Local management board

Community Partnerships, formerly known as Systems Reform, began during the mid-1990's, in an effort to change the way services are provided to children and families in their communitieswhere. Local Management Boards (LMBs) identify priorities and target resources for a jurisdiction’s communities. The major focus is to increase local authority to plan, implement, and monitor children and family services.

History

The establishment of Local Management Boards (LMBs) was originally provided for in Article 49D that was enacted in 1990 and sunset on June 30, 2005. In response to the sunset of Article 49D, Executive Order 01.01.2005.34 was issued on June 9, 2006, establishing the Children’s Cabinet and the Governor’s Office for Children (GOC). During the 2006 Legislative Session, the General Assembly passed Senate Bill 294/HB301 that re-codified the LMBs. The Bills were signed into law on May 2, 2006, re-establishing the LMBs in Article 49D.

LMBs serve as the coordinator of collaboration for child and family services. They bring together local child-serving agencies, local child providers, clients of services, families, and other community representatives to empower local stakeholders in addressing the needs of and setting priorities for their communities. There is an LMB in each county and in Baltimore City.

A Community Partnership Agreement (CPA) is established after an LMB conducts a community needs assessment, negotiates with the State, and makes a long-term commitment to produce improved outcomes in the State’s eight result areas for child and family well-being.

LMBs are on track in all of Maryland’s 24 jurisdictions, engineering changes in their communities that will result in a better quality of lifePOV-statement|date=April 2008 for children and families. To date, LMBs have:

* led the way in returning and diverting children from out-of-state placements
* created interagency services for children at-risk of out-of-home placements
* increased linkages between public and private agencies serving children and families
* served as the coordinating body for many community level grants and initiatives such as, School-Based Health Centers, C-Safe, Youth Strategies Initiative, and Healthy Families.