Money and Business
Just before the summer recess, the Senate hosted a rapid-fire roundtable on child welfare finance reform. Some notes on what was said, and what wasn’t, at a meeting that might help shape next year’s discussion on federal child welfare funding.
Some modest (and some potentially major) moves on social impact/pay for success funding from Congress.
Look for Hawaii to fund expansion of alternatives to incarceration in fiscal 2014-15.
With federal child welfare funding, Congress always wants to rob Peter to pay Paul
Donaldson Adoption Institute and its longtime boss, Adam Pertman, have gone their separate ways. Both sides acknowledge disagreement, but not discord.
Funding Leads
New Jersey: Trenton will make small grant to an organization that can manage its summer employment program
Hawaii: Department of Social Services seeking proposals for various shelter and foster care support services
New York City: Big grants for youth-serving NYC programs from the W.T. Grant Foundation
Minnesota: Ramsey County looking for case management, court supervision providers for Youth Engagement Program
Connecticut: Department of Children and Families funding services for court-involved youths through juvenile review boards.
Nevada: Washoe County funding a single provider for mental health services at a child protection facility.
South Dakota: transition services for youths aging out of foster care with serious mental health issues.
South Carolina: Department of Social Services funding Family Finding, Team Meetings, Group Decision Making.
National
Ronald McDonald House taking applications for “train the trainer” programs in children’s health services.
Research funding lead: Federal grant for research on nutrition programs for military families
Funding lead, national: Funds for youth programs, community activism from The Ben & Jerry’s Foundation
News, Opinion and Analysis
The Imprint is highlighting each of the policy recommendations made this summer by the participants of the Foster Youth Internship Program (FYI), a group of 11 former foster youths who completed Congressional internships.
The overarching themes we found in those proposals? Youth empowerment, identity protection, and early mental health intervention.
Here is a list of all 11 profiles:
- Trauma training for caregivers
- An empowerment/comfort curriculum for new foster youth
- Internship-track career programs for aging-out teens
- Increase the number foster youth opting into 18+ foster care through youth empowerment training
- Preventive action on identity theft, credit fraud
- Placement stability for infants
- Allow youth to dictate court order on parent contact
- Unfettered access to birth, health, and identification documents
- Child welfare system protections for detained or deported parents
- Preventing the misuse of special education with foster youth
- Imposing timelines on health screenings for foster youth
What should and shouldn’t be in the journalist’s lexicon when it comes to child sexual exploitation?
The Imprint sits down with Bobby Shriver, a candidate for Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, to discuss how he would handle reform of the county’s child welfare system.
John Kelly is the editor-in-chief of The Imprint.