Identify data sources to explore your state’s system of foster and adoptive parent licensing, recruitment, and retention.

Learn strategies to address the mental health needs of children, young people, and families.

Use this brief to explore actionable strategies for meaningful partner engagement in child welfare agency strategic planning, monitoring, and review processes.

Use this brief to help your agency coordinate strategic and long-term planning, monitoring, and reporting processes—such as the Child and Family Services Plan (CFSP) and Child and Family Services Review (CFSR)—with agency continuous quality improvement (CQI).

Learn how to support state planning and implementation of the reasonable and prudent parent standard (RPPS), which is required by the Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act (P.L. 113–183), to help children and youth in foster care experience normal childhood and adolescent activities. 

Explore the key components of engaging youth and families in individual permanency planning.

Support agency staff in the authentic engagement of youth and families in individual permanency planning processes.

The journeys of children, youth, and families in child welfare are seldom a straight line. Typically, there are highs and lows and winding paths in between

Explore a family-focused program that embodies many of the changes that Kentucky wants to see throughout its child welfare system in this podcast. The START, program demonstrates a shift in organizational culture to focus on family and serves as an example of a truly collaborative team that uses early intervention and a shared decision-making model to work with families.

Get ideas for working with community foundations, endowments, and charitable trusts to improve outcomes for children and youth.

Learn how leveraging NGO connections in the community can help child welfare systems be more flexible and adaptable in achieving program goals.

See strategies and examples for partnering with faith-based communities and leaders on behalf of children and youth in foster care waiting to be adopted.

This “Service Array Data Inventory Sample Worksheet” (Worksheet) is a companion tool to A Data-Driven Approach to Service Array Guide developed by the Capacity Building Center for States. To use the Worksheet, you can print it out and fill in the blank squares, or use the questions as a guide.

This guide is designed to support administrative leaders in states and other jurisdictions in using data to assess and identify ways to improve their service array.

Explore tips and strategies to effectively engage and sustain the involvement of families and youth at the agency level.