Native American Youth In The Juvenile Justice System

interagency agreements. Collaboration policies often provide the impetus or reason for
people who don’t, can’t or won’t work with each other to overcome political and personal
barriers to get things done. Such policies help people to focus on their constituents
needs, rather than on their dislikes of the person, organization, agency or government.
Why Collaborate?
Perhaps the most important concepts around the issue of collaboration and resource
sharing are found in understanding why collaboration should occur in the first place. To
start with, no program can provide all things to those who are in need of services. No
budget can provide the resources to assist all of those in need. Therefore, it is important
to note that:
Collaboration enhances services, especially for underserved populations such as
Indian children, youth and families.
Collaboration increases the quantity of resources available to serve clients
Collaboration increases better use of available resources.
Collaboration increases the quality of available services.
Collaboration enables agencies to address their common interests and common
goals in providing services to Indian constituents.
Collaboration increases opportunities for cultural exchange, thereby increasing
cultural awareness, sensitivity and competence.
Collaboration helps to view everyone as a resource.
When should resource sharing occur?
Resource sharing should occur whenever it is needed or desired. There are times when
resource sharing or collaboration needs a formal process to accomplish the
collaboration. This occurs when the collaboration is defined by statute (using mandatory
or non-mandatory language), agency policy or procedure, or by intergovernmental
agreement. Some examples of intergovernmental agreements are for information
sharing, cross-deputization, multi-disciplinary team investigations, and special response
teams or to transfer cases, share in the development of predisposition reports, or
treatment planning.
Interagency collaboration is not always a formal process. Informal processes may
establish patterns of collaborative behavior, such as protocols, which allow for invitation
or active participation by members outside the agency. The culture of an agency or
organization may traditionally encourage positive interagency relationships.
There are also informal agreements that allow for participation via committees, boards
and task forces that informally allow for joint problem solving. Round table discussions,
training events, convocations, and conferences are some examples for information
exchange and cross-training to occur.
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