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.

Listen to a youth support partner tell her story of living in kinship care with her grandmother and being reunified with her mother. She discusses the difficulties during her time in care and the system support that might have helped to promote a better relationship with her mother. As a mentor, she helps youth heal from trauma and use their voice in positive ways.

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).

Describes strategies to change staff attitudes, engage families in developing their case plans, and keep children in foster care connected with their families and community. Rosa, the parent partner, shares how she joined the team, what she does in her role, and how the workgroup is helping the agency improve the support and services provided to families.

Shows strategies for child welfare staff to work with the court system to support family involvement. Joe, the Court Improvement Program lead, talks about his experience in the workgroup and the corresponding changes made in the court system to improve the support and services provided to families.

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.

Describes practices that embed and sustain changes in organizational culture. Caseworkers Tyler, Angela, and Laurence and program manager Francie talk about all the changes in the past year that have shifted the culture to better support families.

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.

Recorded webinar of youth with lived expertise and child and family serving agency leaders discussing strategies to support meaningful youth engagement and integrating family and youth voices at individual, practice, and system levels.