Local Management Boards

The first Local Management Boards (Board) were established during the mid-1990s in an effort to change the way services were provided to children and families in their communities. The Boards were charged with identifying priorities and targeting resources for a jurisdiction’s communities. The major focus was to increase local authority to plan, implement, and monitor children and family services.

Today, the core function of the Local Management Boards remains identifying priorities and targeting resources for a jurisdiction’s communities. The Boards 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 a Local Management Board in each County and in Baltimore City.

Local Management Boards have engineered changes in their communities that resulted in a better quality of life for children and families. To date, the Boards have:

• Led the way in returning and diverting children from out-of-state residential placements;
• Administered funding for interagency services provided to children at-risk of out-of-home placements;
• Increased collaboration between local stakeholders and agencies serving children and families; and
• Served as the coordinating and administering agency for programs that serve the community including School-Based Health Centers, C-Safe, Youth Strategies Initiative, Maryland Afterschool Opportunity Fund, Home Visiting/Healthy Families, etc.

For more information, go to: http://goccp.maryland.gov/local-management-boards/.