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Belonging and Emotional Security (BEST) Tool

For some youth in foster care, the closest family or family-like relationships are with the foster parents with whom they have lived for extended periods of time. Nonetheless, child welfare agencies often do not explore these relationships and the potential they may hold for youth to obtain or achieve legal permanence through adoption or guardianship.

Recognizing that social workers often lack resources to help them initiate permanency conversations, Casey Family Services developed a tool that social workers can use to explore youth’s sense of emotional security with their foster parents and foster parents’ sense of claiming and attachment with youth in their care. When used with youth and foster parents, the BEST tool was found to advance meaningful permanency conversations.

Download the BEST Tool (PDF).