Achieving Permanency Through Reunification Training

The Permanency Continuum Series, Lifelong Families Model

By the Annie E. Casey Foundation

January 7, 2012

Aecf Lifelong Families APT Reunification Cover1

Read or Download the Report

106-page PDF

In This Report, You’ll Learn

  • Why reunification is the preferred permanency option for children and youth in foster care.
  • How resource families can provide the supports parents, children and youth need as they work toward and achieve safe reunification.
  • How to develop and use the service plan to support, guide and hold the birth parent/s, as well as other team members, accountable.
  • The role of the team in developing and implementing the service plan.
  • The critical importance of visitation and its use as both an intervention and an ongoing assessment tool.
  • How to implement the post-reunification services that families often need after case closing.
  • How to engage in assessment, service planning and provision of interventions as applied to a specific case example.

About This Report

Summary

This 2-day child welfare training focuses specifically on reuniting children and youth in foster care with their birth families when that option is in the best interest of the children and youth.  The training builds on the Casey Family Services’ Lifelong Families training and its Replication Manual training, with emphasis on the specific skill areas essential to best practice standards and quality reunification practice: assessment, service planning and intervention. The training manual includes a 2-day agenda, assignments, handouts, recommended readings, session plans and follow-up materials to teach these vital skills. 

Table of Contents

Key Takeaway

The majority of children and youth who enter foster care do so because of neglect.

When uniting a child back into the home, it is important to provide the reunification services in the family’s home whenever possible so the skills and learning they acquire are transferred to their own world.

Findings & Stats

Statements & Quotations