When a structure built upon vision is created at the local level, it is important to recognize that all of the necessary raw materials are present to get moving. The raw materials present in any community involves developing local leadership with energy and resources along with a "can do" attitude to move forward. It is important that local efforts don't wait for others to initiate or organize. People in Stark County started with a set of values. They then moved towards developing a common understanding of how their community system was currently operating. They then moved towards a vision of how they could create a system which would make those values real on a daily basis. In moving down this path, System Executives recognized that potential barriers existed at all levels. Rather than focusing on those barriers, Executives focused on what action they needed to take to move towards accomplishing their vision. What those Executives realized is that if they waited for permission to be granted from an external source they would never get close to their vision.

This is not simply a recommendation to blatantly disregard rules and regulations in your state. Instead the power of working together tends to multiply and afford key stakeholders even more flexibility. For example, staff roles might be more tightly defined in one system than another. As a result, the system which has the most flexible staff responsibilities might be prepared to take on aspects of the collaborative vision first while the second system pursues some sort of waiver. What is helpful is to develop a framework for responsible risk taking. In order to do this well, each system has to have a holistic and in-depth understanding of all child and family serving systems. Lessons learned in the development of the infrastructure will pay off in managing the infrastructure in a responsible way.

One example involves the Stark County Family Council decision to pool funds. When the System Executives looked at their system mandates, they found nothing specifically prohibiting the pooling of dollars. Indeed when the state mandates for collaboration were reviewed they could be interpreted as a mandate to pool resources. Rather than asking the state if that's what they meant, the System Executives assumed this was an appropriate and correct action in light of values and expectations as articulated by the state of Ohio. For the past six years, Stark County has jointly managed a blended fund with the list of contributors continuing to expand. (Appendix AA) What is important with this approach is that all decisions are checked against values and a belief in the administrative expertise of system executives to get the job done. Often state mandates will follow community decisions when they see a good idea.