Location, location, location: The key elements and factors involved in the co-location of human services for low-income families

Co-location involves placing a variety of services and service providers from different organizations and programs at the same site. This approach to service integration has tremendous potential for effecting actual change, because it both increases access for service users by creating a concentration of services and increases contact among the service providers involved which can lead to informal collaboration. Co-location is a unique form of interorganizational collaboration, because it is based on participants operating in shared space.; Toward furthering our understanding of the practice of co-location, this study was conducted to identify the key elements and factors involved, and to shape them into a conceptual framework that could be of use to service planners and practitioners. A preliminary conceptual framework was developed through examination of the co-location case study literature that was then used as the basis of in-depth case studies of two co-location sites. Site operations and meetings were observed, organizational documents were reviewed, and interviews were conducted with 80 service providers, planners, and users.; The results indicate that there are six key elements that are always present in co-location. These elements are: (1) The Setting; (2) The Environment; (3) The Services; (4) The Participants; (5) Collaborative Activities; and, (6) Identity. The key factor is creating a good "fit" among these elements, because each of them can contribute to making co-location work or to problems and conflicts. Specific aspects of these key elements contributed to issues of fit at the study sites. There was an ongoing struggle to find enough space as programs expanded, and the right kind of space for services that needed privacy. Services that people came to the site to access were better suited to co-location than programs that saw clients off-site. Also, services such as the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program or free immunizations helped draw service users to the sites.; The product of this study was a report outlining the specific aspects of these six key elements that were important at the study sites. In addition, a set of questions was presented for use by service planners and practitioners in exploring the presence of these key elements and aspects in their own co-locations and communities.