Recruitment & Support of the Vital Few Created By the Members - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Recruitment & Support

• f

the Vital Few

Created By the Members of the Ohio Family Care Association Leadership Team Bobbi Pedersen, Georgetta Lake, Dot Erickson-Anderson 9/2020

Where Are We Now?

• Agencies with a foster care service: 260
• 173 FFH
• 103 Tx
• Licensed Foster Parents: 7,930
• Licensed this past year: 3,196
• Licensed Homes with “placed child”:

4,589

2020 ODJFS data

What We Also Know

• Racial Mix of Caregivers & Youth
• 2018 Ohio Race of children in care
• White = 53%
• Black/MultiRacial = 41%
• Race of Families Licensed past year
• White – 80%
• Black/MultiRacial = 19%

2019 AFCARS report; 2020 SACWIS data

We Acknowledge that the child welfare system was built to “save white children from poverty.”

See Handout

Is this a Dream

• r

A Path Forward for Our Time?

Who are the Vital Few?

Families that can work with children and families with complex problems Families that commit to involvement for 5- 10 years

Review of 17 Families involved in 1970s-80s

• 23% Black, 73% white
• 42% Single Parents; 36% Married

parents; 24% nonparents

• 77% had college degrees
• 59% left other jobs to join the network
• 42% were adoptive parents or became

adoptive parents through their experiences

What led to Involvement?

• A job/professional role

that made it possible to 'work from home’

• Excited about the

prospect of changing what we saw as dysfunctional child welfare & juvenile justice systems

• Affirmed the concern for

children/youth within the context of family

• Being In Mission

What Sustained you for the Years

• f Your

Involvement?

• Regular connection with the other families

involved in the team

• Ability of the team to design creative/new

ways of dealing with issues - control over budget issues

• Availability of a wide range of respite -- in

home and out of home

• Growth within myself, my spouse, my

permanent children and families in care.

What Did You Do Next?

• Participants stayed involved from 4-11
• years. 4 remained foster parents 20+

years

• 5 returned to private practice

(counseling, attorney, child welfare program)

• 2 became Agency Directors
• 2 Retired
• 2 took leadership roles in community

programs

• 1 became a full-time trainer
• 1 became a clergy person

Recruitment is easy When you have something to

• ffer!

Support works when the families have control to determine what they need and how to supply it.

To Start Our Thinking

 Evidenced-based focus  Mentoring  System Navigators  "Having a Voice"  Building Skills  Training  Support  Recognition or Rewards

What policies and practices would we need to change to recruit and support parents for the future?

Must ensure that children have frequent contact with families and that their relationship is strengthened.

• Roles of agency and team in decision

making

• Placement of Children
• Role of Primary Family
• Culture Issues
• Proximity & Meeting
• Programming
• Finances / Breaks from Kids
• System of Accountability

Future Directions To Think About

• Role of terminology

Resource Family, Permanency, Primary Family, Interdependent Living

• Identify the resource family as a consultant to the

agency in the reunification and support services to families in crisis

• Training focus change to communication across

differences, conflict resolution, crisis interventions, cultural differences (race & income), developing community.

• Resource Reallocation

See handout

Thank You for Thinking about Needed Change