Diligent Recruitment and Retention Grant

The Diligent Recruitment and Retention Grant is a 2010 diligent recruitment project administered by the Mississippi Department of Human Services. The target population of the project includes:

• Large sibling groups
• Sexually abused children
• Children who act out sexually or are sexually active
• Pregnant girls who plan to keep their baby in the foster home
• Children with severe behavioral problems
• Teenagers of both genders
• Children with emotional, intellectual, or physical (including medically fragile) challenges

The purpose of the project is to assist the Mississippi Department of Human Services in the development of statewide initiatives targeted at:

• Recruiting and retaining resource families
• Increasing the number and variety of resource homes available to children in care
• Providing skills and services needed to retain and support resource families
• Increasing the percentages of children in foster care with stable placements
• Minimizing placement changes for children in care
• Reconceptualizing the roles of resource families

Project Highlights and Products

• Recruitment and Retention Strategies: Customer Service Workshop Facilitator's Manual (PDF - 1.3 MB) and Simple Truths of Service Slideshow
  
  The Mississippi Department of Human Services developed this workshop and its materials as part of its diligent recruitment grant from the Children’s Bureau.  This workshop was developed to improve relationships both internally and externally.  In the introduction, Mississippi Department of Human services states, “ We work to create a culture centered on customer service that includes not only our external customers but our staff as well! This handbook contains our customer service standards, customer service principles, and staff resources. We hope this information, along with this customer service workshop, will provide each of you with a variety of valuable customer service tools.”