Barriers and Strategic Planning
Despite being "one of the central intervention strategies of contemporary child welfare practice", the effectiveness of foster care remains lacking (Holland & Gorey, 2004). Research and analysis indicates that significant problems, such as foster care recruitment and training, retention of therapeutic personnel, and placement disruption adversely impact the success of a child place in out of home care. United Children's Services, Inc will conduct initial assessments and match screenings of each foster parent or family. The matching process and assessment of a families knowledge and willing to provide therapeutic interventions is an essential element of predicting stability for a child. Foster parents will receive ongoing, specialized training, will have access to a library of information relevant to fostering, parenting and accessing networks for additional support. The agency will ensure that all needed services of the child are addressed; those services will be evaluated o n a regular basis. The natural family plays a vital role in reunification with the child; the agency and fostering staff will work diligently to remain connected and collaborating with each other with regards to the treatment of the child; and achieving permanency for the child. United Children's Services personnel will coordinate various youth and foster parent programs to encourage support, growth and the development of skills and mastery. After school programs, tutoring and mentoring programs as well as summer programs will be developed to offer opportunities to the youth in care. The foster parents, in addition to receiving advanced parenting training, will participate in fostering with partners program. This program allows two to three sets of foster families to work together, providing each other with respite, support and fellowship. By reducing the amount of respite sources for the child, the child becomes familiar with 2-4 other foster parents--typically individuals with si milar interests and sharing similar backgrounds. These respite sources will be available should emergencies occur. The goal is for the child to develop relationships with other caring adults and be familiar with those individuals versus a child being placed with unknown foster parents when emergencies occur. The therapeutic staff will also have a similar model. Although each child will have a primary counselor or therapist, a secondary professional will also assist at times in sessions. If the primary is unable to provide services or is on leave, the secondary will work in that person's absence. In partnering with the natural family, the foster family and with the therapeutic staff, we believe that stability will more likely be the outcome. We are offering a vision and a plan promoting change, hope and success for foster and adoptive services in Kentucky. In addition to program structure, our staff have an average of 18 years experience working in social services, community mental health and adolescent treatment fields.
