.

Common themes:

  • Multidisciplinary centers are incubators for new ideas that can be presented to community as productive and practical
  • Participation and sponsorship of conferences/symposia that involve outside disciplines
  • Transparency in education that involves the community in problem-solving
  • Guidance by an advisory council comprised of “experts” from other disciplines
  • Creation of or participation in state legislative roundtables
  • Multidisciplinary work captures idealism of students (combine the academic with activism)
  • Offer incentives to other disciplines to collaborate
  • Redefines child advocacy
    Outreach via pro bono work

Detailed Participants Comments [97kb PDF]

Challenges of Multidisciplinary Collaboration

Participants were also asked to identify challenges of multidisciplinary work. Their detailed comments are available at the link below. The following were common themes and barriers that emerged from the papers and discussion:

Common themes:

  • Need for funding
  • Finding community partners and encouraging buy-in
  • Reaching more children
  • Need for humility
  • Building trust
  • Finding a common language
  • Placing students in real-world situations where academic/classroom ideals don’t apply
  • Multidisciplinary research is less accepted by “pure” sciences
  • Pressure to publish in only the most respected journals
  • Confronting attitudinal dichotomy (preference to represent “good kids” vs. “bad kids”)
  • Need for a holistic approach (child’s rights include access to healthcare, mental health, education, etc.)
  • Dependency and delinquency require equal resource-allocation

Barriers identified:

  • Institutional barriers, the lack of incentives to do this work in the academic structure
  • Need to involve senior-level faculty/administrators
  • View of social scientists that lawyers only select research to suit their immediate needs; pure sciences not invited to the table or viewed as a resource for future studies/analysis
  • Disillusionment/disappointment of other disciplines with the legal system
  • Culture of due process/adversarial nature of the law
  • Need for more time – collaboratives need to meet regularly and practice efficiency
  • “Message, money and management”
  • Perpetuation of professional stereotypes

Detailed Participants Comments [97kb PDF]

What Could Work to Enhance Multidisciplinary Collaboration: The Commandments of Multidisciplinary Collaboratives

Each participant was asked to identify their “10 Commandments” (or 3 or 5…) of multidisciplinary collaboration. The detailed submissions are available at the link below. The following are common themes from the papers and discussion.

Common themes:

  • Establish trust among collaborators
  • Resist socialization to bad processes or outcomes
  • Let the children be our guide/Listen to the youth themselves
  • Establish regular contact w/ collaborators
  • Facilitate cross-pollination
  • Remember that change takes time
  • Change the macro system to eliminate the problem
  • Forget biases about partners
  • Respect the rules of other disciplines
  • Learn what community resources are available
  • Familiarize yourself with best and most recent research
  • Barter services with other agencies
  • Use expertise of other disciplines to support your staff
  • Look for sustaining funders
  • Recognize the limits of our own knowledge
  • Look for innovative locales to offer services to children (hospitals, schools, etc.)
  • Keep data to avoid repeating or perpetuating mistakes
  • Maintain a non-hierarchical structure and stress equality among partners
  • Stay optimistic
  • Test your comfort zone
  • Confront issues of race and class
  • Diversity and cultural competence

Detailed Participants Submissions [47kb PDF]

A Multidisciplinary Tool: Measuring Outcomes: Support Center for Child Advocates

Frank Cervone, Director of the Support Center for Child Advocates, presented an overview of a project that involves social science methods to measure the effectiveness of lawyers. The project, Outcome Measurement for the Practice of Law for Children, focuses on questions such as:

  • What is success? What is success in a child abuse case? A convicted dad? Convicted mom? Treatment? Probation?
  • How do you measure outcomes throughout the case?

Many child centers do not have database systems. This program attempt to fill that gap by including factors such as goal setting, fields for problems, schools, etc.

For further information on this project see Support Center for Child Advocates

Possible Next Steps

The final session of the conference focused on possible next steps for the participants and others interested in fostering greater multidisciplinary knowledge and collaboration for the benefit of children and families. The following is a list of possibilities that might be considered at a local, national or global level.

  • Create multidisciplinary texts
  • Generate standard case study data to evaluate multidisciplinary approaches
  • Create a listserv share ideas
  • Create or use an existing website to provide information and links
  • Create post graduate programs, such as a Masters of Law in Child Advocacy
  • Professional Certification and Continuing Education
  • Distance Learning: maximizing our unique courses by linking students and faculty
  • Curriculum Exchange: a central repository of multidisciplinary pedagogy
  • Locating Clinics in more Accessible Areas to Other Professionals
  • Intercampus Colloquia – Social Science & Law.
  • Social Science Training Courses, for law students and/or as CLE.
  • Conference presentations
  • Sabbatical Programs.
  • State Roundtables to present multidisciplinary approaches to key policy debates

Workshop Participants and Contact Information [54kb PDF]

Conference Hosts

The Center on Children and Families at the University of Florida, Levin College of Law guides students through a coordinated curriculum based on interdisciplinary, evidence-based and child-centered approaches. Led by a strong multidisciplinary faculty including professors of law, psychology and social work, CCF works with other UF entities, including the Institute for Child and Adolescent Research and Evaluation, the Center for the Study of Race and Race Relations, the Institute for Child Health Policy and the Center for Children’s Culture, to develop child-centered solutions to problems facing our children and youth.

First Star is a national 501(c)(3) public charity dedicated to improving the lives of America’s abused and neglected children. First Star’s mission is to serve as a catalyst for meaningful reform of the child welfare system through communication, education and legislation. First Star’s nonpartisan, multidisciplinary approach fosters collaborative action among organizations, advocates, practitioners and policy-makers working to benefit children.

Primary Navigation