The Institute for Child Welfare Innovation

11/02/2022

Children in deserve to be safe, loved, and have a permanent home. When reunifying with their parents is not an option, stability with a loving family is the priority. The transition to an adoptive home is tough for all involved. It is important to have supportive resources and tools to provide assistance for families as they go through this process. Learn more by following this link!
https://www.childwelfare.gov/topics/adoption/nam/

10/28/2022

Shoutout to 30 Days to Family® Specialist Katie Magnuson, at Bethany Christian Services in Kent County, MI, who recently worked her first case. Showing the utmost urgency Katie identified dozens of connections for the children in a matter of hours. Within days, the children were moved to the home of their paternal grandmother. Grandma was surrounded by a network of supports to ensure her success and everyone is doing great! Congrats Katie! Learn more about 30 Days to Family® here: https://forchildwelfare.org/30-days-to-family/

09/02/2022

September is Kinship Care Month! When children cannot remain safely with their parents, kinship care minimizes the trauma of family separation, and helps maintain meaningful connections and cultural traditions. Contact us today to learn more about our training offerings for partnering with relatives and kin caregivers to support familial and cultural identity and community ties for youth.

07/18/2022

Making initial contact with a family member of a child in can feel daunting, awkward, and scary. But we owe it to the children to rise above these feelings and start the conversation! Here's Jada with some tips on how to make this initial contact a lot more comfortable!

07/15/2022

Many in have spent years having major choices made for them. We strive to help professionals develop skills to empower youth. “Using techniques from the Institute, I have reconnected a youth with her former mentor, helping her realize that she has agency over her own life. She took it upon herself to reconnect with her mentor, instead of passively waiting for it to happen." The youth’s voice matters!

07/14/2022

We're always looking for ways to improve our search efforts for children in , including maximizing the power of tools at our fingertips. Check out this list we've put together of tips to get the most out of searches on Google!

07/06/2022

Today we continue our talk about strategies for meaningful and building rapport with older in . Here's Jada with some tips you can put into practice right away!

07/05/2022

Building rapport with older in can be especially challenging. Often, these youth have been let down by the child welfare system over and over, for many years, and establishing trust for meaningful is an uphill climb. Here's Patrick with some thoughts.

07/01/2022

We are celebrating the historic moment Ketanji Brown Jackson was officially sworn in as the first Black female Supreme Court Justice!🙌

WASHINGTON (AP) — Ketanji Brown Jackson was sworn in to the Supreme Court on Thursday, shattering a glass ceiling as the first Black woman on the nation’s highest court.

06/30/2022

Children in deserve to have their voices heard! Building rapport through meaningful with kids can be tricky, and it takes creativity in finding ways to make them feel heard and . Here's Jada with a few tips for engaging children that you can put to use right away!

06/29/2022

When it comes to deep, meaningful with family of children in , we have to start with the parents! Too often, parents are treated as the "bad guys," never being allowed to fully express their thoughts, feelings, and expert opinions on their own children. Here's Patrick with some thoughts on how to reverse this.

06/28/2022

Once family members for children in are located, we have to partner with them! We do this by first building a relationship through deep, meaningful . Here's Jada with some thoughts on how to get this ball rolling.