Educators, social-service personnel, and legislators around the country are realizing that the current, compartmentalized system of caring for the personal crises of children is not working. Services are often offered a la carte and do not take into consideration all factors adversely affecting the life of a child. As a result, communities are beginning to encourage social-service agencies and others to depart from traditional forms of care in order to build collaboratives. The look of a collaborative differs from one community to the next, yet each one's goal is the same: to comprehensively assist children and families through a program of integrated services.