The Casey Approach
With a mission and history rooted in an ambitious vision of building better futures for disadvantaged children, Casey Family Services is part of a larger approach to philanthropy established by the Annie E. Casey Foundation.
The agency uses its resources to partner with and forge working collaborations among institutions, agencies, decision makers, and community leaders. Casey directly delivers services, identifies and measures what works, and shares lessons learned to demonstrate the potential of reforming public policies and services on behalf of children and their families. Casey provides technical assistance and policies that help service and support systems – public schools, juvenile justice agencies, and child welfare systems – get better results for kids and families. No one single investment approach can fully meet the needs or make a lasting difference in the lives of significant numbers of vulnerable children and families. However, taken as a whole, Casey’s multiple approaches to “change-making” combine to help increase the agency’s positive impact on the populations it cares about most; expand its influence with key audiences; and maximize its ability to leverage resources for kids, families, and their communities.
Helping Kids and Families
Casey Family Services delivers services and interventions for children in foster care, or those at risk of entry, and their families, facilitates adoption and guardianship, and helps prepare at-risk youth to become successful adults. These services are driven by a goal to secure and support lifelong family connections for all children and youth.
Providing Technical Assistance
In an effort to make lasting and measurable improvements to child welfare systems, the Casey Center for Effective Child Welfare Practice provides technical assistance to leaders and staff of public agencies who are working to achieve permanence for youth through practice reform.
Leading Policy Change
In an effort to promote promising policy strategies that advance the cause of lifelong families for children in foster care, as well as children at risk of entry, Casey Family Services provides policy leadership on a local, state, and national level.
Reforming Public Systems
Systems reform is a major emphasis of work for the Annie E. Casey Foundation and its direct service agency, Casey Family Services. The organization demonstrates, replicates, and advocates for changes to assist public human service systems do a better job of providing effective, efficient assistance to the children and families they were designed to support.
Using Data and Evaluation
Casey Family Services promotes the use of data as a critical tool for change. The agency routinely seeks and supports independent evaluation to ensure that its services yield real results for children and families.