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Bellefaire JCB’s Project TEENS 2 HOMES is an innovative project designed to develop and implement services and supports to improve permanency outcomes for youth who wish to retain contact with family members. The project focuses on five objectives:
- replacing resistance to with interest in permanency options among youth over age 12 and/or sibling groups in the public child welfare system;
- connecting youth to adults to promote a range of permanency options, particularly adoption, open adoption, and including guardianship and kinship care;
- demonstrating an effective permanency planning model in which youth leadership and collaboration among youth, siblings, other family members, caseworkers, and possible permanency parents are critical components;
- evaluating the processes and outcomes of Project TEENS 2 HOMES to provide an evidence based model for promoting open adoption;
- disseminating information about Project TEENS 2 HOMES to provide a model for other counties and states seeking effective open adoption programs for youth and sibling groups.
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The program components of Project TEENS 2 HOMES individually serve unique purposes and in their totality create a model with the intensity to make a substantial impact on achieving permanency for youth 12 years and older and/or members of sibling groups. The project integrates best practice approaches such as elements from informal and formal social support networks, person-centered planning, and positive youth development, mentoring to generate successful outcomes. As a child-centered model, Project TEENS 2 HOMES gives the youth a central and meaningful role in all program activities.
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The TEENS 2 HOMES evaluation consultant Victor Groza, Ph.D, is a Professor at the Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences, Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. The evaluation uses both qualitative and quantitative approaches to address evaluation. Qualitative approaches produce rich and descriptive findings. Quantitative approaches reduce activities and outcomes to numeric form, which allows descriptive statistics and mathematical manipulation of the data. A mix of both approaches produces the strongest information for evaluating the program.
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