The promise and the paradox

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Recruitment of Resource Families

• The promise and the paradox
• Lorrie L. Lutz, MPP

National Resource Center for Foster Care and
Permanency Planning Casey National Center for
Resource Family Support
2
This work is dedicated to the memory of Joelle
Horel   Foster Care Specialist for the State of
Utah Division of Family and Children Services.
  Her dedication to the well-being of children
and her commitment to creating meaningful
partnerships with families was an inspiration to
those whos life she touched.   Joelle you are
deeply missed.  
3
BACKGROUND

• According to the Childrens Bureau of the
  Department of Health and Human Services, 64 of
  children adopted from the child welfare system
  are adopted by their foster parents.1 If this
  trend persists and foster families continue to
  serve as the natural option for permanence for
  children in custody of the child welfare system,
  then the reality is that we may lose many of
  these families from the pool of available foster
  families.
• 1 Promising Practices States Streamlining
  Foster and Adoptive Home Approval Process.
  (November 2000). Childrens Bureau Express.
  Volume 1, No. 7.

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Certainly the resulting permanency for children
is worth the loss, but this pattern suggest the
need for states to develop rigorous, innovative
and effective strategies for the recruitment of
new resource families.
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This Presentation Will Look At Five Innovative
Strategies

• Attend to the Details In Your Shop
• Characteristic-Focused Recruitment and Training.
• Data-based, Performance-based contracting with
  private agencies.
• Community and neighborhood-specific recruitment.
• Innovative partnerships between recruitment
  efforts and ongoing birth/resource family
  support.
• Child-specific recruitment strategies and
  orientation efforts that seek to help resource
  families better understand the challenges they
  will face.

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AND.
We would also like to explore the politics of
working with foster families.the behind the
scenes love-hate relationship that is played out
between social workers and foster families and
talk through the implications of this for Foster
Parent Retention, which as we know ultimately
impacts recruitment.
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Attending to the Details
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Attending To the Details

• We strongly recommend beginning your efforts to
  enhance your recruitment process by flow-charting
  the details of the recruitment process.
• This provides an opportunity you to identify
  those points in the process when the prospective
  family can get lost in the system.
• Can it be streamlined?
• For example, the initial phone callhow many of
  you have ever called your own system?
• Are those that answer the phone friendly?
• Are they informed?
• How many times are families transferred?
• Are materials sent in an expedient manner?
• Are the materials compelling?

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Flow Chart Your Processes
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Attending To the Details (2)

• Recommend creation of a conversion goal __ of
  families that call attend the initial training.
• Create broad system ownership for the recruitment
  process.

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Characteristics of Effective Resource
FamiliesRecruiting Smart
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Characteristics of Effective Resource Families

• From the research that has been completed over
  the past 5-10 years as part of understanding the
  evolving best practices of Concurrent Planning,
  Dual Licensure and more recently Recruitment and
  Retentionwe have learned something about what is
  required of successful foster/resource families.
  

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These Characteristics Include

• Resource Families See Themselves as a Support to
  the Birth Family.
• Resource Families Support and Encourage Frequent
  and Consistent Visitation Between the Child and
  his/her Birth Family.
• Resource Families are willing to live in the
  ambiguity of not knowing what might occur next.

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This is Hard Work.
As stated by Mary Ford in her work on Concurrent
Planning, Resource families are asked to do
nearly an impossible tasklove the child like
their own, including being open to having a
permanent role in the childs life, while at the
same time serve as a support and mentor for the
birth parents to help them successfully reunify
with the child. Resource families safeguard the
positive aspects of the child-birth parent
relationship by stressing the birth parents worth
and qualities, while simultaneously accepting the
childs negative feelings toward his parents.
Resource families help the child to reconcile
having two sets of parents.1

1 Ford, Mary. (1998). Three Concurrent
Planning Programs How They Benefit Children and
Support Permanency Planning Families. North
American Council on Adoptable Children.
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Logic suggests that during the recruitment
process we seek to better understand the
characteristics of those Individuals we are
asking to care for children in the child welfare
system. This goes well beyond training and
orientation to the facilitation of an in-depth
discussion where potential foster/resource
families are asked to look at their capacities
in a structured manner.
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Link Between. CharacteristicsRetention and
Recruitment
The link between resource family characteristics
and recruitment and retention is based on the
idea that if foster/resource families have a
well-developed understanding of their own
capacities and they can relate those capacities
to the needs of the children and families in the
system, it will result in more satisfied, less
conflicted resource/foster families. This could
result in greater retention---one of the
mainstays of a strong recruitment program.
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Mary Fords Work at NACAC

• As part of NACACs work in Minnesota Mary Ford of
  NACAC is developing a training guide that will be
  published by the Department of Human Services.
  She strives in this guidebook to helping resource
  families understand their own philosophy and
  spiritual foundation and how this foundation or
  lack thereof will impact their role as a resource
  family.
• Further, during the training Ford asks
  prospective resource families a series of
  sensitive and thoughtful questions that go to the
  heart of the role of a resource family.
• These well-crafted self-assessment questions
  expose vulnerabilities and assets in ways that
  assist prospective resource families in coming to
  their own conclusions about their ability to be
  successful in this role.

