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Connections Count
Resources Connecting Foster Teens with Families for Life
From the Annie E. Casey Foundation/Casey Family Services
In this Issue:
HomeMaking It Possible
Youth & Family Perspectives
In Depth
Data Snapshots
What Do You Think?
About Enewsletter
Making It
Possible
Need strategies to involve birth families in your state CFSR? New tools can help.
Two new resources related to dads as permanency resources: What about the Dads? Child Welfare Agencies’ Efforts to Identify, Locate, and Involve Nonresident Fathers (PDF) and Fatherhood.gov, the new federal clearinghouse with sections for researchers and policymakers.
Questions about kinship care among social workers, policymakers, state legislators, or community partners? See Is Kinship Care Good for Kids? (PDF)
Youth and
Family Perspectives
Kayla is like a complicated plant. She has roots with us— her adoptive family—and roots with her birth family. To be healthy as an adult, the more support she has in place, the better.
Donna Coraluzzo,
foster parent
Making It Possible
Youth Voices and the CFSR
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| In conversations that started in Spring 2007 with child welfare directors in nearly 40 states, Casey Family Services has learned that involving youth and families in federal Child and Family Service Reviews (CFSR) is critically important for many states.
One child welfare director noted that, for youth permanency work to get traction, “We need to change the mindset of everyone—workers, families, the courts—so they all work with youth and get out of the mindset of doing to youth and their families.” This is true of case planning with individual youth; it’s also true of involving young people and their families in systems reform efforts. Another child welfare director described recent changes in his state, saying, “Youth are now active on the CSFR team; this has been a tremendous change. The youth have grown so much in maturity, and the impact on the system and stakeholders has been amazing.” Need tools to strengthen your CFSR process?
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Data Snapshots
Ties with birth families—however complicated—are important to older youth in care, two different studies say.What Do You Think?
Which family search practice are you employing to help increase youth permanence?About Connections Count
Produced by the Annie E. Casey Foundation/Casey Family Services, Connections Count is an electronic newsletter focusing on best practices information, tools, research, and data emerging on youth permanence in child welfare.Contact Us
Casey Family Services127 Church Street
New Haven, CT 06510
Tel: 203.401.6900
Fax: 203.401.6901