Children's Bureau Discretionary Grants

In fiscal year 2014, the Children's Bureau awarded one 5-year grant, which was extended to fiscal year 2020, to strengthen the capacity of child welfare staff and mental health practitioners serving children and youth moving toward or maintaining permanency in adoptive or guardianship homes.

The National Adoption Competency Mental Health Training Initiative (NTI) provides two standardized web-based trainings developed by NTI to build the capacity of child welfare and mental health professionals to understand and address the needs of children, youth, and families moving toward or having achieved permanency through adoption or guardianship. The trainings also aim to improve collaboration between service systems with shared language and aligned curricula. The following are the training videos for each audience:

Child Welfare Professionals  

• Introductory video
• Training benefits and features
• Training demo and curriculum modules listing
• Training resources

Mental Health Professionals 

• Introductory video
• Training benefits and features
• Training demo and curriculum modules listing
• Training resources

The Children's Bureau awarded a 5-year cooperative agreement to build the capacity of child welfare professionals and improve the organizations that recruit, train, supervise, manage, and retain them.

The National Child Welfare Workforce Institute (NCWWI) provides information, resources, and webinars to help develop and support the child welfare workforce.

We Are Child Welfare Campaign
Presents information on a campaign to raise awareness of the important role child welfare professionals play in children's and family’s lives, as well as how others can support their work.

Workforce Excellence Sites
Describes NCWWI's selection of four jurisdictions and three Tribal child welfare programs across the country to evaluate and improve the outcomes of their child welfare workforce.

The Children's Bureau awarded a 5-year grant, to develop, implement, and evaluate programs and initiatives to help improve stability, permanency, and well-being for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning, and Two-Spirit (LGBTQ2S) children and youth in foster care. The resulting National Quality Improvement Center on Tailored Services, Placement Stability, and Permanency for LGBTQ2S Children and Youth in Foster Care (QIC-LGBTQ2S) received a funding extension to disseminate findings and lessons learned to the field.

The QIC-LGBTQ2S' materials are housed on the National SOGIE Center website, which operates as a hub for providers seeking information on serving LGBTQ2S children and youth and their families. QIC-LGBTQ2S resources offer information on collecting SOGIE (sexual orientation, gender identity, and expression) data in systems, free workforce training, and youth and family programs designed and evaluated under the QIC-LGBTQ2S.

The QIC-LGBTQ2S also developed several tip sheets to help child welfare implementers and leaders scale up LGBTQ2S practices in their jurisdictions. The following tip sheets were created in partnership with people with lived experience who helped implement the work of the QIC-LGBTQ2S within their local implementation sites:

• Collecting SOGIE Data
• LBGTQ+ Youth Engagement Virtually and In-Person
• Working With Families of LGBTQ+ Youth
• Working Virtually With Families of LGBTQ+ Youth

The Children's Bureau, within the Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, developed a multiphase grant initiative to build the evidence base on what works to prevent homelessness among youth and young adults who have been involved in the child welfare system. This program is referred to as Youth At-Risk of Homelessness (YARH). Eighteen organizations received funding for the first phase (phase I), a 2-year planning grant (2013–2015). Grantees used the planning period to conduct data analyses to help them understand their local population and develop a comprehensive service model to improve youth outcomes related to housing, education and training, social well-being, and permanent connections. Six of those organizations received additional funding to refine and test their comprehensive service models during the second phase (phase II).

Image Title: Multi-Phase Grant Program

Description:
Phase I: Activities included identifying the target population, describing its needs,
and developing a comprehensive service model.

Phase II: Six Phase 1 grantees received Phase II grants to implement and conduct
initial testing of the comprehensive service model developed in Phase 1.

Phase III: Summative evaluations being conducted to determine the effectiveness
of the comprehensive service models designed piloted in the earlier phases.

Beginning in early February of 2021 and continuing through May of 2021, Information Gateway hosted national webinars focused on the YARH 2 grantees. These webinars featured lessons learned and shared additional resources and tools from each project.

For more information about the planning and implementation period of the phase I and phase II grantees, visit the YARH evaluation technical assistance provider Mathematica and the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation.

YARH Phase II Grantees

Find information on and resources developed by YARH phase II grantees and their technical assistance providers.

Alameda County Social Services Agency
Alameda County Youth Transitions Partnership (YTP)

The Alameda County Social Services Agency, in collaboration with community partners, developed YTP, a model that blends service coordination, intensive case management, and dialectical behavior therapy to help youth in foster care engage with available support systems and improve their outcomes. For more details about the project and intervention, see the Project Summary.

• Alameda County’s Youth Transitions Partnership Program: A Promising Model for Supporting Transition-Age Youth in Foster Care
• Building the Evidence on Preventing Homelessness Among Former Foster Youth: Supporting and Evaluating the Youth Transitions Partnership in Alameda County

Colorado Department of Human Services/Division of Child Welfare
Colorado's Pathways to Success: Engaging Youth in a Coach-Like Way

Pathways is a voluntary, intensive, youth-driven, and strengths-based case management approach with the long-term goal of preventing homelessness among youth with foster care experience. For more details about the project and intervention, see the Project Summary.

• Policy briefs and other information about Pathways can be found at the Center for Policy Research.
• Colorado Pathways to Success Intervention Manual

Lighthouse Youth and Family Services
Watch Me Rise (WMR)

WMR was based in Hamilton County, OH (Cincinnati), and served homeless young adults who entered the Lighthouse Sheakley Center for Youth as a shelter resident or day program participant. For more details about the project and intervention, see the Project Summary.

• Using Wraparound with Homeless Youth Who Have a Child Welfare History: Lessons from the Field
• Integrating Peer Supports into Services for Homeless Youth with a Child Welfare History: Lessons from the Field
• It Begins at ‘Hello’: Lessons on Enrolling and Engaging Homeless Young Adults with a Child Welfare History in Services

University of Maryland, Baltimore, School of Social Work
Enhanced-Youth Transition Planning (E-YTP)

The E-YTP model is an individualized, youth-driven, strengths-based, and team-based transition-planning process for older youth (ages 14–21) in foster care developed for a rural setting. For more details about the project and intervention, see the Project Summary.

• Enhanced-Youth Transition Planning (E-YTP): Transition Planning Model for Young People in Foster Care [Video]

Westchester County Department of Social Services
The BraveLife Intervention (BLI)>

Westchester County DSS partnered with The Children’s Village and the Fordham University Graduate School of Social Service’s Ravazzin Center to develop BLI, a youth-centered, strengths-based initiative. For more details about the project and intervention, see the Project Summary.

• BLI Research