Restorative justice is an approach that focuses on collaboration between the offender and the community. It requires the offender to accept responsibility for their decisions and the impact of their offenses on the victim and the community. For juvenile offenders who are involved in both the juvenile justice and child welfare systems, restorative practices often involve teaching skills to live independently and develop healthy relationships. This episode shares how Alternative Family Services provides highly individualized supportive services to help youth as they transition out of the foster ..read more

Youth can face many challenges as they transition to living independently as adults. For youth in foster care, overcoming obstacles may require additional support and skills to be self-reliant. Caseworkers and child welfare professionals assist youth with securing employment, secondary education, housing, financial literacy, and other needs. However, additional support is needed to provide encouragement and stability as youth transition to adulthood. Support systems consisting of helpful, stable adults reinforce the goal of self-sufficiency and give youth a sense of community. This episode exp ..read more

Lived experience is a representation and understanding of an individual’s human experiences, choices, and options and how those factors influence one’s perception of knowledge” from one’s own life. Those with lived experience in child welfare have a unique, firsthand perspective on issues that can inform partnerships, policies, and solutions that best meet the needs of children and families. This episode provides strategies and examples of how child welfare agencies should respectfully engage individuals with lived experience for assistance. Agencies should prepare their staff to ask appropria ..read more

Kinship caregivers and families may be faced with needs, questions, and constraints that are different than those of resource foster care families. Child welfare agencies continue to address these unique needs through kinship navigator programs that help caregivers manage the foster care licensing process; connect families to available supports and services; and understand legal, medical, or other systems and requirements. As jurisdictions place higher emphasis on placing children and youth in relative or familiar settings, some are expanding and advancing the support provided to kinship careg ..read more

As jurisdictions place a higher emphasis on placing children and youth in relative or familiar settings, some are expanding and advancing the support provided to kinship caregivers. The podcast series, Advances in Supporting Kinship Caregivers, comprises episodes featuring the advances created and implemented by child welfare agencies and their partners to strengthen kinship families and meet the unique needs faced by these caregivers. Part 3 focuses on the unique successes experienced within the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe, located inside Washington State. The Tribe’s flexible use of funding ..read more

This episode focuses on Washington State’s approach to providing kinship support services. The conversation describes how the State’s kinship support is operated by the State’s Aging and Long-Term Support Administration and provides some of its services through a one-time stipend to help new kinship families meet basic needs. This episode also spends time discussing providing kinship navigator services in the Yakima and Tri-Cities region of central Washington, a rural, Latinx community. Topics discussed include the following: • Differences in formal and informal kinship caregivers and the diff ..read more

This episode features a group of kinship-centered services and programs from Rhode Island. The State’s Department of Children, Youth, and Families created a separate team dedicated to family search and engagement that identifies and attempts to create relationships with family members or those with connections to children and youth. The department also leverages caregiver peers as mentors and navigators to provide emotional support and connect families to services and support. Throughout all of its engagement with families and caregivers, Rhode Island emphasizes a customer-service approach to ..read more

Becoming and thriving as a foster or adoptive parent can present many challenges. Child welfare agencies dedicate time and resources to train prospective foster and adoptive parents to manage the challenges and develop parenting skills to support children and youth within the child welfare system. These children and youth may have experienced trauma, grief, and loss; have mental health considerations; and demonstrate different behavior patterns. However, the available training programs can vary on the competencies stressed, depth of content, and availability of posttraining resources and suppo ..read more

This episode focuses on Away From Home, a report developed by Think Of Us to understand the perspectives, attitudes, and experiences of young people with recent histories in institutional placements, and to understand their beliefs around reforming or ending institutional placements. The conversation in this episode dives into the findings and recommendations from the study’s authors on improving institutional care, the emotional toll of institutional placements that participants conveyed, and the current barriers to connecting youth to stable and loving placements ..read more

This episode features a conversation with Aysha E. Schomburg, J.D., associate commissioner, Children's Bureau, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Nearly one year after her appointment by the Biden administration, Commissioner Schomburg released a vision for the Children's Bureau, with its highest priority being promoting equity in State child welfare systems and the following priority goals: • Prevent children from coming into foster care • Support kinship caregivers • Ensure youth leave care with strengthened relationships, holistic support ..read more