What is Upstream?

Upstream is a community-based approach that leverages court resources, judicial leadership, child welfare, juvenile justice, mental health, and other system partnerships to enhance community collaboration through state and local coordination, community mapping, and action planning.

Upstream serves as a conceptual framework for communities to:

• Map their specific community resources, gaps, and collaborations;
• Develop a comprehensive landscape of how children and families enter and move through the child welfare system and the courts;
• Identify opportunities to divert families to appropriate resources both before and after formal court involvement and at each Point of Prevention and Intervention; and
• Create a strategic action plan informed by the community map.