Child Welfare Information Gateway

Restorative justice is an approach that focuses on collaboration between the offender and the community. It requires the offender to accept responsibility for their decisions and the impact of their offenses on the victim and the community. For juvenile offenders who are involved in both the juvenile justice and child welfare systems, restorative practices often involve teaching skills to live independently and develop healthy relationships. This episode shares how Alternative Family Services provides highly individualized supportive services to help youth as they transition out of the foster care system. The goals of the programs are to improve outcomes for youth in foster care who are involved in the juvenile justice system by placing them in homes with trained resource parents and reducing the placement of youth in detention facilities that may not have the intensive services they need.

Youth can face many challenges as they transition to living independently as adults. For youth in foster care, overcoming obstacles may require additional support and skills to be self-reliant. Caseworkers and child welfare professionals assist youth with securing employment, secondary education, housing, financial literacy, and other needs. However, additional support is needed to provide encouragement and stability as youth transition to adulthood. Support systems consisting of helpful, stable adults reinforce the goal of self-sufficiency and give youth a sense of community. This episode explores how Alternative Family Services (AFS) successfully creates effective support systems for youth in foster care. AFS supports northern Californian families, children, and youth in foster, adoptive, and extended family settings. The AFS clinical model focuses on a highly individualized social support model with a goal of safety, stability, and well-being.

Lived experience means the representation and understanding of an individual’s human experiences, choices, and options and how those factors influence one’s perception of knowledge from one’s own life. Those with lived experience in child welfare have a unique, firsthand perspective on issues that can inform partnerships, policies, and solutions that best meet the needs of children and families. Child welfare agencies and organizations should prioritize collaborating with individuals who have lived experience to gain a better understanding of how people are affected by the social issue. The ways in which agencies choose to engage in this collaboration must be authentic and intentional in order to prevent harm. This episode presents a panel discussion from the Capacity Building Center for State’s 2022 Child Welfare Virtual Expo. The panel members provide an array of approaches for organizations to engage people with lived experience.

Lived experience is a representation and understanding of an individual’s human experiences, choices, and options and how those factors influence one’s perception of knowledge” from one’s own life. Those with lived experience in child welfare have a unique, firsthand perspective on issues that can inform partnerships, policies, and solutions that best meet the needs of children and families. This episode provides strategies and examples of how child welfare agencies should respectfully engage individuals with lived experience for assistance. Agencies should prepare their staff to ask appropriate questions of those with lived experience and to create a safe space for them to share their stories. When collaborating with individuals who have lived experience, agencies should be flexible when scheduling times to talk, consider how the person would like to share their story, and provide appropriate compensation. This episode presents a session from the Capacity Building Center for State’s 2022 Child Welfare Virtual Expo. The speakers discuss why integrating lived expertise into the workforce is so beneficial to child welfare agencies as well as considerations for integrating people with lived expertise into the workplace.

Kinship caregivers and families may be faced with needs, questions, and constraints that are different than those of resource foster care families. Child welfare agencies continue to address these unique needs through kinship navigator programs that help caregivers manage the foster care licensing process; connect families to available supports and services; and understand legal, medical, or other systems and requirements. As jurisdictions place higher emphasis on placing children and youth in relative or familiar settings, some are expanding and advancing the support provided to kinship caregivers. The podcast series, Advances in Supporting Kinship Caregivers, comprises of episodes featuring the advances created and implemented by child welfare agencies and their partners to strengthen kinship families and meet the unique needs faced by these caregivers. Part 5 explores a series of changes within New Mexico’s Children, Youth, and Families Department (CYFD) to improve the engagement and support of kinship families. These changes include internal workforce shifts, such as changes in supervisory practices and internal communications to improve how relatives and caregivers are viewed; programs to keep families engaged and involved in children’s lives even if they are unable to serve as primary caregivers; and streamlining the licensing process to be less invasive and more supportive of families facing the abrupt changes and challenges of raising children.

Kinship caregivers and families may be faced with needs, questions, and constraints that are different than those of resource foster care families. Child welfare agencies continue to address these unique needs through kinship navigator programs that help caregivers manage the foster care licensing process; connect families to available supports and services; and understand legal, medical, or other systems and requirements. Part 4 explores the public-private partnership between FosterKinship and the state of Nevada. FosterKinship supports the state by providing both kinship navigator services and foster care licensing services, reducing the number of offices and agencies families have to interact with to adapt and prepare for the change becoming a kinship family requires. FosterKinship also provides programs and services to connect kinship families to access services or resources they need to raise healthy children.

