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October 23, 2010

Kent Berkley, Senior Associate Director

Gerard F. Glynn, Associate Professor, Barry University School of Law

NACC Conference Cross Systems Advocacy for Youth

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What Are the Multiple Systems?

• Foster Care

• Delinquency

• Mental Health

• Criminal

• Family Law

• Schools

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• The Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative was created in 2001 to improve outcomes for the young people who leave foster care, now nearly 30,000 each year.

• The subset of young people that “age out” of foster care without permanence experience a high rate of negative outcomes.

• The Initiative’s Vision is for all young people leaving foster care to make successful transitions to adulthood.

• As a national foundation, the Initiative’s Mission is to bring together the people, systems and resources necessary to assist youth leaving foster care in making successful transitions to adulthood.

• The Initiative provides “value added” by testing and developing promising approaches that are developmentally appropriate for adolescents and emerging adults.

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The Number of Youth Who Age Out of Foster Care Continues to Rise

THE NUMBER OF YOUTH AGING OUT OF FOSTER CARE HAS INCREASED

EVERY YEAR SINCE 2001

THE TOTAL NUMBER IN FOSTER CARE HAS DECREASED EVERY

YEAR SINCE 1999

490,000

500,000

510,000

520,000

530,000

540,000

550,000

560,000

570,000

580,000

98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07

10,000

20,000

30,000

98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07

Source: Kids are Waiting and the Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative (2007); Time for Reform: Aging Out and On Their Own. Philadelphia, PA: Pew Charitable Trust

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Successful Transitions to Adulthood by age 25

By age 25 a young person needs a level of education and training that permits relative economic success; social and relational skills necessary for being part of and raising a family; and a web of connections with peers, colleagues, business associates and friends.

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What is needed to be connected?

• Young people need people in their lives-- adults who listen, who guide, who respect them, and help them navigate. They need places, safe, stimulating, structured places where they can live, learn, work, and play.

• They need opportunities -- high-quality instruction and training in things they're interested in. They need opportunities to work and they need opportunities to contribute through service.

• They need helpful supports and interventions that are redundant -- provided in as many settings as possible such as families, schools, youth organizations, and workplace.

• They need marketable skills and opportunities to give back. • Families not only provide emotional support but also act as brokers,

monitors and guides for young people.

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Subgroups of Former Foster Youth

Chapin Hall (Courtney, Hook and Lee)• Accelerated Adults about 36% (doing fairly well but growing

up fast)• Struggling Parents about 25 % (life dominated by parenting

under difficult circumstances)• Emerging Adults about 21% (delaying some transition markers

while avoiding hardship)• Troubled and Troubling about 18% (serious problem situations

such as incarceration, homeless, etc.)

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Initiative Site Logic Model

A set of strategies and activities will help create the conditions that are necessary in a community in order to improve outcomes for young people transitioning from foster care:Youth EngagementPartnerships and ResourcesResearch, Evaluation, and CommunicationsPublic Will and PolicyIncreased Opportunities

How do we know the strategies and activities are being implemented? A Core Strategies Rubric is used to assess sites’ implementation according to a set of cross-site performance measures.

Improved policy and practice will promote timely permanence and increase opportunities available to young people, regardless of race or ethnicity:A Permanent FamilyA Stable EducationOpportunities to Achieve Economic SuccessA Place to LiveAccess to Health and Mental Health CareOpportunities to Be Listened To, Informed, and Respected and to Exert Control Over Their Lives

How do we track improvements in policy and practice? A Policy Matrix is used to assess sites’ improvement according to a set of cross-site goals; communities can set additional priorities. The matrix summarizes relevant state policies and practices and provides a set of indicators to help the state determine how many young people are benefiting.

When systems are effectively supporting young people throughout their transition, they will have improved outcomes in the following areas:PermanenceEducationEmploymentHousingPhysical and Mental HealthPersonal and Community Engagement

How do we track improvement in youth outcomes? A series of indicators related to each outcome area is used to measure progress over time. The data are collected directly from young people twice a year via the Opportunity Passport™ Participant Survey.

Strategies and Activities Improved Policy and Practice Improved Youth Outcomes

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Examples of Key Activities

All five strategies working together lead to improved outcomes and systems for youth leaving foster care.Simplified graphic of our strategies and outcomes we are trying to achieve.

