Tom Rawlings Division Director

1. Tom Rawlings Division Director

3. Tacia Estem is the Kinship Director for Georgia’s Division of Family and Children Services. During her tenure in Georgia she served as a CPS case manager in Fulton and Cobb County prior to leading statewide safety related projects aimed at improving safety interventions and supports. Ms. Estem spearheaded the development of Georgia’s Child Abuse Registry, Kinship Navigator Program, and the statewide implementation of Georgia’s Kinship Continuum. The vision of a Kinship Continuum will enable the Division to improve outcomes for children and provides full supports to kin caregivers. More importantly it will keep children connected to their families and communities. Tacia embeds partnership development and community engagement in every aspect of her career, and she also facilitates family team meeting trainings, parent cafés, and prevention efforts in her personal community.

4. Georgia’s Kinship Continuum • Increase attention to treatment and services for parents to successfully address safety concerns, and to ensure a child’s safety and stability in kinship placements. • Partners with the entire family (beyond just mom and dad) as a pragmatic solution to support both the parents and the child (ren) in situations when a child cannot safely remain with their parents. • Is less intrusive and less traumatic for families and children and leads to better outcomes.

5. Why Kin?Research confirms that kinship care has positive benefits for children “Children entering kinship care had a lower estimated risk of behavioral problems.” “Being placed in kinship care has been found to decrease the risk of disruption “Children initially placed in kinship care as compared to family foster care were more likely to reunify or exit to guardianship.” Source: ChildFocusPartners.com: Findings from Literature Search

6. What Is Ahead! • Implementation of Voluntary Kinship which focuses on both safety and treatment and phases out the use of safety resources. • Applying Georgia’s practice model which engages a family’s extended supports to resolve safety and permanency concerns. • Early identification of kin caregivers to mitigate trauma to the child and to provide continuity of relationships and if long-term caregiving is required. #YesweKIN

9. Voluntary Kinship Values Proposition Voluntary kinship leverages family strengths and informal support systems to prevent the unnecessary entry into foster care in situations when an identified safety threat (requiring an out-of-home plan) can be successfully resolved within 90 days and then supported with in-home services. This process will reduce the total and percentage of children that remain in foster care less than three months.

10. Voluntary Kinship The Benefits: • Strengthens Family and Community Engagement • Provides Reasonable Efforts • Serves as a form of family preservation and support. • Maximizes Natural Helpers supporting children within their family systems. • Reduces the trauma children experience

11. What’s New • Formal Role of the Kinship Coordinator • Intensive Treatment and Services for the Family • Time Frame (90 days) to assess and evaluate behavior change • Revised CPS Guardianship Waiver Process #YesweKIN

12. Georgia's Goal: 50% of children with kin

13. Voluntary Kinship Values Proposition • In situations that are not safely resolved within 90 days, the child is placed in Foster Care and able to remain with the same relative caretaker. • This seamless transition will increase the Division’s percentage of foster children placed in relative homes. #YesweKIN

14. Kinship Foster Care The Benefits • Extends the full range of services offered by social services, child welfare, and other agencies to kinship caregivers and the child (ren) in their care. • A system which approves the majority of kin as foster parents. Timely training and financial support to kin caregivers. • Decrease the length of time a child remains in foster care. • Greater flexibility for kinship guardianship as the permanency plan for foster children.

15. What’s New • Formal Role of the Kinship Coordinator • Approving Kinship Foster Homes at a 120 Days • Contracting out when appropriate for impact and home study evaluations • Not waiting to place with Kin • Kinship exception process/form #YesWeKIN

16. Kin Supports Financial Hardships Siblings Sacrifice Eligible Benefits Crisis “The Call” Isolation

17. Role of the Kinship Coordinator? Role of the Navigator Educate all kinship caregivers/service providers about resources and supports within their local community; Provide information and assistance to caregivers so they can access or meet relevant federal and state benefits; Act as a liaison to key local agencies and community organizations. Provide supportive listening to Kinship Caregivers of all ages who are raising children or planning to do so; Engage kinship families in their service area, identifying those not involved in support group networks and/or in need of additional services. Special attention is focused on serving relatives from isolated and ethnic communities • Ensure stable Voluntary Kinship Arrangements to reduce trauma to children in their care. • Contact Voluntary Kinship caregivers within 48 hrs to review Full Disclosure. • Complete the Kinship Caregiver Assessment a in order to make appropriate referrals. • Refer to Resource Development to transition the voluntary kinship caregiver for foster home approval. • Facilitate enrollment in Impact classes for kinship caregivers. • Provide support or problem solving for any barriers to completing impact timely. • Tracking that the kinship foster home is fully approved within 120 days.

18. Kinship Continuum • Leadership selected Regions 5 & 6 to test the state’s new kinship efforts due to their safety resource and relative placement trends. • The testing period begin July 1st - September 29th 2018 • State-wide rollout of Georgia’s Kinship Continuum February- September 2019.

19. Key Kinship Practice Change!

20. Lessons Learned Voluntary Kinship Foster Care Kin willingly participated in Impact training and Completing the approval process. Impact classes have to be readily available Using multiple providers to complete home studies. Assessing Criminal/CPS History Diligent Search- Typically stops at immediate family Kinship Exception Form-Creates the an opportunity for staff to think broadly about Kin. Reassessing Kin for children in care • Seeking Court Intervention at any point. • Effective Partnership with Kinship Coordinators and Navigators. • Full Disclosure • Completing Safety Assessments of the Kin Home. • Family Meetings-Requires Flexibility • Appropriate Case Plan to meet the Conditions for Return • Communication and Support at all levels.

21. Yes WE Kin!!! Georgia’s Kinship motto is Yes We Kin! It represents a belief and a value stance that together we can improve outcomes for children and their kin caregivers. Let our motto, Yes We Kin, drive the direction and focus of every aspect of your work!

22. The Critical Role of Stakeholders

23. Tacia Estem, Kinship Director Tacia.Estem@dhs.ga.gov 404-309-7699 Tripp Jones, Safety Manager Tripp.Jones@dhs.ga.gov 404-435-1193 #YesweKIN