If increased professionalism were the only motivating factor for sharing of decisions, parents and children would still be clients of the system instead of team members. Diversify teams to the extent necessary to create communities with shared values. They have experience and expertise. When families have problems which lead them to use social services, they often have to deal with several different agencies in an uncoordinated fashion. The idea behind integrated services is to establish collaborations among different social service organizations and community members and to make services available under an umbrella program at or near a school.
Schools are a natural focal point, since they are convenient and accessible.
One pilot program currently in progress is Healthy Start in California, which has funded sixty-five different integrated services projects, each of which has a different operating model and set of local service providers. However, some centers have found a way of bringing parents and children fully into the process. One example is the Vaughan Family Center in Los Angeles, which is attached to the Vaughan Street School. The Vaughan Family Center and the school are anchored in the community, with goals for children, families, and neighborhood. The center identified local needs that included health care, youth programs, childcare, parent training, job placement, housing, legal counseling, drug counseling, and other social services.