As jurisdictions place a higher emphasis on placing children and youth in relative or familiar settings, some are expanding and advancing the support provided to kinship caregivers. The podcast series, Advances in Supporting Kinship Caregivers, comprises episodes featuring the advances created and implemented by child welfare agencies and their partners to strengthen kinship families and meet the unique needs faced by these caregivers. Part 3 focuses on the unique successes experienced within the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe, located inside Washington State. The Tribe’s flexible use of funding and its prevention-focused approach has resulted in a nearly 70-percent reduction in the number of children in care. Their success is built upon strong, trusting relationships forged between tribal members. The examples shared in this episode demonstrate the power of being able to tailor supports and services to the specific needs and culture of the families being served.

This episode focuses on Washington State’s approach to providing kinship support services. The conversation describes how the State’s kinship support is operated by the State’s Aging and Long-Term Support Administration and provides some of its services through a one-time stipend to help new kinship families meet basic needs. This episode also spends time discussing providing kinship navigator services in the Yakima and Tri-Cities region of central Washington, a rural, Latinx community. Topics discussed include the following: • Differences in formal and informal kinship caregivers and the differences caseworkers may have to navigate when working with each • Cultural considerations caseworkers and others should be aware of when working with rural, Latinx communities and families • The importance of building relationships across a community, not just with kinship families • Implementation of one-time stipends for kinship families in Washington State

This episode features a group of kinship-centered services and programs from Rhode Island. The State’s Department of Children, Youth, and Families created a separate team dedicated to family search and engagement that identifies and attempts to create relationships with family members or those with connections to children and youth. The department also leverages caregiver peers as mentors and navigators to provide emotional support and connect families to services and support. Throughout all of its engagement with families and caregivers, Rhode Island emphasizes a customer-service approach to working with families and recognizes the emotions and added stressors placed on grandparents, extended family members, and close connections when asked to bring children and youth into their homes.

Becoming and thriving as a foster or adoptive parent can present many challenges. Child welfare agencies dedicate time and resources to train prospective foster and adoptive parents to manage the challenges and develop parenting skills to support children and youth within the child welfare system. These children and youth may have experienced trauma, grief, and loss; have mental health considerations; and demonstrate different behavior patterns. However, the available training programs can vary on the competencies stressed, depth of content, and availability of posttraining resources and support. This episode explores the National Training and Development Curriculum (NTDC) for Foster and Adoptive Parents, funded by the Children’s Bureau, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NTDC was developed to provide free curriculum and resources for potential foster or adoptive parents so they will have the information and tools needed to parent a child who has experienced trauma, separation, or loss. NTDC offers classroom-based trainings that cover 23 themes; 4 of which are specific to either kinship caregivers or families who adopt private domestically or via the intercountry process.

This episode focuses on Away From Home, a report developed by Think Of Us to understand the perspectives, attitudes, and experiences of young people with recent histories in institutional placements, and to understand their beliefs around reforming or ending institutional placements. The conversation in this episode dives into the findings and recommendations from the study’s authors on improving institutional care, the emotional toll of institutional placements that participants conveyed, and the current barriers to connecting youth to stable and loving placements.

This episode features a conversation with Aysha E. Schomburg, J.D., associate commissioner, Children's Bureau, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Nearly one year after her appointment by the Biden administration, Commissioner Schomburg released a vision for the Children's Bureau, with its highest priority being promoting equity in State child welfare systems and the following priority goals: • Prevent children from coming into foster care • Support kinship caregivers • Ensure youth leave care with strengthened relationships, holistic supports, and opportunities • Develop and enhance the child welfare workforce This conversation dives into each priority goal, including any Federal policy or guidance updates and recommendations, along with how these actions connect and relate to the work performed by frontline child welfare professionals.

"Engaging Fathers – Putting Lessons Into Practice" is a three-part series to share strategies implemented from three of the five State or county agencies: Los Angeles County, California; Hartford, Connecticut; and Prowers County, Colorado. Part three focuses on the strategies developed within Prowers County. The Fathers and Continuous Learning in Child Welfare (FCL) project sought to improve placement stability and permanency outcomes for children by engaging their fathers and paternal relatives. FCL implemented a methodology known as the breakthrough series collaborative (BSC). BSC is a continuous learning methodology developed by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement that is used to test and spread promising practices to help organizations improve in a focused topic area. Topics discussed include the following: • The flexibility and innovation small child welfare agencies can have in comparison to larger, more bureaucratic agencies • The collective accountability child welfare and partner human service agencies shared in Prowers County to engage and involve fathers and paternal families in their casework and prevention efforts • The "must-haves" necessary to spark and sustain culture change

