Transformational Service Delivery in Kinship Foster Care: Influence of Casey’s Breakthrough Series Priscilla A. Gibson, PhD, LICSW Michaela Rinkel, LICSW Juliana Keen, BS 1

RESULTS Five major changes in the kin search process: 1.Earlier kin searches are better, 2.Widening the definition of kin, 3.Promotion of kinship care as important to families, 4.Biological fathers from invisible to a resource, 5.Hindrances to the search process. 2

Results The following will explain results along with direct quotes that provide more detailed context. 3

1. Earlier searches are most effective. There was recognition that the timing of the search process was important. A manger confirmed this by saying: “I believe that we already had identified kinship searches as a weak area. We were doing them too late.” 4

1. Earlier searches are most effective. The “earlier is better” was also discussed by a worker “I was asked to do kinship searches for kids currently in foster care; I would get them in all stages, sometimes after they had gone to the adoption unit. But, as the Collaborative actually began, it was more about finding right away when a child went into emergency foster care and finding family as quickly as possible.” 5

2. Widening the definition of kin The definition of kin, a blood relative or close family friend was expanded to include others who had any type of close relationship with the biological parents, which may not have been a “close” relationship 6

2. Widening the definition of kin A worker shared an example about the children of the same father who was incarcerated but had different mothers: “I called and said – were you involved with so-and-so and did you have a child by him. And well he has another child by another woman and we were trying to find kin and she was more than willing to take this child because she knew the impact of this woman’s death on her own daughter, worried about what was going to happen to her half-brother. So this was really expanding the idea of kin. The mother of another child of this man, who would take this child in foster care.” 7

3. Promotion of kinship care placements Being placed with kin was supported. A manager provided an example of how the situation might occur: “But they (relatives) know there’s something going on and they call (CPS) and they say, you know, ‘I’m Johnny Jones’s grandma and I just wonder what’s happening (with the case). And, see in the past I think we used to just say: “I’m sorry; we can’t say anything about (the case).” The same manager explained the change in practice that was friendlier to kin: “Now they take the information, put it into our data entry system and probably also give the information to the worker that grandma has called and here’s grandma’s phone number.” 8

3. Promotion of kinship care placements Explaining how some workers promoted kin searches; a supervisor used the phrase “took it a step further”: “I think social workers always ask families about relatives or kin, that’s always been a part of their practice. However, I think once so many of us were involved in the kinship search, it emphasized even more so the importance of relatives. I think social workers took it a step further, rather than if relatives said, ‘I don’t, there’s nobody’ and workers would just kinda take that at face value at that point. But now I think they probe more and ask for names, phone numbers, real specifics so that they could be contacted.” 9

3. Promotion of kinship care placements A worker provided excellent examples of how these workers assisted in the search process: “Well I’m only speaking from my perspective. A lot of the social workers went from ‘Yes this is nice’ to ‘This is imperative. We need to find family sooner rather than later.’ I think there were early adapters and some who were a little more reticent to adapt. But I think there was an attitude change where, ‘this is a wonderful family member’ because when I first started (conducting kin searches), and I’m quoting here, there was a lot of attitude where ‘the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.’ I mean I used to hear that a lot. I mean just because one of the branches had a disease doesn’t mean there aren’t suitable family caregivers. I mean there was a definite attitude shift during that time of the Collaborative (project).” 10

4. Biological fathers from invisible to resources Involving biological fathers in the search process was seen by a supervisor as the biggest change in service delivery during the project: “I think that one of the biggest things that came out of the breakthrough series of kin was fathers that were so often somewhat, not considered as a resource and neglected if they were not initially part of that child’s life.” 11

4. Biological fathers from invisible to resources An administrator said: “I think that during the kinship care (project), one of the things we identified is that we weren’t really seeking out fathers, non- custodial fathers and using them as a resource, and we really dealt with that issue and we deal with fathers entirely differently today than we did three years ago.” 12

5. Hindering the search process: Worker factor Worker factors described their status, attitudes and relationship with the biological parents that acted as barriers during the search process. In discussing the many positive changes that occurred regarding the search, a manager stated: That was a big challenge (worker’s attitude about kinship care placements). I’m sure we didn’t begin to get even halfway toward, changing this attitude thing toward relatives. 13

5. Hindering the search process: Relative factor. Certain past and present circumstances in the lives of relatives were seen as not conducive to being good caregivers A worker described a situation in which family members had criminal records: “The grandparent wasn’t able to – the father’s side of the family all had criminal records and weren’t able to care for the child and the same for the maternal family who all had a lot of issues”. 14

5. Hindering the search process: Custodial parent factor A supervisor connected the refusal to provide information on the father with there being an adversarial relationship: “If the mothers of the children said, ‘oh, he’s no good,’ or ‘he’s not around’ or ‘he doesn’t have a relationship’ that would just be taken at face value and there were a lot of fathers that were very much around, very involved, wanted to have more involvement with their children but, because of the adversarial relationship between them and the children’s mother, they were kept out, and so they were sometimes just not even pursued as possible placement resource. I think that changed dramatically with the kinship series.” 15