Final Report - RI Department of Children, Youth & Families

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APPENDIX L: FOSTER CARE COMMITTEE REPORT Targeted Geographical Areas • Forge partnerships with cities / towns with large number of children placed outside of their communities to identify additional foster home resources to keep children within the community or to bring them home. • Conduct church focused recruitment activities with the goal of licensing one or two families per congregation as part of above • Conduct school focused recruitment activities with the goal of licensing one or two families per school as part of above • Conduct work place recruitment activities at businesses with local employees Additional Recruitment Supports • Emergency funds for relative foster parents to meet fire / space requirements • Five year limit on drug conviction charges • Executive director for RIFPA to focus upon for recruitment / retention activities • RIFPA’s Mentor Program to provide support services to foster parent applicants to increase retention through licensing • Foster parent support groups through RIFPA Foster parent retention is the first step in recruitment. It is essential to recognize that recruitment and retention are interrelated and that efforts to recruit qualified foster parents can only be as successful as the agency’s ability to retain them. The 413 new generic foster homes licensed from 1/99 - 6/01, a 2 ½ year period, suggests that recruitment alone is not the issue and that the Department needs to significantly increase its efforts in the area of retention if it is to maintain and build upon its current supply of foster homes. It is incumbent upon the agency to work actively to retain foster parents by clearly communicating foster parents’ rights and responsibilities, providing foster parents with opportunities to develop the knowledge and skills associated with success, and providing agency services to support foster parents in their roles. Current: FOSTER PARENT PRE-SERVICE TRAINING Foster and adoptive parents play a crucial role in the lives of children and are essential links in the continuum of care that DCYF provides for the children in its care. Family Centered Practice and Concurrent Planning bring new focus and new challenges to our work, asking us to rethink our relationships with the families and children in our care, and also with the resource families - foster, kinship and adoptive - who are caring for the children. The roles of foster and adoptive parents, traditionally viewed as separate and distinct, can now be seen as System of Care Task Force Report (January 2003) 132
APPENDIX L: FOSTER CARE COMMITTEE REPORT overlapping to a great extent. Approximately 70% of the adoptions in our state are foster parent adoptions, and many families who come in exclusively to adopt consider “legal risk” placements and also open adoptions. Foster families and adoptive families are involved in the care and nurturing of children who have experienced significant loss and trauma, and may also be involved in working with biological parents. These families are some of our most valuable resources, and we, as an agency, have an obligation to nurture and support them. Training is a valuable method of providing this nurturing and support, and of supplying the resource families with the knowledge and “tools” that they will need in working with our children. Pre-service training for foster and adoptive families, in response to recommendations of the Governor’s Commission Report of June, 1999, has expanded and changed over the past two years. Up until 2001, the responsibility for all foster parent training fell on one Clinical Training Specialist. In 2000, the responsibility for foster parent training was moved from Staff Development (now the Child Welfare Institute) to the Adoption Preparation and Support Unit (now the Adoption and Foster Care Preparation and Support Unit). At that time, a second Clinical Training Specialist position was added for the purpose of foster parent training. Responsibilities: In the present calendar year, (2001), nine separate sessions of the pre-service core training have been held. The addition of a second foster parent trainer has also made it possible to offer training in two different locations within the state, Providence and North Kingstown. A total of 86 families (138 individuals) have been trained this year. Classes are nine weeks in length and include a range of subjects and a variety of training methods/tools. The majority of the families that come through training are “new” (generic) foster parents. Some already have children in their homes or are visiting with particular children. These families are identified either as kinship caregivers (relatives) or as child specific placements Needs: Planning has been under way to offer dual training for foster and adoptive families. This effort was initiated in January, 2002. Dual training will, we believe, enhance the training experience for all of the families, and better prepare them for the issues they may need to face in the future - e.g., foster families will be better prepared to make the transition to adoption and lifelong commitment, while adoptive families will be better prepared to deal with issues of visitation (in the case of a “legal risk” placement) or work with birth families in open adoption situations. Dual training will also greatly enhance our ability to provide training. At the present time we have four Clinical Training Specialists (CTS) who do adoption training and two CTS who train foster parents. If all six of the CTS are training joint groups of foster and adoptive families, we will be able to substantially increase the number of foster families trained each year. We will be able to offer training on a more frequent basis, cutting down on the amount of time that families must wait before getting into training. System of Care Task Force Report (January 2003) 133
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TOWARD AN ORGANIZED SYSTEM OF CARE
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TABLE OF CONTENTS TRANSMITTAL LETTE
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TRANSMITTAL LETTER Hon. Donald L. C
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TRANSMITTAL LETTER With strong stat
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PREFACE The Rhode Island System of
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This plan for an
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY stakeholders have
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CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW The Rhode Islan
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CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW SYSTEM STRATEGY
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CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW the four Region
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CHAPTER 2: COMMUNITY-STATE PREVENTI
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CHAPTER 3: STRENGTHENING DCYF AS A
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CHAPTER 3: STRENGTHENING DCYF C. Re
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CHAPTER 3: STRENGTHENING DCYF 5. $
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CHAPTER 3: STRENGTHENING DCYF (Marc
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CHAPTER 4: FINANCING THE SYSTEM OF
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CHAPTER 5: WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT Wo
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CHAPTER 5: WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT Ch
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CHAPTER 5: WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT ex
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CHAPTER 6: PERFORMANCE MEASURES AND
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CHAPTER 6: PERFORMANCE MEASURES AND
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CHAPTER 7: IMPLEMENTATION CHAPTER 7
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CHAPTER 7: IMPLEMENTATION i. Legisl
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CHAPTER 7: IMPLEMENTATION programmi
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APPENDICES 61
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APPENDIX A: RHODE ISLAND SYSTEM OF
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APPENDIX A: SYSTEM OF CARE TASK FOR
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APPENDIX B: PRINCIPLES OF FAMILY CE
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APPENDIX C: DEFINITIONS, CORE VALUE
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APPENDIX C: CULTURAL COMPETENCY cri
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APPENDIX D: VALUES AND PRINCIPLES F
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APPENDIX E: SERVICE AND PROGRAM COM
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Page 97 and 98: APPENDIX J: LISTING OF LICENSED AND
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Page 153 and 154: Introduction The Current Reality Su
Page 155 and 156: APPENDIX M: CURRENT REALITY COMMITT
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Page 173 and 174: APPENDIX N: GENDER SPECIFIC PROGRAM
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Final Report - RI Department of Children, Youth & Families

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