Implementing Change in Child Welfare: Lessons from Family to Family

Posted October 2, 1997
By Research Triangle Institute, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Annie E. Casey Foundation
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Summary

This research report sums up an extensive evaluation of Casey’s Family to Family initiative comparing traditional child welfare models in six areas:  service, resources, supports, information, partnerships and perceptions. The research uses information collected through a series of focus groups with workers and foster parents to examine their attitudes, beliefs and self-reported practice patterns in the third year of the Family to Family Initiative’s implementation phase.

Findings & Stats

Statements & Quotations

Key Takeaway

Success Depends on Partnerships Between Case Workers and Foster Parents

Foster care is a service delivered by line workers and foster parents. The degree to which Family to Family is successful depended largely on two factors: 1) the extent to which workers and foster parents were willing and able to engage in a partnership with each other and with the birth parents; and 2) how well the agency’s policies, structure and resources supported this partnership on a day-to-day basis.