Click here to access recordings and materials from previously held virtual learning sessions.
Wishing you a safe and enjoyable beginning of autumn! The Redlich Horwitz Foundation (RHF) is hosting three virtual workshops for which you can register below. Designed to support counties in continuing to reach their congregate care reduction, certified kinship and related goals. We also share a Casey Family Programs report on Sacramento County's strategies that reduced entries into care for African American children by 53 percent in four years.
Beyond Finding Family: Supporting kinship families for success
Identifying kin resources is only the first step to increasing your jurisdiction’s use of certified kinship care when children must enter foster care. Kinship families also need support as they transition to their new role as caregivers for children and youth who have experienced the trauma of separation from their parents.
Please join us for a virtual learning session on effective kinship family support to improve outcomes for children and youth. Those who attend will:
• Hear about the core components of successful kinship supports,
• Learn from two counties that have taken different approaches to developing a continuum of kinship supports, and
• Discuss effective strategies and ways to strengthen supports that meet the unique needs of kinship families.
Join us on Wednesday, September 30th at 1 p.m. EDT by registering here:
Leading from the Middle and Supporting Culture Change in Child Welfare
How can we best support and sustain our Family First Readiness and other system-change efforts in light of competing priorities, limited resources and differences in impacts?
All workers and leaders have the challenge of balancing the expectations from above and the impacts of reform on those who need to implement the work. This session will provide participants with tools to lead from the middle to support culture change in child welfare. The session will share strategies for gaining buy-in from those you report to and from those who report to you. Topics will include “Understanding the Person, Role, System Framework,” “Assessing Yourself as a Leader,” “It's Not You, It's Who You Empower,” and specific strategies to support new champions for change.
Join us on Thursday, October 15th at 11 a.m. EDT by registering here:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/leading-from-the-middle-and-supporting-culture-change-in-child-welfare-tickets-122136897749?aff=affiliate1.
It’s Not Too Late to Register for Managing with Data
Are you a child welfare professional who wants to strengthen your ability to access, interpret and use your district’s data to manage on a day-to-day basis?
Join ChildFocus’s Tiffany Allen and Barbara Mitchell with Monroe County this Thursday, September 24th from 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. EDT to explore methods for overcoming common barriers that local districts face in managing with data. Participants will learn specific tools and strategies to integrate data into their management to improve responsiveness, increase accountability and better drive toward improved outcomes.
Register for Managing with Data here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/managing-with-data-a-virtual-learning-session-tickets-116918669889?aff=affiliate1.
Stabilizing Family-Based Placements with Crisis Prevention and Management
A critical component of reducing the use of congregate care and increasing the use of certified kinship foster care is supporting kinship and foster families to prevent situations that cause family instability and effectively manage crises when they do happen. Many of these models can also provide support to families of origin to decrease the likelihood of a foster care entry.
Promising Program Models that Prevent and Respond to Crises in Family-Based Settings explores several efforts to prevent the types of crises that can disrupt family-based foster care placements and to more effectively manage crises in such placements if they arise. These types of interventions focus on maintaining safe, stable and responsive environments for children and youth. You can download the issue brief here: https://bit.ly/3kGaxyf.
Reducing Entries into Foster Care with an Emphasis on African American Children
As New York State continues to pursue strategies to reduce racially disproportionate outcomes in the child welfare system broadly and in foster care specifically, this report from Casey Family Programs offers insights into one county’s successes. Using a variety of strategies, Sacramento County brought its foster care entry rates in line with the state rate while halving the number of African American children entering care.
You can read the full report, Taking a Closer Look at the Reduction in Entry Rates for Children in Sacramento County with an Emphasis on African American Children, here: https://caseyfamilypro-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/media/Sacramento-Chronicle-2013.pdf.
Thank you for reading! If you have any suggestions for how to make this newsletter more responsive to your needs, please email me, Jessie Rothkuo, directly at jrothkuo@rhfdn.org. And please visit www.FamilyFirstNY.org to learn more about our ongoing support of Family First implementation statewide, which includes our Tools & Resources page.
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