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Family-Centered, Neighborhood-Based Foster Care

Family-centered, neighborhood-based foster care approaches, based on the principles of strengths-focused, neighborhood-based, culturally sensitive care for children and their families, include neighbor to neighbor, neighbor to family, and family to family. These approaches focus primarily on innovations in the provision of foster care services, building on the support of community collaborations and networks for families. These child welfare reform initiatives have been incorporated into the child welfare practice of States and local jurisdictions throughout the country.

Family to Family: Tools for Rebuilding Foster Care
Annie E. Casey Foundation
Overview, tools, resources and related links connected with a neighborhood-based, family-centered foster care reform initiative.

Family to Family: Child Welfare for the 21st Century
Roberts & Early
Family Preservation Journal, 6(1), 2002
View Abstract
Describes the strategies used by the Family to Family Initiative of the Annie E. Casey Foundation, and profiles the application of the approach in Franklin County, Ohio. The most significant modifications were the increased use of kinship care and family team meetings to include family members in case planning.

The Four Primary Areas of a Family-Centered, Neighborhood-Based Services Approach to Child Welfare (PDF - 65 KB)
Public Children Services Association of Ohio (2000)
Describes four primary building blocks of family-centered, neighborhood-based child welfare on the local level, with tips on how to implement them.

Neighbor to Family: An Innovative Approach to Foster Care (PDF - 334 KB)
Florida Department of Children and Families & Ounce of Prevention Fund of Florida (2003)
Description and evaluation of a neighborhood-based model of professional foster care designed to keep siblings together and increase the number and quality of foster caregivers.

Neighbor to Neighbor
Jane Addams Hull House
Describes a child-centered, family-focused foster care model designed to keep sibling groups together in stable foster care placements while working intensively on reunification or permanency plans that keep the siblings together.

	Related Information Gateway Topics Out-of-home care: Foster family care & kinship care

Updated on December 7, 2007