The collaborating committee will deal with wide-ranging issues. For example, after the creation of the committee, one of the most critical steps is for its members to reach consensus on the definition of diversion. This definition forms the basic construct of the system under design, and it sets the stage for consideration of issues that range from the identification of juvenile offenders appropriate for treatment and what types of treatment shall be available to them, on the one hand, to the identification of funding sources on the other. The collaboration is most likely to be effective if the participants agree to use a consensus-building decisionmaking process. This process encourages dialogue, and participants will have to find enough common ground on which to agree.
Consensus builds ownership.
Juvenile justice decisions AOD abuse treatment decisions Physical and mental health decisions Social services decisions Management system decisions. While some of the core decisions within each system can be made only by members of that system, collaborators from the other groups may be involved in decisionmaking by becoming informed, raising questions, and then working toward the goal of building a unified system that will continue to receive input from the major system components. The many decisions to be made by the committee are reviewed in this chapter, which has been written to help collaborators prepare for the work they will perform. Ideally, every community will recognize and acknowledge that AOD abuse presents a challenge that must be confronted for the best interests of its children and families. The planning effort must be guided by people who accept this premise.