“We're not Housed in an Institution, We're Housed in the Community”: Possibilities and Consequences of Neighborhood-Based Interagency Collaboration

Abstract

My purpose in this article is to explore neighborhood-based, interagency collaboration using qualitative methodology. Interagency participants believed that neighborhood-based collaboration (a) provided treatment at the core of student struggles (i.e., within their families and communities), (b) shared blame and responsibility among service providers for student problems, (c) increased accessibility of services for the neighborhood, and (d) personalized services for neighborhood residents and a vehicle for agency public relations and outreach. Constraints and consequences of neighborhood-based interagency collaboration revolved around increased observation and control of neighborhood resident behavior to match White middle-class norms, which could allow educators to shirk their responsibility for change at the school level