8.7 Permanent connections to committed adults
Social networks serve a number of important functions as youth make the transition into adulthood and independent living. Social ties provide young adults with emotional support; guidance on employment, education, and relationship issues; and assistance in times of emergency. Most young adults who are raised by their birth families have built-in, lifelong support networks of parents, siblings, extended family, and family friends. Such relationships, however, are not ensured for youth who have spent time in the foster care system. Hard work is often required to develop and maintain stable, permanent relationships for youth aging out of foster care.
Efforts to link youth in foster care with caring adults who are able and willing to provide lifelong support and relationship must begin before the child approaches emancipation. Case workers, judges, caregivers and others must work deliberately with youth to develop a plan for connecting them to committed adults.
California has developed the most comprehensive policy framework for ensuring lifelong connections for young people in foster care. Landmark legislation (2003 Cal. Stats., AB 408, Chap. 813) requires the state to encourage the development of approaches to child protection that ensure that no child leaves foster care without a lifelong connection to a committed adult. For every child in care who is ten years or older, the court is required to determine whether the child welfare agency has made reasonable efforts to maintain relationships with individuals who are important to the child. Social workers and certain agencies, in specified circumstances, must make efforts to identify those individuals and to make efforts to maintain those relationships. County child welfare agencies are required to provide information to youth on maintaining important relationships. Training must be provided to county child welfare workers regarding the importance of maintaining child relationships with important individuals and methods for identifying those people (See Policy Area 3.1 Location and engagement of Kin). Individuals important to the child must be convened for key decision-making, including case plans for young people age 16 or older, and for the child’s transitional independent living plan.
In Massachusetts, a statewide initiative called Lifelong Family Connections for Adolescents assists young people in foster care as they develop permanency plans. The program helps youth review their social connections to identify caring adults who are willing and able to make a lifelong commitment, provides relationship training for both youth and adults to promote a successful match, and offers ongoing support to youth and adults to help them identify community resources and address relationship issues.
Policy Options: States can promote permanent connections to caring kin by adopting and funding implementation of 1, 2, or 3 of the following policies:
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Child welfare agency is required to
ensure that no child leaves foster care without a lifelong connection to a committed adult.
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The court is required to determine that the child welfare agency has made reasonable efforts to connect each child in foster care age ten or older with a caring adult.
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Child welfare caseworkers receive training regarding the importance of maintaining child connections with kin and methods for identifying a committed adult.