Policy & Practice April 2015

This orientation led to a strong sense of trust and equality among stakeholders, affirming their collective decisions as the pathway evolved. This trust was anchored by the emphasis on transpar- ency and shared responsibility. With stakeholders representing a variety of viewpoints, openness kept the process moving forward. The Alliance Engagement Team accom- plished the critical goal of encouraging as much transparency as possible to ensure that all opinions were heard and acknowledged. “We would’ve been dead in the water was it not for transparency,” says Yager. “I think the second thing that the team did outside of the meeting itself was they made themselves avail- able to have contacts with numerous parties that couldn’t be at the table. I know [Dreyfus] and I did regular calls with the Probate Judges Association, for example, so we met with them, talked with constituent stakeholders, gave them updates.”

on the task force. “Then, the task force and the work groups could work from that template.” Another factor in the ultimate success of the effort was the Alliance Engagement Team’s authentic engage- ment approach. This entire process is one example of how authentic engagement can be used to tackle highly complex issues with multiple stakeholders. At its core, the process of authentic engagement is about working within a group or community, evaluating its strengths, and empow- ering it to use its diverse resources to meet goals. “When looking to establish sus- tainable change in systems or communities, conversations are often dominated by the complications and challenges inherent within,” explains Dreyfus. “We set out to listen to the people most closely aligned with Michigan’s child welfare system. Process matters—and engaging these individuals by acknowledging their unique perspectives and strengths in the name of sustainable change was key to our success.”

The stakeholders in Michigan rec- ognized that while obligated to fulfill certain individual aims on behalf of their constituencies, positively impacting children and families was the prevailing goal. “When you graph out and create a schematic that portrays the current state of affairs in Michigan and then look to how you would improve that pathway in order to better serve and have better outputs and outcomes for kids and families, it was very empow- ering to me and very enlightening,” says Cameron Hosner, president and CEO of Judson Center in Royal Oak, Mich. TRANSPARENCY AND SHARED RESPONSIBILITY Even with being guided by the shared goal to do what was best for the children and families of Michigan, whenever conflicting perspectives and priorities of the stakeholders arose with the potential to cloud the path forward and possibly delay the process, the Alliance Engagement Team helped participants to resolve differences.

See Financing Reform on page 37

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April 2015   Policy&Practice