Re-Engaging Relatives as Safe Resource
Initiative Policy Goal
Provide older youth with options for re-engaging birth parents or relatives who are safe resources
Issue Definition
Child welfare professionals know that many young people who age out of care return home to their birth family, even if their parents' rights have been terminated. Biological family members maintain status in many young people's lives regardless of the status of the parents' legal rights. Family members who were at one time not able to be in their child's life may later become part of the supportive network that makes up a young person's social capital, a vital resource for transitioning youth. Helping young adults safely re-engage with their birth parents, relatives or fictive kin while still in care can ensure that they are supported through the re-engagement process, and have healthy, realistic expectations for the relationship. Connections and reconnections with relatives and other adults with whom the youth has a significant emotional relationship can help young people find answers to their questions: "Who am I?" "How did I get here?" "Where am I going?"
Status
The federal Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008 supports young people staying engaged and re-engaging with family. First, the Act provides grants to states to support family connection efforts such as kinship navigator programs, intensive family finding efforts, family group decision-making and residential family treatment. Fostering Connections also expanded federal reimbursement to cover subsidized relative guardianship so that parental rights do not need to be terminated in the first place.
Child welfare agencies across the country are finding success in using a teaming process to re-connect youth with the people within their own natural networks (family members and other significant adults) who know and care about them. Youth-driven and adult-nurtured teaming processes can be time-intensive, especially initially. It may take time to find and engage family members, and may take even more time to re-build relationships that have been allowed to lapse. However, identifying potential team members throughout adolescence and early adulthood can be a significant help in supporting the young person's overall safety, permanence and well-being. For example, Hawaii implements ‘Ohana Conferencing, a Polynesian model of problem solving that includes extended family members, and E Makua Ana Youth Circles, youth-driven, strength-based and solution-focused teaming that draws on a youth's natural support system.
Even prior to Fostering Connections, many states began intensive family search and engagement efforts, such as the Family Finding model developed by Kevin Campbell (http://www.senecacenter.org/familyconnectedness), to identify and connect youth with siblings, birth parents and other family members with whom they've lost contact.
California, New York and Washington have passed legislation allowing reinstatement of parental rights on a case-by-case basis, when there is evidence that youth have not successfully been placed for adoption, and parents' circumstances have improved and they may be appropriate and safe resources for youth.
States and tribes are also strengthening practice related to open and/or customary adoptions as a critical piece of permanency planning practice, when the young person wants to maintain contact with their siblings, birth parents and other family members but may not be able to live with them.
Related Resources
Young People Need Families: Practice Strategies to Make Permanence a Priority; 2008 National Convening on Youth Permanency sponsored by the Annie E. Casey Foundation/Casey Family Services and Casey Family Programs www.youthpermanence.org
Recommendations of Youth and Young Adults; 2008 National Convening on Youth Permanency sponsored by the Annie E. Casey Foundation/Casey Family Services and Casey Family Programs
www.youthpermanence.org
Adoption Opportunity Grantees: Improve Permanency Outcomes by Developing Services and Supports for Youth Who Wish to Retain Contact with Family Members; National Resource for Adoption www.nrcadoption.org/youthpermanencycluster/index.html
Information on implementation of the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act www.fosteringconnections.org
For research to improve children's lives, including a state child welfare policy database go to Child Trends at www.childtrends.org
Policy for Results promotes better results for kids and families through research-informed policy; funded by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, www.policyforresults.org
Social Capital: Building Quality Networks for Young People in Foster Care (2011). Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative.
