Resource Library

The Center for States designs products, services, and learning experiences to increase understanding and awareness, and build knowledge and skills. The Center focuses its attention on developing products and resources on several core organizational and practice topics.

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Showing 31 - 45 of 48 resources
Video

Portrays a young woman's story of growing up in foster care, from 5 months through 7 years old, and the difficulties of transitioning back to her family. 

Webinar

Pair this recorded webinar with the discussion guide to learn caregiver and birth parent partnerships and trauma-informed visitation. 

Video

Spotlights how agency support and resources helped one kinship family identify creative solutions to challenges they faced. In this video, a parent reflects on her family's experience with the kinship program and how it enabled her to connect and collaborate with her kinship son's biological family.

PDF

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?’”

PDF

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

Video

Emphasizes the necessity of strong community supports to create a secure and stable environment for a new kinship family. In this video, a grandparent discusses moving across the country to ensure her grandchildren could see their parents.

Video

Reveals the complexity of family dynamics through the experiences of Shary, a kinship parent caring for her niece, Brianna, and grandson, Random. In the first digital story, Brianna seeks to reconnect the pieces in her family puzzle. The second digital story highlights Random's unflappable resilience despite medical challenges.

Video

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

Video

Addresses motivations for becoming a kinship parent and the importance of having agency guidance and support to navigate shifting family roles and dynamics. This video presents one family's transition from kinship care to adoption, and highlights resources that contributed to their success and their ability to provide permanency for their adoptive daughter.

Video

Illustrates the changes parents face when they decide to provide full-time care for their relative children and the benefits of different types of agency support. In this video, a kinship and adoptive parent discusses strategies she used to successfully provide stability for the children in her growing family and the importance of having agency resources to accommodate changing family needs.

PDF

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

Video

Highlights the rewards and challenges of providing permanency and stability for relative children with differing needs. In this video, a single grandparent of five discusses her experience becoming a kinship caregiver, foster parent, and then legal guardian for her daughter's children, support the caseworker provided for her to become a certified foster parent, and the joy of watching her grandchildren thrive.

Video

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.

Video

Learn how Daryle reconnected with this Tribe after being separated from his cultural background in foster care.

Video

Hear how Cortez, and adoptee, overcame his struggles to build an identity in a changing environment.