Transcript Permanency Presentation

A New Vision Of Permanency
April 2006
Jeff Griffin
Will Ortiz
Where Are We Now? Agency-Wide:
Youth 11-years or Older in PP Service Component
by Placement Facility Type as of Dec., 1, 2005
Valid
Relative
GH
FFA Cert. Home
FFH
Guardian
Court Spec. Home
Orangewood Children's Home
Small Family Home
Total
Frequency Percent
238
207
161
88
69
11
15
5
794
30
26.1
20.3
11.1
8.7
1.4
1.9
0.6
100
Relative
Group Home
Foster Home
Creating Family Connections
Orange County Children and Family Services (CFS) joined in partnership with
Canyon Acres Children’s Services to bring the Creating Family Connections (CFC)
program to Orange County. Creating Family Connections was an innovative
project designed to thoroughly seek out any existing family members for youth that
were previously thought to have little or no caring adults in their lives. Catholic
Community Services of Western Washington (CCS) provided training in the areas
of intensive family searching and engagement. CCS trained both CFS and Canyon
Acres staff in the use of Internet search databases to actively search for and locate
family members.
Creating Family Connections
(Continued)
A new process of engagement was also taught regarding how to
effectively approach family members to engage (or re-engage) into
the youth’s life. The Creating Family Connections pilot project
launched in December 2004 and ended in June 2005. The 6-month
(with one more month of support by CCS) training project
involved 27 youth from the Multi-treatment Transition Services
(MTS) division. The project had tremendous success in locating
and engaging family members for youth that were previously
thought to have no family members available to them.
Outcomes For Creating Family
Connections Pilot Project:
Percentage of youth for which possible family connections
were identified during the CFC project: 92%
Percentage of youth for which new family connections
were achieved during the CFC project: 70%
Of youth for which connections were made:
Percentage of youth for which the new family connections that were achieved
during the CFC project have remained since the project ended: 88%
Percentage of youth for which there is a positive difference in the youth’s
functioning now that more family connections have been achieved: 63%
Percentage of youth that have transitioned (or are being considered for a
transition) to a lower level of care or family as a result of the CFC project: 63%
Percentage of social workers who participated in the CFC project that think it is
valuable and should be continued: 100%
Creating Family Connections:
Totals As Of January 2006:
1. Number of children served by CFC:
41 Youth total have been served, including the pilot phase.
2. Breakout on age, gender, years in dependency:
Males - 24; Females - 17; Age range 9-17 years old;
Years in dependency range 3-14 years.
3. Number of connections did children have before CFC:
20 (approximately)
4. Number of connections post-CFC:
199 (and growing)
5. Quantifiable connections: reunifications, visits, connections being maintained:
39 connections continue, either telephone calls, or visits.
California Permanency for Youth Project
Dedicated to assuring that no youth will leave the California child welfare
system without a permanent lifelong connection to a caring adult
The California Permanency for Youth Project (CPYP), a project of the Public
Health Institute, started in January 2003 as a result of a five-year grant
awarded by the Stuart Foundation. This grant has since been extended
through 2009. Other funders include the Walter S. Johnson and Zellerback
Family Foundations.
Children eleven and older in the foster care system have a poor chance of
finding a permanent family. When they do not find permanency before they
leave the foster care system at age 18, research shows they often become
homeless, unemployed, and disconnected. We believe it is the responsibility
of the entire community to make sure that each youth who leaves the foster
care system in California has a permanent lifelong connection with a caring
adult.
•Pat Reynolds-Harris, MA, MSPH – Director of California Permanency for
Youth Project.
-Taken from the California Permanency For Youth Website:
http://www.cpyp.org/
California Permanency for Youth Project (CPYP)
(continued)
 Orange County is partnering with the California
Permanency for Youth Project.
 Program Manager Bob Malmberg is facilitating a
monthly multi-program CPYP meeting.
 The multi-program group is developing and
implementing a plan to increase permanency results
for OC youth in dependency.
California Permanency for Youth Project (CPYP)
(continued)
Definition
Permanency is both a process and a result that includes involvement
of the youth as a participant or leader in finding a permanent
connection with at least one committed adult who provides:
•A safe, stable and secure parenting relationship
•Love
•Unconditional commitment
•Lifelong support in the context of a legal arrangement
when possible
•The opportunity to maintain family ties and emotional
bonds with siblings and important persons who will
sustain connections with their culture
Simply stated: Permanency is when a child and an adult have a safe,
stable, sustainable and committed relationship across time and
circumstance.