● Youth Leadership Boards● Youth Leadership Institute

● Community Partnership Boards● Youth-Adult Partnerships● Public-Private Partnership

● Self-Evaluation Team● Data-driven Decision Making

● Youth Advocacy● National Partnerships

● Opportunity Passport™● Door Openers

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Policy Improvements in Initiative States

Medicaid expanded to age 21 in states: Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Iowa,

and Michigan

Tuition waivers and expanded supports 18-21: Florida, Iowa, and Maine

Court improvements:Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Maine, and Rhode Island

Permanency efforts imbedded in legislation and policy:

Connecticut, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, and Rhode Island

Sibling rights visitation: Iowa and Maine

POLICY INFLUENCE SYSTEMS IMPROVEMENT

Advocacy and influence generated by youth, community partnerships and data

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Improving outcomes for transitioning youth

• Recommendation #1: Young adults do best in functioning families. Agencies must promote policies and practices that address family relationships and permanency.

• Recommendation #2: Youth Engagement: Case managers should engage youth in formulating a plan that includes the goals they wish to achieve by age 25.

• Recommendation #3: Ensure that the services available to youth are developmentally appropriate.

• Recommendation #4: Use federal funding to create programs for older youth and track their outcomes.

• Recommendation #5: Develop practices and policies that support prevention and development of the specific skills and competencies necessary for adulthood success.

• Recommendation #6: Strengthen collaboration between the juvenile justice and child welfare systems to efficiently target service provision and improve outcomes for crossover youth.

• Recommendation #7: Engage with the community to create broad support systems for transitioning youth.

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One: Permanence & Families

An alternative permanency construct may be appropriate for older youth• There are qualitative differences in types of permanency reported by young people in

our sites, and as reported by Gina Samuels’ research.• Older youth view permanence as a continuum rather than a bright line achievement.The concept of a continuum of permanence carries opportunities and risks• May provide benchmarks of permanence as stepping stones to quality permanence

(compatible with the extended finish line in Fostering Connections).• A permanency paradox exists whereby ignoring gradations may invite sloppy practice

that settles for low quality permanence, however, an alternative interpretation is that it may help achieve better outcomes by creating incentives for helpful non-legal permanence when legal permanence not happening. (e.g. Illinois Miracle)

Connections identified by youth as “permanent family” often do not translate to the supports we commonly identify with families in the transition to adulthood: housing, help with school costs, etc. (NYTD+ survey pilot).

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One: Permanency (Legal and Relational)

Dr. Gina Samuels in Voice, Spring 2010 – Volume 11 Issue 1

“Legal Permanence is important, but the purpose of permanence is for children to have a family.”

“A legal focus sometimes creates a blind spot about the diverse family relationships that kids have.”

ACYF Commissioner Bryan Samuels We need to rethink the permanence obsession—an often singular focus on legal permanence causes systems professionals to miss important developmental milestones.

Federal grantees beginning to measure relational permanence

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One: Definitions of Relational Permanence• Jim Casey Youth Opportunities – advice in a crisis; advice on school/job; loan in

emergency; always be there for support

• Casey Family Services – BEST; someone to count on like a parent (longitudinal study)

• Call to Action permanency definition with “…Legal rights and social status…”component along with belonging, intent, and continuity dimensions

• Nine Federal Openness in Adoption Grants – openness to permanency and quality relationship scales; trauma symptoms checklist

• Michelle Chalmers - Belonging; knowing; becoming; giving

• Gina Samuels – Complex relationship dimensions of closeness, family, emotional support

• NYTD Plus

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One: Social Capital & Permanence

• Promote social cohesion and personal investment in the community

• Elements of goodwill, fellowship, mutual sympathy and social intercourse among individuals, groups and families

• A producer of "civic engagement" and a broad societal measure of communal health

• Facilitates individual or collective action, generated by networks of relationships, reciprocity, trust, and social norms

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One: Permanency principles applied to juvenile justice

• Qualitative measures of family functioning and quality relationships are important to improve juvenile justice outcomes.

• These measures can be tools for building helpful supports to young people without unnecessarily inviting the state to exercise its police power to disrupt families without due process.

• Supports and services can buttress otherwise minimally adequate families.

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Two: Youth Engagement

• Youth taking the lead in building a decision-making team, identifying needed supports and formulating a case plan that includes goals they wish to achieve by age 25.

