Eliminating Disparities & Reducing Disproportionality:
The Role of Strategy

The public child welfare agency’s strategic plan plays a significant role in eliminating disparities and addressing disproportionality. When disparity is present, the strategic plan helps staff, stakeholders, partners and community members become aware of and understand how the issue is occurring in the agency and community. It provides a game plan with measurable goals and objectives, outlining how the agency intends to go about eliminating disparities occurring within and outside the agency. Finally, the strategic plan establishes the direction, expectations and values from which staff at all levels will operate in the joint effort.

As a starting place, creators of the strategic plan should include a vision, mission and values statements that aims for “fair, equitable treatment” for all children, youth and families. These statements must be well known among staff throughout the organization. Likewise, behaviors and actions of leaders (e.g. treating families fairly and justly) must be consistent with articulated values. Strategic plan efforts to address disparity and disproportionality must also include the agency’s scan of the environment that notes challenges and opportunities in order to identify barriers to progress and prospects for achieving desired outcomes. This includes external and organizational strengths, gaps and capacity to change. For instance, an agency could consider if there is an opportunity to partner with a community board or seek out the availability and energy of youth wanting to champion improvements. The agency should also consider and determine if there is mistrust in the community of the child welfare agency, bad press or language barriers. Without performing the scan, the strategic plan is developed out of context and any efforts to address disparity and disproportionality stand a strong chance of proving ineffective.

Those who create the strategic plan need two essential things. First, some form of client analysis to understand who clients are and what they want and need to achieve desired results. In addition, they need a well-articulated practice model in order to know how to achieve that desired change. The latter is so important that agency leaders are encouraged to include staff at all levels -- community stakeholders, as well as children, youth and families -- in the development of the strategic plan. Agencies are also encouraged to include this broad base of stakeholders in the governing of the strategic plan for accountability.