Since the launch of our first multiyear, multisite initiative in 1988 until the present, the Casey Foundation has been at the forefront of making philanthropic investments to improve the lives of disadvantaged children, families and communities. Although our direct grant making through the following initiatives has ended, many yielded innovative approaches still being replicated today across the nation as well as lessons that continue to inform our work and advance our mission.
Casey Family Services: A Foundation-sponsored private agency that provided high-quality child welfare services to children in New England and Baltimore, Maryland for 36 years.
Family to Family: An 18-year, nationwide effort to improve child welfare system by expanding family and community involvement in child protection.
Plain Talk: Launched in 1993 in five cities, this initiative demonstrated the theory that preventing teen pregnancy requires community-based strategies.
School-to-Career Partnership: This program links UPS and other large private-sector employers with community organizations and human services agencies to help prepare young people for independence as they age out of foster care.
Urban Children’s Mental Health: Launched in 1992 and running for seven years, this initiative sought to create more effective, family-centered mental health services in four disadvantaged urban neighborhoods.
The Center for Working Families: The Center for Working Families model helps low-income individuals and families get on a path to financial stability. Key to the approach is the coordination of key services at single, convenient locations.
Jobs Initiative: Launched in 1995 as an eight-year effort in six cities to connect inner-city adults to family-supporting jobs in the regional economy and to improve the workings of urban labor market systems.
Responsible Fatherhood and Marriage: Investments made to promote responsible fatherhood and family formation by providing public education, building support networks and conducting research to improve parent involvement.
Faith-Based Initiatives: Investments made to advance the efforts of faith-based organizations to strengthen families and communities, primarily in the fields of prisoner re-entry and children with incarcerated parents.
Making Connections: The Foundation’s longest-term, most intensive multisite effort to demonstrate that poor results for children and families in tough neighborhoods can be changed for the better.
New Futures: Casey’s first large-scale, community-based project created to test the premise that strong political leadership and interagency collaboration could reduce teen pregnancy and school dropout rates and boost youth development over a five-year period.
Rebuilding Communities Initiative: Launched in 1994, this community-change initiative focused on building resident capacity, local leadership and power dynamics between funders and communities.
Human Services Workforce Initiative: The first national effort addressing the need to recruit and retain human services workers who have appropriate training and support to make crucial decisions that affect disadvantaged kids and families.
