While the organizational systems designed to provide cash assistance and child welfare services have been separate since the 1970s, changes wrought by welfare reform in the late 1990s suggest new opportunities for organizational collaboration. This paper examines the link between family poverty and child maltreatment, and the policy levers that can be employed to inhibit or promote child and family well being within the context of welfare reform. It then reviews one state's experience with inter-organizational collaboration between welfare and child welfare and the special challenges agencies face in attempting to streamline services. (Author abstract)