Rhode Island Division Director |
Jim Gannaway
Jim Gannaway joined Casey Family Services in 1992 to launch and direct the organization’s fledgling Rhode Island Division. Prior to becoming the division’s director, he managed the children and youth programming for the community mental health center in Providence. As an attorney, Gannaway also kept busy in a private practice doing psychotherapy, divorce mediation, and an occasional criminal defense case.
The original Rhode Island Team included Arleen DiCicco, Cathy Lewis, and Jim Morris, all of whom were instrumental in putting Casey on the map with an effective statewide foster care program. Today, the Providence-based Rhode Island Division with its staff of 31 is a state leader in providing an array of permanency services for children and families.
You and the division have received multiple honors for your work with adoptive families. What are you and your staff doing to support these families?
In the Rhode Island Division, we offer supports for all Rhode Island families formed by adoption through foster care or kinship care, in the public and private sector as well as international placements. These services are voluntary, free, and aimed at meeting families at their level of need. Recently we have integrated the Casey Legal Clinic’s Services into our post-adoption work by teaming third-year law students with clinicians on cases requiring both perspectives.
In addition to our traditional post-adoption services, we are committed to supporting permanence for the children in our foster care services. We have moved a majority of youth from foster care into adoption, most all of them adopted by their Casey foster parents.
What role do you see Casey Family Services playing in Rhode Island?
Rhode Island is progressive in establishing permanence as a goal for its children in care. As a result we have developed our casework and clinical practice to fully embrace permanence.
What has that shift in focus meant in terms of your practice?
In past years when a child entered our foster care services, often from a psychiatric or residential facility, stability and treatment took precedent over conversations about adoption. Today we are still very attentive to the therapeutic needs of our children, while achieving stability of placement; however, discussions regarding permanency plans begin at intake. We are also more upfront with prospective foster parents, always asking if they would consider adopting. So we are placing children who will most likely be moving to adoption with those families who have indicated that they are open to the concept of foster care to adoption. It is also important, however, to recruit resource families not interested in adoption to help us with our reunification efforts.
As a clinical social worker and an attorney, you’ve combined two very different career paths. What led you to pursue both professions?
When I started out as a social worker, my jobs took me into court pretty regularly. I felt that social workers didn’t get a lot of respect in the courtroom. When the opportunity for a fellowship to Saint Louis University School of Law presented itself, I took it.
What’s been the impact of the division’s move to a more urban area?
We have become much more involved with our neighborhood. While we continue to provide services throughout the state, being in South Providence and having a Family Resource Center has allowed us to expand our outreach to families in the community. As a result of our local partnerships, we can offer many services ranging from a law clinic to food preparation classes.
We’ve also strengthened our connection to the grant-making arm of the Annie E. Casey Foundation, which is funding several projects in our communities: Making Connections and the Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative. It’s been a great opportunity to bring these resources to Providence.