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Some of the Questions Include

• Question 1 Would you like to share a little bit
  about their philosophical, spiritual or religious
  belief system and how it helps you? Follow up
  with the question Who might define themselves as
  altruistic?  
• Question 2 What would you say to birth parents
  who said they were sorry for abusing or
  neglecting their child?
•  Question 3 How do you imagine sharing your
  foster child with other important people in this
  or her life?
• Question 4 Is it important to you to be certain
  about the outcome of your placement? Why or Why
  not?
• Question 5 Please describe how youve recovered
  when you experienced losses in your life.

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Jefferson County Colorado (through the work of
Linda Zschoche) also has defined the
characteristics of successful resource families

• Resource parents can empathize for both the child
  and the birth family
• Resource families demonstrate flexibility in
  their expectations about the outcomes of the
  placement as well as in their day-to-day life.
• Resource parents tolerate ambiguity and
  uncertainty in the outcomes of a childs case.
  They recognize that much of the decision-making
  is not in their hands, but in the hands of the
  juvenile court officials and child protection
  workers.
• Resource parents possess a philosophical,
  spiritual and religious belief system that
  supports altruism and providing care for others.

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Jefferson County (2)

• Resource parents have acquired a basic
  satisfaction with where they are in life, with no
  significant, driving unmet needs.
• Resource parents demonstrate a willingness to
  share relationships with a child.
• Resource parents evidence resiliency when earlier
  losses were experienced.
• Resource parents demonstrate resourcefulness when
  confronted with challenges.
• Resource parents maintain positive connections
  with the community.

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Performanced Based Contracting

• A Partnership Model With the Private Provider

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Elements of Performance Based ContractingMinnesot
a, Missouri and Utah

• Statewide recruitment goals that are data driven.
• Regional/community recruitmentwith very specific
  recruitment targetsagain these targets are data
  driven.
• Flexibility in the state/county-private provider
  relationship.
• Tight Reporting Controls

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Statewide, Data-Driven Recruitment Goals
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Elements of Performance Based ContractingMinnesot
as Broad Statewide, Data-Driven Recruitment
Goals

1. The state of Minnesota let a Request for
   Proposals for a statewide private agency to
   support their recruitment efforts.
2. NACAC was awarded the contract.
3. Calls for Regional Liaisons who work side by side
   with county staff.

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Elements of Performance Based ContractingMinnesot
as Broad Statewide Recruitment Goals (2)

• In the final contract broad agency goals are
  identified
• Minnesota DHS expects successful outcomes at the
  end of the two-year contract to include
• Increase in the number of skilled, trained,
  foster and adoptive homes.
• In the fourth through eight quarter of the grant
  the number of adoptive parents with completed
  home studies and foster parents licensed in each
  region will increase by at least 25 percent.
•  
• During the fourth through eight quarters of the
  grant period the grantee will demonstrate that 75
  percent of the developed foster homes were
  licensed by the county social service agency.
•  

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Elements of Performance Based ContractingMinnesot
as Broad Statewide Recruitment Goals (3)

• Decrease the likelihood of placement disruption
  for children.  
• In federal fiscal year 1999, 57 percent of the
  children in placement experienced two or fewer
  placement settings. It is expected that this
  will increase to 75 percent for the sixth and
  seventh quarters of the grant period, which would
  indicate a decrease in placement disruptions.
• Increase the expectation that siblings remain
  together in both foster care and adoptive
  placements.
• Statewide 103 sibling separations were requested
  for adoption in the calendar year 1999. It is
  expected that sibling separations in adoption
  would decrease by 25.

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Elements of Performance Based ContractingMinnesot
as Broad Statewide Recruitment Goals (4)

• Increase the likelihood that children who cannot
  return home achieve permanency with a relative or
  foster parent.  
• In federal fiscal year 1999, 634 Minnesota
  children were adopted. Of the 634 children,
  relatives adopted 180 children and former foster
  families adopted 175 children. The ratio of
  adoptions by foster families and relatives is
  expected to increase by 25 percent by the end of
  the seventh quarter of the grant period.

