Bringing Leah Back Home: Reunification and the Lifelong Families Model

When appro­pri­ate, a return to birth fam­i­ly is often the best option for chil­dren who are brought into the child wel­fare system.

This video tells the sto­ry of Leah and how she reuni­fied with her birth mom through ser­vices pro­vid­ed by the Foun­da­tion’s for­mer direct ser­vice agency, Casey Fam­i­ly Ser­vices. 

Leah was close to aging out of fos­ter care and need­ed a for­ev­er fam­i­ly. Through an inno­v­a­tive fos­ter care prac­tice mod­el called Life­long Fam­i­lies, Leah’s case work­er reached out to her bio­log­i­cal mom, even though her parental rights had been ter­mi­nat­ed pre­vi­ous­ly. With strate­gic case inter­ven­tions and lots of team­work, Leah now lives with her mom and has life­long con­nec­tions to rel­a­tives and impor­tant fam­i­ly members.

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