Cross-Center Evaluation: Collaboration Project Team Survey

PURPOSE: The purpose of this survey is to understand whether collaborative teams for specific projects and/or communication teams exhibit signs of healthy collaboration. The survey will be administered to Center staff when two or more Centers work together on discrete, co-created projects (e.g., tailored services projects) or on communication teams (e.g., for certain states or shared topics).

OMB #: 0970-0XXXX

Expiration Date: XX/XX/XXXX

PAPERWORK REDUCTION ACT OF 1995 (Pub. L. 104-13) STATEMENT OF PUBLIC BURDEN: This collection of information will be used to assess collaboration among teams within the Capacity Building Collaborative. Public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 14 minutes per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and reviewing the collection of information. This is a voluntary collection of information. An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information subject to the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number. The OMB number and expiration date for this collection are OMB #: 0970-XXXX, Exp: XX/XX/XXXX. If you have any comments on this collection of information, please contact Chereese Phillips, ACF, Administration on Children, Youth and Families by e-mail at Chereese.Phillips@acf.hhs.gov.

Evaluation of the Child Welfare Capacity Building Collaborative

Collaborative Project Team Survey

Thank you for considering participation in this survey! The Children’s Bureau funded James Bell Associates (JBA) and ICF to conduct a cross-center evaluation of the Capacity Building Collaborative. As part of that evaluation, this survey is an opportunity to learn about how the Center for States, Center for Tribes, and Center for Courts work together to deliver capacity building services.

We realize how limited your time is; the survey should take x minutes to complete. Your participation in the survey is voluntary. You may refuse to take part in the evaluation or exit the survey at any time. You may decline to answer any question you do not wish to answer. There are no risks involved in participating in the survey. While you will not receive any direct benefits from participating in this survey, your responses will help us learn more about how the Centers work together to deliver services.

Your survey responses will be stored in a password-protected electronic database. Only JBA team members will be able to access survey data. Your name or any other personally identifying information will not appear in any report. Your survey responses will remain private to the extent permitted by law. Your individual responses will not be shared with members of the Collaborative or the Children’s Bureau. Results may be presented by Center or by respondents’ demographic characteristics (e.g., role, years working with the Collaborative), however, only if the data represent 5 or more individuals to prevent identification of individuals. Survey data will be kept by JBA through MONTH YEAR.

If you have questions or concerns about the survey or the evaluation, you may contact Project Director Jim DeSantis at DeSantis@jbassoc.com.

Please select your choice below. You may print a copy of this consent form for your records. Clicking on the “Agree” button indicates that:

• You have read the above information;

• You voluntarily agree to participate;

• You are 18 years of age or older.

• Agree

• Disagree

Section 1: Demographics

Please answer these first questions about your overall work in the Capacity Building Collaborative.

What is your primary role? (Select one)

[NOTE: This question will not appear for Federal Staff]

• Federal Staff (e.g., FPOs, Central Office, Regional Office, CFSR Unit, including contract staff)

• Leadership (e.g., Center Directors, Deputy Directors, Senior Managers/Supervisors, Management and senior management teams)

• Center Staff (Staff who work on universal, constituency, and tailored service development and delivery. As well as data staff and staff who work with CB in program areas, child welfare data, and research projects)

• Knowledge Management Staff (Staff who work primarily on knowledge management services)

• Tailored Services Staff (Staff who work primarily on the development and delivery of tailored services. This includes staff who are assigned as the primary contact for a state, all liaisons, and tailored services supervisors)

• Universal/Constituency Services Staff (Staff who primarily work for the Center on the development and delivery of universal and constituency services. All US/CS staff including writers, dissemination staff, instructional designers, project managers, CG leads)

• Consultant (Topical experts who are assigned as the primary contact to specific states including evaluation coaches and Capacity Building Coaches)

• Evaluation (Members of the evaluation team)

How long have you been a part of the Capacity Building Collaborative? Please count time spent working on previous rounds of the Capacity Building Collaborative.