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Community/Neighborhood Recruitment
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Data Driven-Community Based Recruitment

• Contracts Specify the numbers and types of homes
  required. (adolescents, sibling groups). Shelia
  Kitchen, of Childrens Place, a not-for-profit
  agency awarded one of the contracts for the
  Kansas City Missouri area was enthusiastic about
  the contracting model. She was clear that the
  greater the specificity in the regional plans,
  the more effective we are in recruitment of the
  kinds of families needed.
• The reality is that the more accurate and
  detailed information that the private providers
  have about the needs of the county regarding
  specific needs for homes, the better they are at
  recruiting accordingly.

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Data Driven-Community Based Recruitment-Missouri

• RFP was let and multiple contracts awarded.
• Payments for very specific activities.
• Recruitment of a family who goes through the
  entire process from the point of the in-home
  consultation, training and licensure.
• In-home consultations
• Provision of the initial pre-service training
  session.
• Completed assessments where the foster/adoptive
  family applicant is found to be skilled in all
  competencies listed in STARS and is recommended
  for licensure as foster parents or approval as
  adoptive parents.
• Completed Adoption Assessments.
• In-service training provided to foster/adoptive
  families.
• Reassessment of foster/adoptive families.

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Data Driven-Community Based Recruitment-Missouri

• Unique aspect of the second contract
• If a family is recruited that does not meet the
  needs specified in the contractthe county does
  not have to pay the rate.
• Or if the county chooses to do the work
  in-house such as reassessments, it does not
  have to purchase this work from the
  providerenabling the local entity to make
  maximum use of its resources.

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Utah takes it from the Region to the Neighborhood.
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Neighborhood Recruitment

• Contract awarded to a hybrid not-for-profit
  community organization named in Utah code the
  Utah Foster Care Foundation
• The turning point in our recruitment efforts was
  when the Board of Directors agreed that we should
  not conduct any major recruitment efforts until
  we fully understood the needs of the various
  regions of the state. We sought to understand
  the regional needs for homes for older children,
  sibling groups and children of diverse cultures.
  Then we had a clear message for the community
  recruitment efforts

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Neighborhood Recruitment -Utah

• Neighborhood Specific Needs are identified
•  
• Salt Lake Valley Metro Neighborhood
• There are placements for 28 of the children in
  care.
• 24 foster/adoptive homes, 43 placement capacity,
  9 empty homes and 21 openings.
• 152 children in care, 6 placements for any age
  child.
•  

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Utah Neighborhood Recruitment (cont)
 
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Utah Neighborhood Recruitment (cont.)

• These regional/neighborhood plans serve as the
  basis for the swat team approach used by
  Foundation staff.
• Once they compile the neighborhood data, using
  zip codes which assist in data analysis, they
  decide on a neighborhood to target and focus two
  months of recruitment within that targeted
  community.
• They contact newspapers where press releases and
  articles are published.
• They contact foster parents who assist in
  hosting open houses where community members come
  to learn more about foster parenting.
• One extremely effective recruitment strategy has
  been the partnerships that have been created with
  schools within the communities. The schools
  agree to distribute flyers announcing Open Houses
  and other community recruitment efforts.
• According to Kelsi Lewis, Director of the
  Foundation It is remarkable the number of
  families who attend the community gatherings with
  these flyers in hand. We are very grateful to the
  schools for their support of our recruitment
  efforts.

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Tight Reporting Requirements
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Elements of Performance Based ContractingMissouri
s Reporting Requirements

• Tight Reporting RequirementsOn a monthly basis
  the private providers in Missouri must report on
  the following
• Number of inquiries from potential
  foster/adoptive families
• Number of in-home consultations
• Number and names of foster/adoptive family
  applicants who withdrew or were selected out of
  the foster/adoptive application process.
• Number and names of foster/adoptive family
  applicants beginning pre-service training.
• General description of the recruitment activities
  provided by the contractor during the month.

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Unique Partnerships With Foster Families
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Partnerships Reaching out to the Prospective
Foster Fathers--Maine

• According to Stephan Duplessis of Maine .The
  foster father is often forgotten in the process
  of fosteringit is the foster mom who is the
  focus of recruitment messages and support
  efforts. My goal is to reach out to the
  potential foster father and help them understand
  the nature and importance of their role.
• As a member of the Advisory Committee for FACT
  (Families and Children Together), a
  community-based organization that has a contract
  with the state for the recruitment of foster
  families in Maine, Steffan takes it upon himself
  to contact all prospective foster fathers. In
  these conversations, he seeks to understand if
  the foster father is able to identify what they
  hope to both give and get out of the fostering
  experience. Steffan suggests, if the individual
  cannot talk about his desire for some kind of
  connection with the child, I worry that he is not
  fully understanding his role. The male role
  model is critical to these children, and often to
  their families. I try to help the prospective
  foster father find his place in the fostering
  process.

