Executive Summary

The Mockingbird Society of Seattle is pleased to receive a federal grant award from the Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families. We will work closely with the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS), One Church One Child (also known as UJIMA Community Services), Childrens' Services Northwest, Children's Home Society and the University of Washington's Northwest Children and Family Institute to implement the Foster Family Constellation Project.

Foster children do best when they are living in supportive, culturally welcoming and stimulating environments, with families who have ready access to resources and respite. To help create and sustain this type of environment we will establish a foster family constellation team comprised of four foster family homes (each serving one to four youth) and a group home center. Center staff will work with the State Department of Social and Health Services to assess youth, place them in homes, maintain contact with families and provide both foster children and foster parents a wide range of home-based and center-based services customized to reflect their needs.

In addition, the Children's Home Society, a provider of foster and group home care, has agreed to implement a second constellation team using their own foster homes and central group home. The two constellations will run simultaneously and will provide not only shared information and findings, but will allow this model to provide services to twice the number of foster youth.

This project will address deficienccies in the current system. First, it will reduce the current isolation of many foster families by providing them with ongoing support, access to resourcecs, respite care and membership within a peer network. Second, it will help foster children and their siblings stay together or in close contact because every effort will be made to place the siblings in the same constellation of foster homes. Third, it will help youth feel culturally connected because every effort will be made to place youth in environments with which they identify culturally and spiritually. Fourth, the referrals and services provided will be designed to increase foster youth connections with both peers, providers and family members. The project partners will include tutors and the providers of mental health, substance abuse and employment services. Each youth will also have the opportunity to participate in the Mockingbird Society's youth-operated newspaper.

Finally, the model will provide alternatives to multiple, short-term crisis oriented placements. If their placement does not work out, a bed will be saved in the central home for youth who are between placements. The constellation model provides much needed 24-hour support, allowing caseworkers, foster parents and foster youth a much wider range of positive options and fewer disruptions in the lives of foster youth.

Innovative Model

The Seattle based Mockingbird Society will implement the Foster Family Constellation Project. This project will:

Target Population

A minimum of 70 foster children and youth ages 8 to 18 will be served within a 12 month period in this project, including the Children's Home Society site. The majority of foster youth targeted for the project will be minority youth. Many of the foster youth served will have been involved with the foster care system for more than a year. Services to foster siblings will be a priority. The foster homes involved will be chosen because they have a commitment to applying and testing the new foster care "extended family" concept.

Benefits

This project will benefit foster children, youth and families. The extended family environment created through the foster family constellation will give foster parents needed training and respite. The issues of reducing multiple placements, maintaining sibling connections, increasing cultural relevancy and increasing foster parent support and respite are the largest problems facing child welfare systems across the nation. The ability to demonstrate a foster care model that is practical and effective has the potential to benefit thousands of children and families.

Evaluation

The program model will be evaluated for its ability to offer intensive, effective interventions that are consistently implemented, and include rigorous efforts to understand the experiences of children and participating foster families. The evaluation will particularly focus on:

The evaluation will be conducted by the Northwest Children's Institute of the University of Washington. The Institute has an excellent track record of conducting research and evaluation projects and Institute staff are commited to developing innovative models of care for children in Washington's foster system. Institute staff have already been included in project planning.

The reduction of multiple foster care placements is a particularly important goal to evaluate, because failed placements are devestating to both foster youth and the system of care. Each failed placement increases the difficulty in finding new resources for that youngster, demands increased caseworker time, often results in foster parent resignation and reinforces a failed self-image and sense of hopelessness within the youngster.

Objective: To address these problems the main objective over the next 12 months will be to pilot test, refine and improve a foster family pilot in which:

Cohorts of 4 to 6 families work closely with a central placement center, as part of a coordinated service network, that gives foster parents needed respite, and keeps foster children and youth closely connected to siblings, peers and resources.