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A New Approach to Servicing Families
A New Approach to Servicing Families
Introduction to the practice of kinship care specific to A Second Chance Inc.
An Overview of how kinship care lends itself to better outcomes for children and families – safety, permanency & well-being.
The Natural Fit of Kinship Care and Family Group Decision Making: When and how to introduce and incorporate Family Group Decision Making into work with kinship families.
A closer look at how FGDM is incorporated into case planning from the onset of the case. A look at various effective outreach approaches to be utilized
with families.
Collaboration with the county and service providers Hands on approaches with how to effectively engage with the
county will be discussed.
ASCI began as a vision of President and CEO Dr. Sharon McDaniel while serving in another professional capacity. It was there that she saw firsthand the disparity between the large number of African-American children requiring out-of-home placement care, with the availability of African-American families providing such care.
Currently servicing Allegheny, Philadelphia, Delaware and Berks Counties.
ASCI provides Kinship Foster Care, Emergency Kinship Placement Services, SWAN, FGDM, and Family Finding.
• The number of children being raised by kin over the last ten years increased by 18%.*
• At least 1 in 11 children will spend some amount of time in kinship care before the age of 18. For African American children the is true for 1 in 5 children.
• Kinship care is a practice embedded in the child welfare system.
*Annie E. Casey Foundation: Stepping Up for Kids: What Government and Communities Should Do to Support Kinship Families,
• Safety:–There is lesser likelihood that children will
experience another occurrence of abuse or neglect when placed in kinship care compared to children placed in non-relative care.*
–Some studies indicate that children in non-relative care are 10 times more likely to have a new allegation of abuse or neglect.**
• *Center for Law and Social Policy: Is Kinship Care Good for Kids? Conway and Hutson, 2007
• ** Families in Society: A Matched Comparison of Children in Kinship Care & Foster Care on Child Welfare Outcomes, Winokur & Crawford
• Children placed in kinship care experience fewer placements.
• Children placed in kinship care are less likely to experience school movements – 63% of children in kinship care compared to 80% of children in non-relative care.
• Research indicates that children who reunify with birth parents following kinship care placements are less likely to experience a re-entry into care than children placed with non-relatives.
* Center for Law and Social Policy: Is Kinship Care Good for Kids? Conway and Hutson, 2007
Challenges of Kinship Care
Casework Stages FGDM Influences
Preventing placement Identify informal Kinship resources
Finding Out of Home Care Identify Kinship placement
Stabilizing Out of Home Care Placement
Implementing Family Support for Kinship
placement
Permanency Connect Triad
40% Reunification occurred with biological parents or family
Almost half of our successful plans resulted in the reunification of the children to their parents and/or family members. Families came together to offer supports and assist in the process of reunification.
21% Kinship resource established About ¼ of our successes resulted in identifying other family for
youth and/or parents. Family members were identified to provide supports, foster care or a permanent placement after discharge of a child from a facility.
32% Placements prevented and family supports were established
More than ¼ of our successes for the year were due to families creating a family support team to prevent foster care placement of children.
Connects the Triad
Ensures the Communication
Emphasis Relationship Building
Provides a Framework for the Plan
Shares Ownership for the Success of the Plan
Changing the Lens to Family Driven ServicesBeyond Collaboration to PartnershipsIntegrating New Counties into an Existing System
Caitlin Price, Regional [email protected] Kamara, FGDM [email protected] Kyne, Supervisor [email protected] Alexander, [email protected]
1341 N. Delaware Ave. Suite 101 Philadelphia, PA 19125215-564-0790