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Child Specific Recruitment
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Child Specific Recruitment --Alaska

• Deborah Hayes--Director of Alaska Foster Parent
  Training Center Hayes suggests that the challenge
  one faces in Alaska is to slowly thread the
  concept of foster care into the Native American
  culture on a child-by-child basis.
• In Alaska, some of the tribes are completely
  closed, independent communities, it is only
  through relationship and connection to the
  village and villagers that can recruit resource
  families. They look to individuals who are
  already in and connected to the village residents
  such as the Public Health nurses to identify
  people who may be likely candidates to serve as
  resource families for a specific child.
  According to Hayes, the culture within many
  Alaskan tribes requires that fellow villages not
  become involved until asked directlyand then
  only about a specific, known child .

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Child Specific Recruitment --Maine

• A critical aspect of Maines evolving recruitment
  effort is to provide dollars focused on
  child-specific recruitment.
• When children are coming out of the state system
  as legal risk adoption, the state makes it a
  point to recruit and certify homes specifically
  for that child.
• In hard to places cases, private agencies are
  provided information about the kind of home
  needed for the specific child and the private
  agency focuses on recruitment.

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The Politics of the Social Worker Foster Parent
Relationship

• Getting to the Heart of the Matter.

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An Issue That Impacts Retention (Which Impacts
Recruitment)the Quality of the Social
Worker-Foster Care Relationship

• Understanding the Power
• Work through the Questioning of Motives
• Seek to Be Inclusive seeing the foster families
  as Partners
• Better Management of Abuse/Neglect Allegations

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Understanding the Power

• The common reason for foster parents leaving the
  system, cited in survey after survey, is lack of
  support.
• States must create opportunities for ongoing
  staff to learn about the importance of their
  interactions with foster familiesthat their
  relationship and treatment of foster families is
  fundamental to an effective recruitment and
  retention plan.

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This is a Values Discussion

• Needs to occur with all staff
• Needs to occur at the point of hiring at a
  minimum
• Staff need to be very clear about the
  expectations in regard to their interaction and
  role with foster families.
• Expectations include
• Respect
• Inclusion
• Partnership

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Recommendations

• Recommendations include
• Consider revising interview process to
  incorporate questions about this relationship.
• Incorporate this issue into performance
  evaluations.
• Keep it as a high priority during supervisory
  sessions.
• TrainTrainTrain.

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Work Through the Questioning of Motives
A foster father who elected not to share his name
told a personal story .We have been foster
parents for a long time and I think that most of
the county staff know our commitment to
permanency and reunification. However, a
14-year-old boy that has been living with us for
some time came to us one evening and said that he
no longer wanted to pursue adoption. He told us
that he had formed a deep bond with us, was
really active in his school, and just wanted to
live with us until he graduated. We told him to
make sure and think it through. If he was sure
then we would fully support that decision. When
this young boy told the social worker of his
feelings the first words out of the social
workers mouth were, Have your foster parents
pressured you into making this decision? My
wife and I were shocked and so was the young boy.
We were suspect immediately. We confronted the
social worker and even talked to her supervisor
to little or no availthe system just doesnt
trust our motives
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Management of Abuse Neglect Allegations

• Recently during a consultation with a state,
  based on a request to the NRCFCPP, we were
  specifically addressing the relationship between
  state social workers and foster families.
• I posed the following questions
• Tell me your view of foster/adoptive parents and
  your sense of their motivations?
• Describe for me an excellent foster/adoptive
  parent. What are their skills and their
  philosophical underpinnings?
• Tell me why you think that it is generally hard
  to recruit foster/adoptive parents?
• Share with me why you think that foster/adoptive
  parents leave the system and no longer provide
  care?
• When you have been successful in recruiting
  foster parents why do you think you were
  successful? What were the messages? What was
  going on in the state?
• If you could define one thing in the system that
  is a significant barrier to recruitment and
  retention of foster families what would that be?
• Describe the quality of your orientation and
  ongoing training?
• Describe what foster parents would say about the
  support that they receive from the system. From
  one another?
• Describe the State Foster Parent Association, and
  any information that comes from this Association
  to its members. How is this Association funded?

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Management of Abuse Neglect Allegations (2)

• During these conversations the issue of the
  handing of abuse/neglect investigations arose.
• It was perceived as one of the major issues
  impacting retention in the state.
• The risk of these assessments and the perceived
  perception of guiltwas a tremendous deterrent to
  other families in the community.
• This is an area to which states need to pay close
  attention. Recommendations to this state
  included
• --Standardizing the child abuse and neglect
  investigation process across the state for
  foster families.
• --Follow up piece needs to be refined and
  defined.
• --Train designated staff.
• --Educate and inform foster families regarding
  in the process prior to licensure.
• --Re-educate them during the process.
•  
•  
•  
•  

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Good Luck!