The Arizona Impact Story
At-a-Glance
Designed Arizona’s statewide No Wrong Door model to create a coordinated post-permanency system.
Developed statewide Program Guidance, Memorandum of Understanding, and Universal Intake process to support coordinated services across agencies.
Expanded adoption competency by enrolling DCS staff, supervisors, and more than 130 behavioral health providers in adoption competency training.
Strengthened collaboration between child welfare, behavioral health, Medicaid, crisis response, and community providers to better support families before they reach crisis.
Established a permanent Lived Experience Advisory Group to ensure caregiver and youth voice continues to guide Arizona’s post-permanency system.
The Impact
Technical assistance helped the Arizona Department of Child Safety (DCS) move from a collection of individual post-permanency services to a more coordinated, statewide approach for supporting adoptive and guardianship families.
Rather than build entirely new services, Arizona focused on strengthening how existing ones work together. Through technical assistance, DCS finalized a statewide hub-and-spoke model grounded in a “No Wrong Door” philosophy, giving families multiple points of entry into the system along with coordinated navigation, referrals, and family-centered support.
On-site technical assistance strengthened Arizona’s capacity to implement and sustain these improvements by developing implementation tools, building adoption competency across child welfare and behavioral health systems, and establishing structures for long-term success beyond the formal technical assistance period.
As a Result of Technical Assistance
Designed Arizona’s first coordinated statewide post-permanency model
The hub-and-spoke framework positions Arizona DCS as the central coordinating entity and strengthens partnerships with behavioral health providers, crisis services, and community organizations under a “No Wrong Door” approach.
Created the infrastructure needed for implementation
New statewide Program Guidance, a Memorandum of Understanding, a Universal Intake and Referral process, and supporting tools and communication materials now anchor consistent practice across the state.
Strengthened adoption competency across Arizona
Enrolled 24 DCS professionals, 5 supervisors, and 132 behavioral health providers in National Training Initiative (NTI) courses and expanded participation in the Training for Adoption Competency (TAC) program, building a more adoption-competent workforce statewide.
Improved family engagement before and after permanency.
Redesigned trauma-informed Post-Permanency Services Orientation materials, updated family communication and outreach tools, and developed an Adoption Handbook to better prepare families throughout their permanency journey.
Strengthened crisis response and family navigation
Partnered with Solari Crisis Services and community providers to improve warm handoffs, clarify referral pathways, and reconnect families with DCS for ongoing support beyond an immediate crisis.
Built stronger cross-system partnerships
Engaged behavioral health organizations, Mercy Care, AHCCCS, crisis providers, universities, and community agencies in shaping a shared vision for post-permanency support, building new, sustainable partnerships along the way.
Embedded lived experience into system design
Established a Lived Experience Advisory Group that directly shapes communication materials, family navigation strategies, crisis response planning, and the broader system design — and that Arizona DCS will sustain for ongoing family engagement and improvement.
Why This Work Mattered
Post-permanency services existed across Arizona, but they often operated independently, leaving families to navigate multiple systems with little coordination. Families in crisis frequently struggled to find where to turn, and behavioral health, crisis response, child welfare, and community providers were not consistently connected.
The technical assistance partnership focused on helping Arizona build a coordinated statewide system that makes the most of existing resources, improves family navigation, strengthens cross-system collaboration, and keeps families connected to support before situations escalate. Arizona’s goals included:
- 1
Design a coordinated statewide post-permanency model.
- 2
Improve access to adoption-competent services.
- 3Strengthen collaboration among child welfare, behavioral health, Medicaid, crisis providers, and community partners.
- 4Improve family engagement before and after permanency.
- 5Develop sustainable infrastructure to support long-term implementation.
Looking Ahead
Arizona will continue to strengthen the post-permanency system by:
- Launching the centralized intake and referral process
- Putting the new program guidance and implementation tools into practice
- Expanding adoption competency across the child welfare and behavioral health systems
- Continuing the Lived Experience Advisory Group to keep caregiver and youth perspectives central to system improvement
- Expanding partnerships with behavioral health and community providers to support the new post-permanency model