• Promote authentic youth engagement in court proceedings. • Youth participation in service design & delivery (expand

effective, discontinue ineffective, eliminate duplication)• Build a youth voice infrastructure (policy, practice and

individual cases) • Opportunities for effective self advocacy and system

improvement advocacy (untapped potential in JJ)

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Three: Developmentally appropriate services

• Planning and services need to take into account any delays that occur during childhood

• Adolescent brain may be especially sensitive to experiential input so helpful services seen as fruitful investment opportunities in youth

• Behaviors understood in context of stage of adolescent brain development

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Six: Cross System Collaboration

• Allow child welfare to retain jurisdiction of dually adjudicated youth. (JJ youth benefit from Chafee and Fostering Connections).

• Collaboration between the juvenile justice and child welfare systems to efficiently target service provision for crossover youth.

• Align multiple planning efforts plans (permanency plan, ILP, IDEA/education plans, aftercare plans, etc.)

• Consolidated models of practice (e.g. Tennessee)• EBP system transference for better practice

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Brain Research Dilemma

Prefrontal cortex of adolescent brain undergoes second stage of pruning and continues to develop as late as early twenties.

Are young people impulsive risk takers …rational decision makers?

National Juvenile Justice Network (NJJN): Frame the research in a way that is respectful and effective --focus on opportunity, investment and education not on youth as incompetent, reckless and irrational.

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Fostering Connections to Success & Increasing Adoptions Act

• The Fostering Connections Act allows states to extend foster care to 18-21 year-olds; a system for older youth who would stay in care voluntarily is the next wave of innovation. • What does a child welfare/foster care system look like for young people who

can walk away?

• How do we keep young people connected to supports and services after age 18?

• What will be the response of the judiciary to a system for young adults 18-21 years old?

• The Fostering Connections Act requires states to implement youth-directed transition planning 90 days prior to emancipation.

• Educational Continuity policies that limit disruptions as a result of placement changes and assures that school records track immediately.

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Transition planning approaches

• Both permanency and preparation for adulthood addressed• Youth directed - engage young person for long term commitment to plan• Clinically address issues of trauma, identity loss, ambiguous loss etc. • Self determination and resiliency promoted • Strengths based, positive youth development • Strengths and needs assessed & guide content • Cross system collaboration and data sharing • Plans outline responsibilities, accountability and track progress• Court tracking and enforcement

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Subject matter content of transition plans

Address both permanency and preparation for adulthood in an integrated plan• Education planning focused on ability to develop vocational or post secondary education

interests• Housing and home life planning (acquisition and maintenance of independent housing)• Health/mental health and self care planning (astute consumers and ability to self monitor)• Transportation planning • Life skills and daily living planning and service provision (e.g. Ansell Casey Life Skills

Assessment -- life skills assessment to identify strengths and needs) • Finances and money management planning • Career planning and work life planning and service provision (develop economic stability) • Support (social relationships and communication skills planning and service provision)

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Multi-system conflicts

• Initial Abuse Investigation

• Juvenile Court or Criminal Court?

• School Yard Fight

• Delinquency versus Expulsion

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What are the benefits to the lawyers?

• Information

• Control

• Money for the system

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Barriers to Cross System Advocacy

• Silos

• Statutory Restrictions

• Monetary Limitations

• Time Limitations

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Overcoming Barriers

• Evidence Based Models

• Saves money

• Better Services

• Better outcomes

• Saves Time

• Participants are better served / more satisfied

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What does advocacy look like?

• Comprehensive Law Office

• Formal Relationships with other offices

• Team Child Model

• Attendance in other systems without formal role

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What type of lawyering?

• Not in the courtroom

• Most decisions made at informal meetings

• This is the real practice of law

• Administrative Law is dominant type of law

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Your activities at these meetings

Advocate for your client

In a cooperative way

Don’t Be Shy – Ask Questions if you don’t know

Who made decision / when

Is there a paper trail about this decision

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What do you get?

• Services you never knew existed

• Special Education

• Foster Care

• Mental Health Funding

• More options for your clients

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Ethical Considerations

• Expectations need to be clear

• Client

• Other parties

• Competence

• Special Rules for Different Systems

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Kent BerkleySenior Associate Director

Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative

Gerard F. GlynnAssociate Professor

Barry University School of Lawgglynn@mail.barry.edu

321-206-5750