Research indicates that problems faced by many youngsters and families, such as poverty, inadequate housing, and poor health care and nutrition, are interrelated in complex ways. These problems are often inadequately addressed because of flaws in the social service delivery system. These flaws include a lack of communication between public and private agencies, difficulties experienced by specialized agencies in crafting comprehensive solutions, and insufficient funding. Efforts to fashion a profamily system of service delivery have emerged. Such a profamily system must be: comprehensive; preventive; family-centered; integrated; responsive to families' developmental needs; flexible; sensitive to cultural, gender, and racial concerns; and measured by outcomes for families and children, not by the number of services delivered. Initiatives to change service delivery systems are effective when they: link families to schools; are rooted in the local community; experiment with designing and delivering services; are driven by data from community profiles; and are financially pragmatic. Guidelines for ensuring the success of interagency collaborations include: (1) involving all key players; (2) ensuring visionary leadership; (3) establishing the expected outcomes for families and children; (4) ensuring commitment to change from all levels of member organizations and among community members; (5) establishing communication and decision making processes; and (6) encouraging member agencies to include collaborative goals in their institutional mandates. (BC)