Child/youth-specific recruitment is based on finding a family for a specific child or youth through pro-active outreach efforts, including interjurisdictional initiatives. Typical examples might include newspaper or television features of a specific child, youth or sibling group (e.g. Wednesday's Child) or photolisting a child or youth on AdoptUsKids.org.
Along similar lines, child/youth-centered recruitment begins by comprehensively assessing the youth's history in the child welfare system, including case history and agency files, and previous relationships, and bringing this information into the current context. Every effort should be made to involve the child or youth, as developmentally appropriate. Workers can then build on this knowledge to pro-actively search out contacts who might be potential resources for a child or youth needing a foster or adoptive placement, such as relatives and other important people in the child or youth's life.
Promising Approaches
Websites
Promising Approaches
Permanency Partners Program (P3)
Sponsor: Los Angeles County DCFS (CA) & Consortium for Children
Contact: Tiffany Collins, collita@dcfs.lacounty.gov
Description: In an effort to address the approximately 8,000 youth ages 12-18 in care, Los Angeles County DCFS has implemented a pilot program that pairs trained Permanency Partners with youth to identify one or more permanent connections, with the goal of either family reunification or moving the child out of long-term foster care and into adoption or legal guardianship. Started in October of 2004 as a public-private partnership between L.A. County DCFS and Consortium for Children, the program initially identified 50 youth to participate and continues to expand today. Key program components include intensive file mining, exploring the youth's life and past connections, and the development of a written agreement regarding the relationship and services that will achieve permanence for each youth.
Date: October 2004 - present
Recruiting with Power Point Presentations
Sponsor: Three Rivers Adoption Council (TRAC)
Contact: Sheila Hill, 412-471-8722, shill@3riversadopt.org
Description: Using technology creatively, Three Rivers Adoption Council in Pittsburgh, PA, has found a way to bring the personalities and stories of their youth to life through Power Point presentations. These presentations, created by the youth with assistance from a worker, allow the youth to express themselves through words, pictures, and graphics in a media format that can be used in recruitment events as well as on the organization's website. The program not only draws on older youth and teens' computer savvy but provides a great opportunity for workers and youth to work collaboratively and address adoption issues. Says Sheila Hill of TRAC, "So far 50 kids have completed Power Points with 22 kids having some sort of placement where they were removed from [our] webpage."
Date: January 2004 - present
Wendy's Wonderful Kids
http://www.wendyswonderfulkids.org/
Sponsor: Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption
Contact: 1-800-ASK-DTFA (1-800-275-3832) or wwk@wendys.com
Description: This program provides grants agencies and organizations to hire adoption recruiters focused specifically on recruiting adoptive families for waiting children and youth. "In 2004, Wendy's Wonderful Kids was piloted in seven U.S. cities, resulting in forty seven percent of the waiting children on the recruiter's caseloads being matched with families and moving toward adoption in less than twelve months." With such success, the program has now expanded to 40 cities with a total goal of placing 8,000 - 10,000 foster children in adoptive homes by 2010.
Date(s): 2004-2010
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Websites
Child Welfare Information Gateway
http://www.childwelfare.gov/
National Child Welfare Resource Center for Adoption
http://www.nrcadoption.org
National Resource Center for Family-Centered Practice and Permanency Planning
http://www.hunter.cuny.edu/socwork/nrcfcpp/
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