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TEENS 2 HOMES (Voices Impacting Permanency) |
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Bellefaire JCBs 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.
Project TEENS 2 HOMES utilizes a range of strategies to improve and increase permanency outcomes for youth over 12 and /or sibling groups in the public child welfare system. Especially important is the regional initiative that will produce evidence based, youth centered permanency model that includes parent, mentor, child welfare, and legal professional training to improve Child and Family Service Reviews (CFSR) permanency outcomes. The innovative features of the project include peer groups and a camp that combine a focus on youth empowerment and openness in adoption , a recruitment plan for TEENS 2 HOMES mentors that overcomes the challenge of enlisting sufficient numbers of mentors, the TEENS 2 HOMES Community Chorus, the informal social network activities built into our model of Circles of Support, parent training that invites birth/kinship family members and a TEENS 2 HOMES Rapid Response Team that will engage with legal system professionals to share information and perspectives in a non-adversarial setting.
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