Assists agencies to evaluate how well the services in an area of their choice follow the Youth Welfare approach.

Suggests examples of service provision for youth in foster care in the area of financial literacy and describes how those services can be improved using a “Good-Better-Best” continuum approach.

Explore the various aspects of the importance of normalcy for children and youth in care.

Learn to facilitate a normalcy conversation and to promote normal and developmentally appropriate experiences for youth in foster care.

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

Hear a first-hand account of a kinship and adoptive mother raising her nephew, fulfilling roles as both aunt and primary caregiver.

Hear about the challenges and successes and how Donaniece is teaching her grandson the meaning of family.

Shares Molene’s story about becoming the primary caregiver for her four nieces, raising them, adopting them, negotiating the child welfare system, and creating a family.

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).

Hear about the challenges and experiences of an adoptive family and how they created belonging, healthy development, and normal experiences.

This handout is part of the series, “Perspectives on Normalcy: Videos and Discussion Questions.” It is designed to facilitate discussion about the issues raised in the video, “Kinship Adoption: You Get a Call, ‘Do You Want These Kids?’”

Illustrates the four shifts that need to occur at the organizational and practice levels to establish a youth welfare system that meets the needs of youth in foster care.

Hear from a family about the challenges of dealing with an autism diagnosis and other issues while navigating the child welfare system.

Offers guidelines and practical suggestions for shifting from a child-focused system that is often reactive, case plan-driven, and protection-focused to a youth-focused system that is proactive, youth-driven, developmentally framed, and normalcy focused.

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.