Helping state agencies, courts, and communities improve child welfare outcomes by preserving, restoring, and growing families
 
 

my three-fold mODEL

Consulting services grounded in a best practice model for child welfare

Preserve Restore Grow

 
 
 
 
 
restore-families-icon

Restore.

The Need

Placing a child in foster care is a traumatic experience for the child and the parents. This family trauma is exacerbated when services and supports are not in place to keep children safely connected with their parents. Parents are often left to navigate a a complex system without legal representation, and agency efforts to effectively engage and support parents are often lacking. National data indicates states are failing to make adequate efforts toward reunification, with current performance at 49%.* 


The Solution

When children must be placed in foster care to ensure their safety, placement priority is with family members or fictive kin. When that is not immediately available, foster parents actively work to develop relationships with the parents and child to facilitate the feel of a familial placement and buffer the trauma of separation. Foster care serves as a supportive intervention for families pursuing reunification.

Whenever safely possible, frequent visitation and active engagement of parents in routine parenting tasks occurs in order to preserve and nurture the child’s attachment. Family-focused, safety-oriented case planning is implemented, aimed at restoring the family as quickly and safely as possible.

 
 
watercolor_colors3.jpg
 
 

I believe systems that restore families support the following best practices:

Preserving family connections during placement is a priority in order to reduce the traumatic impact of removal, stabilize placements and nurture attachments.
 

Safety-oriented case plans clearly outline how services will address safety threats and what behaviors/ conditions must change to facilitate reunification.
 

Case plans are developed with active involvement by the family, are informed by ongoing comprehensive assessments, and outline efforts toward family reunification, including services that strengthen parent-child relationships.
 

Parents, judges, attorneys, social workers and foster parents are clear about the conditions for return so that decisions for reunification are not just based on “compliance” with a list of services.
 

Parents, children and social workers are appropriately represented in the court system by attorneys who understand and advocate for best practice.

Meaningful court hearings focus on discussions about safety, parent-child attachment, the child’s well-being, the parent’s well-being, progress/barriers in services and concurrent planning efforts.
 

Foster parents are engaged as a critical part of the “restoration team” by receiving adequate training and having a voice in case planning meetings and court hearings.


Frequent visitation is used intentionally to bolster the protective capacity of parents, while also strengthening parent-child attachment.
 

Clinical Supervision prioritizes preserving family connections and ensures that comprehensive safety assessment informs reunification efforts.
 

Quality Assurance measures and processes are in place to assess the quality of assessments, visitation, case planning, service effectiveness, efforts toward preserving connections, and court hearing practices.

 
 
 
 

WORK WITH ME

Let’s work together to ensure that families are restored quickly, safely, and successfully.

 
 
solid_colors3.jpg