Integrated Human Service Models: Assessing Implementation Fidelity through the ‘line of Sight’ Perspective

There is an old saying that we don’t really understand something if we cannot communicate it to others. In our work with state and local sites pursuing systems integration, we have found this axiom holds true. Proponents of human services reform often believe they know what they are trying to accomplish through systems integration. However, when asked to tell a coherent story about their reform model to an outsider, they often stumble in the telling or the narrative varies dramatically across local stakeholders, even when each purportedly attempts to convey the same vision.