Orange County CPYP Project
CPYP Project Goals
1. Increase connections for youth
2. Increase the number and engagement of supportive family
members to enhance service provision
3. Increase the ability of youth to successfully emancipate from
dependency
4. Expand the success of family finding and engagement strategies
into other areas of CFS and expand the agency’s definition of
permanency.
5. Assess models of family finding and engagement to determine
their usefulness in CFS.
Orange County CPYP Project
What is our target group of youth?
 A total of 45 youth will be involved in the
County of Orange CPYP project:
♦CFC will work with 25 youth in MTS, ICS I, ICS II
♦ICS I Senior Social Worker Tawny Crane and
Melanie McCallum will work with 20 selected cases
in ICS I and implement family finding and
engagement strategies for each case with support of
the CPYP committee.
Orange County CPYP Project
What is our target group of youth?
 Youth selected for program (CFC project):
- Youth has expressed interest in knowing about or having
contact with family members.
- Youth is preparing to emancipate with no known family
connection.
- Youth is at risk of entering LTFC with minimal or no
appropriate family connection.
- Youth is a dependent placed in out of home care who needs
family connection in order to foster stability and avoid “aging
out” of system care.
- CFC referred youth are not limited by age or legal status to be
included in the project.
Orange County CPYP Project
What is our target group of youth?
(continued)
 Youth selected for program (SSW Crane/McCallum):
- Youth must be in Long Term Foster Care.
- No relative placements or courtesy supervision.
- Youth who are at risk of being placed at a higher level of care, and/or who are already
receiving specialized foster care placement rates (due to their higher services needs).
- Youth ages 11 and over, with priority to those closest to emancipation.
- Youth who have little or no connections to important adults in their lives.
Orange County CPYP Project
What will be done in the CPYP project to obtain the
goals?
(Projected plan)
 CPYP committee leadership is coordinating with Social
Services Agency Training and Career Development (TCD) to
develop the ability to present agency-wide training on family
finding and engagement and permanency.
 CPYP has committed to providing technical assistance and
training from Kevin Campbell one day per month for 6
months. This process will begin when, in consultation with
Pat Reynolds-Harris, training is ready to begin.
 Kick-Off Presentation of CPYP project in Orange County
occurred on April 6, 2006.
Youth and Permanency
A New Vision For What Is Possible For CFS Youth
``We should never raise a child in the public system who all along had a family
who we didn't call.'' – Kevin Campbell, EMQ
 Every youth has healthy family members that love and support them.
 Youth have the right to know about their family members; Family
members have the right to know about their youth in our care.
 The single most identified variable contributing to positive outcomes for
youth involves meaningful connections and lifelong relationships with
family members and other caring adults.
 Family connections and relationships are as important as mental health
services and other services available to the youth from CFS.
 We need to work for youth to have an “expectation of normalcy” that is
severely lacking in their lives.
 Long-Term Foster Care is no longer an acceptable permanent plan. There
is nothing permanent about it.
 The goal towards permanency drives every decision made on a case.
“There are only two lasting bequests we can
give our children, one is roots, the other
wings.” – Hodding Carter
REFERENCES
Lighting the Fire of Urgency: Families Lost and Found in America’s Child
Welfare System. Kevin Campbell. Catholic Community Services of Western
Washington
Resource Documents, January 2005.
The National Resource Center for Family-Centered Practice and Permanency
Planning at the Hunter College School of Social Work
http://www.hunter.cuny.edu/socwork/nrcfcpp/about-us.html
Who Am I? Why Family Really Matters. Barbara Boisvert, Gina Brimner,
Kevin Campbell, Don Koenig, Mary Stone-Smith. Catholic Community
Services of Western Washington.
www.ccsww.org/preservation/articles/article6.php.
F.A.S.T. Family Assessment and Stabilization Team. Catholic Community
Services of Western Washington. - www.ccsww.org
California Permanency For Youth Project. http://www.cpyp.org/
Permanence for Young People: Framework. National Resource Center for
Foster Care and Permanency Planning at the Hunter College School of Social
Work.