[NOTE: This question will not appear for Federal Staff]

• Less than 1 year

• 1–2 years

• 3–4 years

• 5 years or more

What level of service planning, developing, or delivery do you work in? Please select all that apply.

[NOTE: This question will not appear for Federal Staff]

• Universal

• Constituency/Targeted

• Tailored

• Other

• If other, please describe: (open ended response)

What percent of your time do you estimate you spend working on the Capacity Building Collaborative? [NOTE: This question will not appear for Federal Staff]

• Less than 25%

• 25%-49%

• 50%-74%

• 75% or more

Please answer these next questions about this specific collaborative team.

How long have you been a part of this collaborative team?

• Less than 6 months

• 6–12 months

• 13 months–2 years

• More than 2 years

Please describe the goals of this collaborative team.

________________________________________________________________________________

[Please scroll down to section 2]

Section 2: Collaboration Health Assessment Tool (CHAT)¹

Please answer the following questions about this specific collaborative team. In the questions, “partners” refer to members of this collaborative team and “issue” refers to the issue being addressed by the collaborative team’s work.

Please rate your level of agreement with each of the items below.

Dimension	Subdimension	Item	Strongly disagree	Disagree	Neither agree nor disagree	Agree	Strongly Agree	Don’t Know
Shared goal	Shared aspiration	Our collaborative team has clearly defined the problem that it wishes to address.
	Shared understanding of challenge	Partners understand why collaboration is required to address the problem.
	Shared understanding of approach	Partners have a clear understanding of what a collaborative approach requires.
Shared resources	Sufficient resources for coordinating infrastructure	We have sufficient resources for coordinating our collaborative team’s activities.
	Shared data	We can access the data we need.
	Financial support	There are sufficient funds to sustain collaboration operations.
	Shared capabilities	We have skills/expertise/specialization to address the goals of the collaboration.
	Mutually beneficial	My Center/CB feels it is worthwhile to stay and work within the collaborative team.
Shared authority	Participatory decision-making	All partners participate in decision-making.
	Authority to commit	Partners have sufficient authority to commit their organizations to decisions.
	Shared power	Partners are willing to distribute power to achieve our goals.
Shared accountability	Tracking progress and impact	We have a system in place by which progress towards shared goals is measured.
	Shared responsibility	Each partner’s areas of responsibility are clear and understood.
	Shared ownership of the final products or outcomes	Partners feel ownership in the results/products of their work.
	Tracking collaboration’s health	We have a system in place to evaluate how well our collaboration is performing.
Whole-system engagement	Stakeholders/community as stakeholders	Those affected by the issue are members of this Collaboration.
	Needs-based response	Child welfare community (e.g., child welfare agency, tribal child welfare, CIP) needs inform our collaboration’s responses.
	Diversity of stakeholders	Our collaborative team has a diverse range of members (e.g., Centers, topical experts, federal staff).
Communication flows	Dissemination of evaluation data	The collaborative team reviews and shares its findings.
	Adequate internal communication	Communication among partners is effective (promotes understanding, cooperation, and transfer of information).
	Adequate external communication	This collaborative team has an external communication strategy to help achieve our goals.
	Shared language	We use common language to describe our approach.
Adaptive capacity	Commitment to seeking innovative approaches	We seek out different viewpoints to find alternative solutions.
	Learning culture	We have a practice of regular reflection to ensure we learn as we go.
Holding/ authorizing environment	Generating support	Our collaborative team is continuously building support among Center and CB leadership.
	Level of urgency	There is urgency across the Capacity Building Collaborative to address the issue.
	Safety	This collaborative team has designed a safe environment in which disagreements and conflicts between members can be discussed.
	Trust	Collaborative team members trust one another.

Please answer the following open-ended questions.

What makes collaboration among this team successful? __________________________________________________________________________

What challenges have you experienced when collaborating with this team?

__________________________________________________________________________

Do you have suggestions to strengthen the collaboration among this team? __________________________________________________________________________

1 Adapted from Salignac F, Marjolin A, Noone J, Carey G. Measuring dynamic collaborations: Collaborative health assessment tool. Aust J Publ Admin 2019;1–23. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8500.12386

1