In Their Best Interest: Placing Kids in Families From the Start Research shows that families are essential to a child’s healthy development. Additionally, federal law requires that children removed from their homes are placed in the least restrictive setting possible — the setting most like a family. Yet a recent U.S. Department of Health and Human Services report found that 4 out of 10 children in group placements had no reason warrenting such a restrictive setting. Read More
Every Kid Needs a Family: Putting Kin First in Washington, D.C. When young people come into the care of the child welfare system and cannot live with their own parents, the next best thing a caseworker can do is to find a loving relative or close friend who can keep the child close to home in every sense. Washington, D.C.’s Child and Family Services Agency has made finding kin a top priority, creating a rapid turnaround process to make it as easy as possible for kin to take on the responsibility of caring for a young person. Read More
Five Top States for Placing Children in Child Welfare in Families An analysis of 2013 data on the placements of children from birth through age 20 showed that the percentages living in group placements ranged from 4% to 35%. Five states that have kept family placements high and group placements low. Read More
Five Questions with Casey: Rob Geen and the Importance of Family In this "Five Questions" edition, Geen discusses findings from the KIDS COUNT Policy Report, Every Kid Needs a Family, about the importance of connecting children in foster care with families. Read More
The Orphanage Evolves: Providers Shift to Put More Kids in Families Today, private providers of residential placements based on the ophanage model are now moving to serve more young people in families. Learn now long-time providers in New York and California are adjusting thier services to better connect kids in child welfare with families. Read More
Too Many Kids in U.S. Child Welfare Systems Not Living in Families On any given night, about 57,000 children under the care of our nation’s child welfare systems are going to bed without the care and comfort of a family. In its latest KIDS COUNT policy report, Every Kid Needs a Family: Giving Children in the Child Welfare System the Best Chance for Success, the Foundation highlights this and other sobering statistics that point to the urgent need to ensure, through sound policies and proven practices, that everything possible is being done to find loving, nurturing and supported families to help raise more of these children. Read More
Download New Report on Connecting Kids in Foster Care to Families Download Every Kid Needs a Family: Giving Children in the Child Welfare System the Best Chance for Success, the latest KIDS COUNT Policy Report. Read More
Atlanta Community Investment Fund Seeks 2015 Grant Applicants Through the Community Investment Fund, the Foundation provides small grants to community-based organizations and resident networks to develop community-driven responses to common challenges. The deadline for 2015 submissions is 5 p.m. Monday, June 1. Read More
Admitting Failure: Learning From Mistakes in Philanthropy Admitting failures contributes to high-quality implementation, innovation of new strategies and improved governance and transparency. It’s good medicine that doesn’t always taste so good. Yet despite increasing philanthropic interest in mistakes and learning, many foundation staff still find it difficult to have conversations about mistakes. Read More
Number of Kids in Foster Care Increases for First Time Since 2005 After a decade of steady decline, the number of children in foster care increased from 2012 to 2013. In 2013, there were approximately 402,000 children in the system. Read More