“Engaging Fathers – Putting Lessons Into Practice” is a three-part series to share strategies implemented from three of the five State or county agencies: Los Angeles County, California; Hartford, Connecticut; and Prowers County, Colorado. Part one focuses on the strategies developed within Hartford, Connecticut. The following individuals are featured in this episode: • Angela Parks-Pyles, deputy director, contract services, Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services • Alan-Michael Graves, Ed.D., senior director of learning and capacity building, Good+ Foundation Topics discussed include the following: • What value community organizations provided, via their influence and leadership, in Los Angeles County's improvement team • How Los Angeles County's actions and thoughts diminished the importance of fathers and paternal families and the steps the agency took to change its processes and mindsets • Why the improvement team felt they needed the courage to act "intentionally and unapologetically" to implement meaningful change

“Engaging Fathers – Putting Lessons Into Practice” is a three-part series to share strategies implemented from three of the five State or county agencies: Los Angeles County, California; Hartford, Connecticut; and Prowers County, Colorado. Part one focuses on the strategies developed within Hartford, Connecticut. Topics discussed include the following: -The benefits of including community partners and fatherhood advocates in Connecticut’s improvement team -Why Connecticut chose multiple, small strategies over a single, large-scale strategy to address fatherhood engagement -Successful strategies to impact agency-wide culture and thinking about engaging fathers in daily child welfare practice

This episode features a conversation surrounding the California Family Urgent Response System (FURS)-a coordinated statewide, regional, and county-level system designed to provide collaborative and timely phone-based State-level response and a county-level in-home, in-person mobile response during situations of instability—to preserve the relationship of the caregiver and the child or youth. The intention of FURS is to provide current and former foster youth and their caregivers with immediate, trauma-informed support when they need it and reduce hospitalizations, law enforcement contacts, and placement in out-of-home facilities.

This episode shares insight from the National Native Children's Trauma Center for those caseworkers and agencies that are working or will work with indigenous communities to support children and families. Recognizing how Tribal communities approach child-rearing, community and family structures, justice, and law enforcement—and how those approaches may differ from what caseworkers may view as healthy—is important to developing trusting and supportive relationships. Topics discussed include the following: • Why Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) provisions can't be implemented in the same manner for every Tribe or Nation state and local child welfare professionals work with • How historical trauma within Native and Tribal communities is strongly connected to intergenerational trauma • What guidance State and local child welfare caseworkers and agencies can use when engaging with Native families and communities

Changing or shifting how child welfare systems operate has been a topic of discussion, research, and even legislation. The goals of these efforts are to reduce the trauma experienced by children and families involved with child welfare, apply a greater prevention lens to casework practice, and eliminate the inequities and disproportionality child welfare systems currently demonstrate. This episode features one jurisdiction moving from discussion to action. Oregon’s Child Welfare Division has released its Vision for Transformation, which documents a strategic roadmap to success, including specific guiding principles, strategies, and measurable outcomes. Listeners will hear from Rebecca Jones Gaston, the director of Oregon’s Child Welfare Division, on why the vision was developed, how it will be implemented, and the internal and external changes required to transform the State’s child welfare system into one that supports the individual needs of families and best serves Oregon's children and youth.

Aged Out: How We’re Failing Youth Transitioning Out of Foster Care: Insights and Recommendations, a report developed by Think Of Us, aims to reframe the approach to transitioning youth to adulthood and independent living. The report details three themes regarding areas where the child welfare system is failing foster youth and that should be given greater focus: helping youth heal and deal with trauma, centering youth in their preparedness, and helping youth build a supportive network. This is the second of a two-part episode series. Part 2 focuses on recommendations for agencies and supportive adults to address the three themes. In part 1, the discussion highlights insights and findings surrounding each of the three themes. Topics discussed include recommendations for communities and caseworkers to address the following: • Acknowledging trauma and directly helping youth heal from trauma as a part of care • Clarifying the facts, including dates, about leaving care and helping youth drive and develop their plans • Working with both youth and the adults in their lives to define and confirm what supportive networks can provide

Thousands of youth graduate from high school or reach the age of maturity while still in the foster care system. Many of these youth “age out” of the system with little or no connection to family or supportive adults and face the potential of poor life prospects. Foster care alumni face high rates of homelessness, unemployment, incarceration, and lack of access to health care. Aged Out: How We’re Failing Youth Transitioning Out of Foster Care: Insights and Recommendations, a report developed by Think Of Us, aims to reframe the approach to transitioning youth to adulthood and independent living. The report details three themes regarding areas where the child welfare system is failing foster youth and that should be given greater focus: helping youth heal and deal with trauma, centering youth in their preparedness, and helping youth build a supportive network. This is part 1 of our conversation, featuring insights and findings for each theme. In part 2, the conversation shifts to recommendations for agencies and supportive adults to address the themes.