FAMILY FINDING AND

ENGAGEMENT IN CALIFORNIA

Prepared by American Humane Association and the California Administrative Office of the Courts

Identified Permanency Issues?

How did you identify an issue with permanency?

What do you think you do well?

What are the barriers to permanency?

Identified Permanency Goals?

What are some of the identified benefits from beginning permanency work at the time of removal?

Who can help? Why are these goals important?

Problem Statement

When a child is removed from their home and placed in out of home care, too often they become disconnected from their families, sometimes forever.

Front end – When children are at risk of protective custody, too often family members and not informed of the urgent need for their involvement and support in the family crisis.

PERCENT

Age Group

AllUnder 1

1-2 3-5 6-10 11-15 16-17

% % % % % % %

<=2 placements

93.9 89.5

92.5 92.1 93.8 95.0 92.6

>2 placements

6.1 10.5

7.5 7.9 6.3 5.0 7.4

Total 100 100

100 100 100 100 100

AFCARS Placement Data 2012

A Possible Solution

Investing in initial efforts to find extended paternal and maternal family members—in addition to community members who can support the child--will address the longstanding problem of children languishing in the child welfare system

Engage family and/or community members in decision making processes for children

What is FFE?

A proven strategy for improving permanency by finding, engaging, and supporting extended family members by…

Identifying and finding extended paternal and maternal family, including tribal connections, as quickly as possible;

Engaging family and tribal members, including siblings, to plan for the child and provide a safe resource for permanent care and a life long support network

Why FFE matters

FFE is a practice that can possibly prevent out of home care

• For children already in out of home care, FFE offers:

an opportunity to reconnect with extended family and other important people from whom they have become disconnected

Does it work? Short answer: YES California Permanency for Youth Project (CPYP)

provided TA regarding youth permanency and family finding and engagement to 20 counties in California over a seven year period ending in 2010

San Bernardino County provides one example for the results of FFE… Approximately 85% of the CPYP youth, but 13% of the

comparison youth, had family and friends found and contacted;

Nearly 73% of CPYP youth had potential permanent connections at the end of the pilot, compared to only 4% of comparison youth;

Is FFE cost effective? The Step-Up Program, serving youth in group

homes in Alameda County and another CPYP county did a cost analysis of their FFE work

They served 36 youth in the pilot and expected that, without intervention, these youth would have remained in the system for an average of another four years. Over that four year timeframe, the Step-Up Program projected a net savings of $6,102,000 or $46.5 thousand per youth per year through their FFE work

Destination Family

The project documented savings achieved throughout the 5-year project.

Law Requires Identification and Notification

California law requires the public child welfare agency to notify family members to the 5th degree within 30 days of the child becoming involved in the child welfare or probation system. Does this require a shift in current practice?

Law Supports the Practice

Requirements of AB938 within 30 days:

Conduct a diligent search for relatives and extended family;

Notify such relatives of the child’s removal; and Discuss options that relatives have to participate

in the care and placement of the child.

The law also requires the assessment of relative and non-relative extended family and placement with those relatives if they meet suitability requirements.

Added benefits of FFE

FFE practice is a useful tool to meet the requirements of Federal and State Law but goes much further by engaging the child, helping the child with grief and loss issues as well as engaging multiple relatives on the maternal and paternal sides of the family in the process of establishing a life long support network.

Extended Foster Care and FFE FFE is not only done for children at the front

end and back end of cases: Permanency continues to be an objective as

long as a youth is in care and FFE practice should continue until permanency is achieved

Extended foster care legislation requires in the court to examine in the Transitional Independent Living Case Plan efforts made by social services to maintain or obtain connections with care and permanently committed adults The court must make a finding that reasonable

efforts have been made to maintain these connections.

Values of FFE

1. Children have a right to permanent family and tribal relationships

2. Children have a right to know about their family members; family members have a right to know about their children

3. Children must be central to and intimately involved in their own permanency planning

4. Connections solidify a child’s identity and clarifies their personal history

5. A cooperative partnership between agencies, children and families is essential to developing concurrent multiple permanency options and the best outcomes

6. Reunification with the child’s birth parent(s) is possible if the assessed risk has changed since initial assessment and necessary supports can be provided to the parents

FFE Process

Whether doing FFE front end or back end, there are 6 basic stages:

Stage 1: Developing the Permanency Team Stage 2: Discovery Stage 3: Establishing an ongoing support

team that endures post permanency Stage 4: Lifetime Family Support Planning Stage 5: Decision Making & Evaluation Stage 6: Ongoing Support

Developing the Permanency Team

Lay a foundation for FFE by establishing the need for permanency with identified professionals, family members and the child.

Discovery

Identify at least 40 family members using every possible means including extensive case mining, technology and dedicated follow-up throughout the life of the case.

Establish the Lifetime Family Support Network

With sensitivity to the child and family members’ needs, enlist the support of 6-8 “family” members to begin the decision making process towards permanency

Engage family and community members while keeping the safety of the child paramount to establish a Lifetime Family Support Network

Ongoing Support Team

Ongoing support team (including child as appropriate) develops a permanent plan with multiple options that creates sustained commitment to prevent need for child to return to care

Decision Making

Lifetime Family Support Network selects the most viable permanency option and develops a realistic plan for supporting and sustaining that plan. It is important to develop concurrent plans as well.

The Lifetime Family Support Network is engaged in the decision making process with the ultimate goal of permanency.

Ongoing Support

To ensure long term success, the Lifetime Family Support Network continuously updates the identified plan or plans with the goal of sustaining permanency for the child and caregivers upon transition to family and community supports.

Now what?Given the information you received about permanency and FFE, what do you want to do next….

What would the work look like in your county? What are your particular FFE-related needs? Is your county committed to engaging in this

work? Depending on your role, how do you see what

you are doing changing over time as a result of making the commitment?

Is everyone needed to make these decisions in this room?

Next Steps

Further meetings with other stakeholders?

Complete self assessment? Further training?