Learn about the Youth Welfare approach, which outlines how agencies can shift from a child-focused system to a youth-focused system.

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.

Learn about applications that can make information gathering more efficient, increase useful data, and help you better understand those you serve. 

Discusses new software and technologies used in child welfare.

Read recent research on child welfare workforce management, including recruitment and retention, professional development, and organizational culture.

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).

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?’”

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

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.