Brainstorming on Unmet Community Needs

So I wanted to take this opportunity to share my idea of a dream program that used community assessment to identify and maximize assets, requires networking services and meets more then one unmet need of the community.

BEACON stands for Believe, Empower, Advocate, Community, Orientation, and Navigation. This program would ideally become a proprietary child welfare service, but would likely start as a non-profit organization. During the non-profit stage the BEACON House program will need to evaluate outcomes and prove sustainability in order to work towards achieving evidence based status. Prior to proving outcomes, BEACON House will serve the unmet needs of under served populations and groups at risk for repeated child welfare intervention. Therefore BEACON House is identified as a more restrictive service setting that sits relatively high on the pyramid of services. In an article examining the findings of a comprehensive study focused on identifying principles and practices most likely to promote rapid and permanent family reunification, the conclusion was that children who are leaving foster care are most likely to be reunified with parents. However the correlating study also found that in order for the reunification to be permanent, families were in need of intensive and family centered services that were preferably home based. (Pine, Spat, Werrbach, Jenson, & Kerman, 2009) Another article found that during that evaluation of a specific family reunification program, the transition services that should be a natural and normal part of child welfare are highly underdeveloped and disjointed. The article further recommended that this transition should be an opportunity to provide relatively brief and intensive services intended to prevent recidivism in needing out of home placement. (Frasier, Walton, Lewis, Pecora, & Walton, 1996)
My program is a multifaceted supportive services program that is designed to prevent recidivism of child abuse and neglect and reduce episodes of out of home placement. It is intended to help clients discover and practice self advocacy and self determination skills, develop or refine independent living skills, help orient and reconnect clients to their community, and aid them navigating services for specific purposes of reunifying with their families and keeping them in tack. Because visitation is often limited by business hours, BEACON House provides a model of a safe and comfortable home environment and supports families for visitation in more natural setting. The goals of offering this setting are to retain or enhance parenting and promote healthy family activities during hours when families would naturally be together. This program will also serve as a 24 hour reception center for families being inducted into the child welfare system. Provisions of supports will allow for time to focus on keeping siblings together while families and service providers work together to locate and relatives and extended family for alternatives to placement.
Historical Context
In looking at the historical context of Child Welfare Services the agency as a whole moved away from community based intervention and supportive services into individualized and compartmentalized services. This era of change has created a problem for individuals in need and /or in crisis who are trying to navigate multiple systems and supports. This navigation process has been further complicated by the fact that there is competition for funding sources that creates restrictive eligibility criteria and complicated the application processes on intake. These intake systems are often so complex that they are now identified as barriers to receiving timely and effective services. The current Child Welfare Services reform is focused on reintegrating services and reestablishing the importance of first using and promoting community based interventions. BEACON House is stepping back in time and recognizing the value in community based intervention and support and providing a space for these supports to come together in a non-institutionalized setting whose availability is not confined by business hours. The services concept of BEACON House recognizes similar community based principals and practices that Jane Addams practiced in the founding of Hull House in 1889. A mission of BEACON House that is adopted from Jane Addams principals is that the ultimate goals are “to help people help them selves, and that neighbors can help neighbors.” The difference is that this is not a residentially based program for the primary clients, but rather a stepping stone service program for clients that successfully navigated the systems on their own behalf, and who now have the opportunity to give back the services they once received. A primary difference from the child welfare system of care model is that focus of services is on the reunification and preservation of families and especially advocacy for natural families. The Safe Families Act of 1997 recognized the importance of permanency for foster youth and called for adoption. The focus was on the health and safety of the child above all and did not recognize the detriment caused to children by devaluing the importance of their desire to have relationships with their natural families. (Herrick, 2002) While child welfare has seen some movement to correct this with the implementation of programs such as Families First, there still seems to be some gaps in the advocacy supports for the biological families. BEACON house honors and recognizes families and seeks to preserve and reunify families without compromising the health and safety of the children.
Ethnicity/ Culture:
The target population is families of any age, race, religious orientation, gender, lifestyles, economic background, and ethnicities which are in need of support in reunifying with their children. BEACON house recognizes that all individuals deserve fundamental dignity and equal respect and celebrates diversity of cultural differences. Humboldt County is known, to serve a disproportionate numbers of families from the indigenous tribes and families affected by mental illness and substance abuse issues. Program services and principals recognized the validity of Wrap Around concepts and invites indigenous service providers take the lead in gathering of supports for Native families. Office space is provided for primary service providers to meet with clients and teams around overcoming the barriers to reunification. Assessing the effectiveness of culturally/ ethnically sensitive services can only happen as the program progresses. A sign of success would be a client who identifies with a specific ethnicity or culture successfully reunifying with family and returning to serve as a paid mentor to others.
Theory
BEACON House embraces a combination of theory and practice. The ecological approach is used in assessing environmental factors influencing an individual and how they perceive their world, than assists them in discovering ways to move through their perceived barriers standing between them and their goals of reunification. Solution focused theory is also used in constructing the goals and strategies with an emphasis on recognizing what strategies have worked in the past and what needs to change. Motivational interviewing is used to help clients move through ambivalence to change and begin working towards their goals. The program also use strengths-based assessment methods for determining what issues should be addressed and which their strengths are going to utilized in completing the goals developed around addressing the particular issue. These theories support the use of peer support groups, family focused services, strengths-based multidisciplinary approaches. These models are also supportive of developing an understanding learning to navigating the child welfare system model of care.
Clients
Clients are family members who are motivated to regain and retain custody of their children Clients can be parents who desire some control in determining who provides care for their child if the are unable. Clients can be family members who wish work towards reestablishing connection with their children, when the court has previously determined that reunification and visitation services are no longer warranted. Clients served will be parents or custodial caretakers who are seeking proactive visitation to improve quality of relationships between adult and child and who are interested in gaining opportunity to experience cohesive family interaction and experiences. Clients may need to seek services to rebuild or design their own protective community around their selves and their children to prevent future Child Welfare intervention. Recruitment will occur through availability of space and support to on call services with Humboldt County Child Welfare Services, by providing a reception room and for families and space of Social worker to continue searching for the least restricted placement settings. Coordination with foster youth advocacy groups such as the Humboldt County Transition Aged Youth Collaboration would be invited to recruit families by sharing their digital stories and educating parents about the emotional struggles, trails and potential detriment of their children being lost in the system of care. These first hand accounts of youth experience the foster care system are intended to encourage parents not to give up.


Works Cited

Frasier, M. W., Walton, E., Lewis, R. E., Pecora, P. J., & Walton, W. K. (1996). An Experiment In Family Reunification: Corralates of Outocmes at One-year Follow-up. Children and Youth Services Review , 335-361.
Herrick, A. (2002). Information Packet: Family Preservation. New York: National Resource Center for Foster care and Pemanency Planning.
Pine, B., Spat, R., Werrbach, G., Jenson, C., & Kerman, B. (2009). A better path to pemanency for children in out-of-home care. Children and Youth Services Review , 1135-1143.