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Enhancing Permanency for Older Youth in Out-Of-Home Care
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Series: Bulletins for Professionals |
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Author(s):
Child Welfare Information Gateway
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| Year Published: 2006 |
4. Promising Programs
A number of jurisdictions have begun to develop new programs that target older youth for adoption and other permanency outcomes. Federal waivers have made it easier for some States to use flexible funding to test pilot projects designed to help youth achieve permanency. In addition, Federal funding in the form of grants, such as the Children's Bureau Discretionary Grant program, has provided funds for other innovative programs.
In Fiscal Year 2005, the Children's Bureau awarded 5-year cooperative agreements to nine organizations to develop, implement, evaluate, and disseminate information about programs that provide adoption services and supports to youth who wish to retain contact with family members to improve permanency outcomes. This grant cluster is working closely with three Children's Bureau National Resource Centers to promote information-sharing within the cluster and with the field. The grantees are focusing efforts in areas such as strategies to introduce the concept of open adoption to youth; strategies to connect youth with caring, responsible adults; and effective models of youth leadership and youth involvement in planning.
Other, nonfederally funded, projects have grown out of State and local efforts. Three projects are described here.
New York City's You Gotta Believe: Finding Permanent Homes to Prevent Homelessness
You Gotta Believe (YGB) is a New York-based program that places teens and preteens from foster care into permanent homes. Prospective families are trained and prepared to provide permanent, not temporary, homes, and receive certification for adoption.
How it works. YGB receives youth referrals from city, county, and other municipal foster care agencies (Louisell, 2004). Motivated agency workers give YGB access to the youth being referred so that YGB staff can begin to follow up on leads for permanent families. These youth can also participate in YGB activities, such as the YGB cable television show and other activities that present youth to prospective families.
YGB recruits families by sending out staff members, current and former foster youth, and experienced adoptive families to talk to groups at places such as churches, community board meetings, and street fairs. Training classes for prospective families are offered year-round in four locations. Families can join the 10-week training sessions at any point. These sessions are taught by YGB staff, adoptive parents, and youth and provide another opportunity for teens seeking permanent homes to meet prospective families.
Once a teenager is placed with a family, YGB provides postadoption services in the form of ongoing group services, crisis intervention, and social activities (Louisell, 2004). A shadow postplacement worker is assigned by YGB to make at least weekly contact with the family. These workers are experienced adoptive parents who understand the problems that families encounter and are able to provide support.
Funding. A variety of funding streams support this program. The City of New York provides the bulk of funding, but YGB staff supplement with money from speaking engagements. In addition, the Dave Thomas Foundation pays for the salaries of several part-time recruiters. YGB also received a Federal Adoption Opportunities grant in 2001.
Outcomes. Between its founding in 1995 and 2001, YGB found permanent families for 18 youths. After the receipt of funding from New York City and the Federal Government, beginning in 2001, more than 100 youths were placed with families.
Contact information.
Pat O'Brien, Director
You Gotta Believe
1728 Mermaid Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11224
Phone: 800.601.1779
Email: ygbpat@msn.com
Website: www.yougottabelieve.org
Massachusetts Families for Kids: Making Lifelong Family Connections for Adolescents
The Department of Social Services and Children's Services of Roxbury's Massachusetts Families for Kids (MFFK) program are working together to prevent teenagers in foster care from aging out of the system without a permanent family connection in their life. Lifelong Family Connections for Adolescents (LFCA), a statewide initiative, is designed to improve outcomes for older foster youth by helping them to identify and maintain a permanent connection with an adult.
How it works. LFCA uses seven components to help adolescents in foster care develop lifelong family connections:
- A community of care review to develop the youth's understanding of the need for permanence and to search for adults willing to commit to the youth
- Specialized recruitment for adolescents who do not have a permanent connection within their own community of care
- A family consultation team that includes the youth and significant adults and social service providers who produce a written plan for permanency
- "Family bound" training to help prepare adolescents to make permanent connections and transition from institutional to family settings
- Parents As Tender Healers (PATH) training for adults
- The MFFK Speak Out team to offer support and mentoring
- Specialized postplacement services (LeBeau & Stevens, 2004)
Youth, age 14 to 18 years, are referred by social workers and join the program voluntarily. They are given responsibility for the process and are asked to identify people with whom they want a connection (Louisell, 2004). The MFFK staff encourage youth to try to make more than one connection, and the staff follow up on the leads that the youth identify. Postplacement services are funded separately, but MFFK staff maintain contact for 3 to 6 months after placement.
Funding. Initial funding for the pilot project in 2001 was provided by the Department of Social Services. Their success led to a State contract. In 2003, they received a Federal Adoption Opportunities grant, which runs through 2008. They also raise money through fundraising, training, and consultation (Louisell, 2004).
Outcomes. When the pilot project began in 2001, 33 youths were referred, 24 received services, and all 24 made permanent connections (Louisell, 2004). Between 2003 and 2004, 27 youth were referred, and 20 received services. With the receipt of the Federal Adoption Opportunities Grant, MFFK staff plan to have 125 youth referred, with 100 receiving services (Louisell).
Contact information.
Edwin Gonzalez, Program Director Lifelong Family Connections, Massachusetts Families for Kids
520 Dudley Street
Roxbury, MA 02119
Phone: 617.989.9444 or 413.586.2303, Ext. 14
Email: egonzalez@csrox.org
Website: www.csrox.org/programs/family-connections.php
Colorado's Project UPLIFT: Caring Connections for Adolescents
Project UPLIFT (Understanding Permanency Lessons in Future Teamwork) Adolescent Connection was a 9-month pilot study in 2002-2003 in five Colorado counties, with the aim of connecting adolescent youth with previously involved adults. Youth participants included a number who had significant barriers to permanency, including involvement with the juvenile justice system or behavioral/mental health issues.
How it worked. Fifty-six youth (average age 14 years) living in out-of-home care worked with four Adolescent Connection workers to identify possible permanent connections. All possible connections were explored, and workers used a variety of methods to locate connections, including Internet search engines (Custer Enterprises, 2003). Four types of existing relationships were identified for each youth (birth parents, other kin, foster parents, and others), and 16 different levels of contact were established, ranging from "no contact" to "reunification with birth parents." This allowed workers to "score" relationships and develop some estimation of both the number and the importance of the connections that were established for each youth.
Funding. The project was funded by a Federal Adoption Opportunities Grant.
Outcomes. Of the 56 youth, 47 made at least one connection. A total of 122 connections were documented for these youth, 75 percent of which were interjurisdictional. Twelve connections were adoptions or intentions to adopt, and two youth were being reunited with birth families. In addition, an evaluation of the financial savings provided by this program showed that the expected savings from the cost of residential and foster care for the 14 youth who had made permanent placement connections would amount to $1,776,000 ("Connecting adolescents," 2004).
Contact information.
Cheryl Jacobson
Colorado Recruitment and Retention Specialist for Adoption and Foster Care
Phone: 303.866.4306
Email: cheryl.jacobson@state.co.us
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