"A foundation's experiment with providing experts to public agencies is showing promise as a way to make a big difference at a relatively modest cost....
For example, one fellow who is working to help foster-care providers develop "father-friendliness" experienced the child-welfare system firsthand while growing up and has served as a government official and a social-services provider. Another, leading a cross-system group addressing barriers to academic achievement of children in foster care, has deep private-practice experience with children in the system and has studied the points of transition that are often highly disruptive. This fellow convinced two city systems to pilot trauma-informed training for providers of foster-care parents.
While the private funding of this effort is an attractive feature, public officials who seek a Stoneleigh fellow need to be well positioned to work across agency boundaries on projects that the public agencies have agreed need priority attention. The projects do not place the fellows "in" one agency, and the fellows' prior experience gives them fresh perspective that allows them to develop solutions that imagine the possibilities of cross-agency cooperation...."
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