Embracing a "Youth Welfare" System: A Guide to Capacity Building

Presents guidance and examples to illustrate the Youth Welfare approach for working with youth in foster care. The Youth Welfare approach recommends shifting from a child-focused system that is reactive, case plan driven, and protection focused to a youth-focused system that is proactive, youth driven, developmentally framed, and normalcy oriented. This toolkit also provides examples of service provision for youth in foster care and describes how those services can be improved utilizing a Good-Better-Best continuum approach. Practical tools, including a worksheet, are included to assist readers in exploring the Youth Welfare approach to service provision.