Welfare Watch - April 22, 2009 - Thriving in a Changing World   

The theme for the Annual Catalyst for CARE Conference in Savannah next week is "Thriving in a Changing World."  It is not just providers who are "a changing" but the public sector as well.  Public policy is being directed downward from the Federal government, mandating that child welfare change.  Status quo is no longer good enough and change is being measured.  A review of the State's Program Improvement Plan  (PIP) to the Children's Bureau of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in response to their Child and Family Service Review (CFSR) showed many deficiencies.  Georgia is not alone.  No State has passed the CFSR. 

Georgia intends to be the first to pass.  Each month Georgia's front line child welfare staff gather to look at their data as it compares to the PIP.  This process is called the G-Force and it has produced some impressive results.  Still much work needs to be done.  Changing status quo is hard even when the change is for the good of children.

One participant in the G-Force meeting said in response to the low numbers for family engagement, "We still are in a child rescue business rather than a family support and strengthening business."  Even though we know from decades of research that children do better in their own families when that are stable, safe and nurturing, we still are not doing enough to make it [reunification] happen for many children in Georgia's child welfare system.  While the number of children in foster care is at a five year low, the number of children that are placed with their families is less than half of the PIP target. 

Family preservation and supports will have to become everyone's business.  Not only will it be the public sector's business, but it must be integrated into every aspect of child welfare.  It will no longer just be the domain of family preservation providers but also placement providers.  "Getting the child in a forever-family" will become job one. This paradigm shift will understand that the child's family is central to protecting, nurturing, and assuring the well-being of the child.  "Seeing the family" will no longer be in the vocabulary--the family will be "engaged"  and involved from the very beginning and all along the process of care.  After all, they are the child's family.

Children will thrive in this changing world.

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Welfare Watch, an email newsletter of the
Georgia Association of Homes
and Services for Children
as a public service.
http://www.gahsc.org
                            Normer Adams, Editor
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Catalyst for CARE Annual Conference April 27-29, 2009

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