Commissioners' Committee on Cross-Systems Services for Children and Youth

The Commissioners' Committee on Cross-Systems Services for Children and Youth is comprised of health, education and human services agencies, and parent and youth partners, focusing on achieving better outcomes for children, youth and families by improving access to services and supports; ensuring quality coordinated services and supports from a qualified workforce; and collaborating to eliminate service barriers between systems. The Council on Children and Families plays an important role in this initiative and fully participates in its continued deliberations and activities. The Commissioners developed a message defining the priorities of the committee.

The Commissioners' Committee on Cross-Systems Services for Children and Youth are committed to:

1. Engage families and youth directly, listen to their concerns and proposals, and involve them in the design of individualized services and supports across agencies.
2. Work together in a new way: more cooperatively, transparently, effectively and efficiently.
3. Increase the focus on effective prevention and comprehensive early childhood services, while also focusing better on children with intensive needs requiring services and supports from multiple systems.
4. Explore new models for quality and continuity of care, including service coordination and dispute resolution.
5. Support the individual goals of other agencies relative to cross-systems children and youth.

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Please visit the NYS Office of Mental Health's ENGAGE webpage to learn about an exciting new collaborative plan between child-serving agencies to effect change in the lives of children and families in New York State.

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