Learn the importance of effective, ongoing collaboration between child welfare agencies and community-based partners.

Get practical guidance for building organizational capacity and for implementing flexible and innovate programs for youth engagement.

Defines prepermanancy services for prospective adoptive and guardianship families and raises awareness about the need for more prepermanency services supports alongside postpermanency supports.

Learn about adolescent brain development, trauma-responsive care, and the importance of normalcy.

Examine a five-step framework that helps organizations promote youth engagement in normalcy conversations about the youth’s own care.

Explains the importance of sustained involvement of young people currently and formerly in foster care in meaningful organizational activity. 

Explore this tip sheet to learn about child welfare agency and court responsibilities related to APPLA provisions and strategies to achieve permanency.

Learn how to build capacity in each of four component areas to promote a culture and climate that encourages youth engagement at all levels of an organization.

Get an overview of the issues related to the physical and emotional safety of child welfare workers.

Learn the characteristics and results that describe the right people to engage youth and get guidance for recruiting, hiring, and retaining these employees.

Understand the role of coaching in supporting workers, including coaching functions, effectiveness, models, and strategies.

Learn about a framework for applying safety science to promote a culture of safety in child welfare agencies.

Brandon is a 21-year-old alumnus of the foster care system. He was in the foster care system for about 10 years and serves as a foster care advocate, working in State government for the last 3 years. He feels that normal activities for all youth in foster care should include getting a driver’s license, going on out-of-State and overnight trips, and participating in sports.

Bruce and Brenda have been married for 33 years and have four daughters. From 2006 to 2009, they provided a kinship placement for their four grandchildren. In 2010, the couple adopted Bruce (now 18 years old), Tre’Nae (now 15 years old), Mason (now 13 years old), and Kiaunna (now 10 years old).

Shares Stephen’s story about being a community-based provider and policymaker in Florida, the need for laws that empower caregiver decision-making, creating Florida’s reasonable and prudent parent standard (RPPS), and the effect RPPS and normalcy laws can have on foster care.