COLLABORATION IN ACTION
A Toolkit for Courts and Counties
Collaboration in Action: A Toolkit for Courts and Counties is an easy-to-use online resource for building safer, more effective local criminal justice systems. Whether your county is just getting started or refining an existing approach, the modules below give you tools you can adapt to your own context. Start with the module that matches where your team is today.
Praxis Consulting developed the toolkit, with support from Rulo Strategies and funding from the State Justice Institute. Its content draws on the work of counties across the country that built collaborative strategic plans to support people with behavioral health needs.
Key takeaways
Assess your county's readiness for change before planning begins, and strengthen the weakest areas first.
Make the case for change with system data and the cost of leaving the problem unaddressed.
Bring many sectors to the table, including people with lived experience.
Use trends data and survey results to drive the planning process.
Plan on a three-to-five-year horizon and resist jumping to fixes.
Intended audience
Teams planning and implementing local justice system change, including:
County commissioners, executives, and criminal justice planners
Judges and court executives
Prosecutors and public defenders
Sheriffs and jail administrators
Treatment and behavioral health providers
People with lived experience and family members
Overview of Modules
MODULE 1
Toolkit Overview
Why the toolkit was built and what it covers, with county officials describing what prompted them to act.
MODULE 2
Frameworks: Leading Change, Collaboration, and Strategic Planning
Kotter's eight steps for leading change, the conditions that make collaboration work, and a strategic planning model you can adapt.
MODULE 3
Getting Started: Organizing for Success
Work through who to bring in, how to make the case to them, and how to tell whether your county is ready to start.
MODULE 4
Developing a Strategic Plan
A six-step planning process, with completed plans from Rockdale, Navajo, Mesa, and Berrien counties and the surveys and trends analyses behind them.
MODULE 5
Transitioning from Planning to Implementation
How to keep momentum once the plan is written. Sample job descriptions, a data sharing agreement, and advice from officials who have been through it.