Preparing Children and Youth for Permanency

Children and youth in out-of-home care must be involved in planning for their own permanency to the extent possible. Discussing permanency options, explaining the processes, and helping children and youth deal with the emotional ups and downs are all activities that can help prepare and support them to achieve permanency. The following resources, which include State and local examples, can help professionals prepare youth throughout the permanency process.

2018 National Adoption Month: Lifting Up Youth Voices to Promote Permanency [Webinar]
AdoptUSKids & Child Welfare Information Gateway (2018)
Features professionals, youth, and young adults who have experience engaging youth in promoting permanency for themselves and others and developing public platforms to help inform and influence local and statewide permanency efforts.

3-5-7 Model
The California Evidence-Based Clearinghouse for Child Welfare (2017)
Presents an approach that empowers children, youth, and families and allows them to engage in the work of grieving losses and rebuilding relationships with the goal of well-being, safety, and permanency.

Achieving Permanency for Children in Care: Barriers and Future Directions (PDF - 2,480 KB)
Madden & Aguiniga (2017)
Highlights a multitude of factors, programs, and initiatives that can impact the likelihood of a child in care attaining permanency.

Engaging Older Youth in Permanency Planning
Juvenile Law Center (2019)
Presents a toolkit for child welfare professionals to support youth and assist them in achieving permanency. The toolkit includes tools and best practices developed by youth advocates for professionals who work on permanency planning.

Episode 1: Engaging Youth in Foster Care [Podcast]
Child Welfare Information Gateway (2016) 
Offers a podcast that provides caseworkers with information on how to engage youth in foster care in their own case planning and decision-making.

Fostering Youth Transitions: Using Data to Drive Policy and Practice Decisions (PDF - 2,007 KB)
The Annie E. Casey Foundation (2018)
Highlights the most comprehensive data set ever collected across all 50 states to assess the obstacles experienced during the transition from foster care to adulthood.

Healing Guidebook: Practical Tips and Tools for Working With Children and Youth Who Have Experienced Trauma (PDF - 17,728 KB)
Anu Family Services & Alia Innovations (2018)
Presents an effective four-phase framework—protect, grieve, connect, and regulate—for helping youth heal from relational trauma and find permanency.

How Can We Ensure a Child’s First Placement Is With a Family? (PDF - 1,535 KB)
Casey Family Programs (2018)
Examines how child protection agencies have developed ways to secure the most appropriate first placement for children who come into care in an effort to support placement stability and the achievement of timely permanency.

Supporting Young People Transitioning From Foster Care: Findings From a National Survey
Fryar, Jordan, & Devooght (2017)
Child Trends
Presents key findings from a national survey of State independent-living coordinators from 47 States regarding the availability of services and supports for youth and young adults who have experienced foster care.

Unpacking the No: Helping Young People Explore the Idea of Adoption
Stevens & Libertin (2018)
Adoptalk, 3
North American Council on Adoptable Children
Discusses how caseworkers can respond to older youth or teens in foster care who have said they do not want to be adopted. The resource reviews several reasons why older youth say they do not want to participate in adoptive family recruitment and ways to respond.

We Never Outgrow the Need for Family—Just Ask Us: Talking With Older Youth About Adoption [Video]
Administration for Children and Families (2016)
Features teens involved with the child welfare system and their perspectives and experiences in developing permanent connections.

What Are Some Effective Strategies for Achieving Permanency? (PDF - 2,147 KB)
Casey Family Programs (2018)
Highlights evidenced-based strategies that child protection agencies can use to achieve permanency for children in out-of-home care.

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State and local examples

Achieving Permanency for Older Youth (PDF - 293 KB) 
Virginia Department of Social Services (2016) 
Presents information on permanency for older youth in Virginia and includes sections on assessments, engaging families and youth, creating transitional living plans, maintaining connections, education and training resources for youth, and more.

Destination Family: Achieving Permanency for Children and Youth Through Relationship Development Matching
Adoptalk, 2 (2018)
North American Council on Adoptable Children
Discusses the Destination Family methodology used by permanency workers in youth preparation and recruitment in Sacramento County.

Family Focus Adoption Guide Program
Family Focus Adoption Services
Describes a program in New York and New Jersey that aims to help children become more confident in the adoption process. Each child is assigned a trained and well-supervised guide to help them through the adoption process, from placement through their decision about adoption. The program uses a graduated visiting schedule, from twice a week to once every 3 weeks, and takes the child through a series of adoption levels that are marked by six cards collected by the child over 5 months. The goal of the program is to help children become more certain that being adopted by the particular family they are with is the right decision for them.

Permanency for Older Youth [Video]
Public Children Services Association of Ohio (2016)
Highlights a pilot program used by Ohio's children's services agencies that focuses on finding permanency for older youth in foster care and reunifying them with birth their parents, even if parental rights have been terminated.

Perspectives on Normalcy: Videos and Discussion Questions
Capacity Building Center for States (2016)
Shares the perspectives of diverse individuals as they discuss their experiences with normalcy within the child welfare system. Normalcy is important for children in foster care as they should be able to experience the same opportunities as any other children in the most normal and safest method possible. Normalcy is a critical component to establishing well-being and preparing young people in foster care for permanency.

Youth Permanency Connections
Children’s Services of Roxbury (2020)
Examines an approach used by a Massachusetts children’s service agency that works to identify a family connection to a child in the child welfare system that does not have any pre-existing family ties.

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