About

QIC-EY Overview

About

Funded by the United States Department of Health & Human Services, Administration for Children & Families, Children’s Bureau, beginning in October 2021, the Quality Improvement Center on Engaging Youth in Finding Permanency (QIC-EY) is charged with advancing child welfare programs and practice to ensure that they are authentically engaging and empowering children and youth in foster care throughout the U.S., especially in relation to permanency decisions. It is expected that the components and impact of the QIC-EY will bring about systemic changes in how children and youth are authentically engaged as reflected in intentional policy, practice, and culture shifts in the 6-8 pilot sites.

The QIC-EY is led by Spaulding for Children and is working in close partnership with four national partners.

The Definition

The QIC-EY Asks a Foundational Question: What is Authentic Engagement of Children and Youth?

Before the work of advancing child welfare programs and practice to ensure the authentic engagement and empowerment of children and youth could begin, the Quality Improvement Center on Engaging Youth in Finding Permanency (QIC-EY) had to explore a fundamental question and in doing so, define what authentic engagement of children and youth meant and how to elevate these efforts in child welfare.

To answer this question and set a solid foundation for the project, the QIC-EY completed an environmental scan of the current child and youth engagement landscape, identifying strengths and areas in need of improvement. QIC-EY leadership also worked in connection with their National Youth Engagement Advisory Council, the Workforce Council as well as their partners. This collective effort resulted in the QIC-EY’s definition of authentic youth engagement.

Authentic engagement means actively and intentionally partnering with children and youth about their lives, on their terms, in ways that make sense to them. To authentically engage children and youth, child welfare staff must:

be committed, flexible, self-aware, and open to shared decision-making
use strong communication skills to build trusting relationships with children and youth;
be guided by knowledge of child and adolescent development and trauma-informed care;
use a strength-based approach;
have a vivid self-awareness of potential power dynamics;
have cultural humility; and
partner with, prepare, inform, and advocate for children and youth.

With the definition in place and core elements for professionals clearly laid out, the QIC-EY continues its work engaging pilot sites and developing training curriculum and coaching materials. Stay tuned for updates from the QIC-EY by joining the mailing list.

See Lessons Learned #1

The Problem

The child welfare system is designed to prioritize protecting children and youth, often at the expense of understanding and engaging them. The important work of protecting vulnerable children and youth often can be rooted in an imbalance of power in which the professional has most, if not all, of the power and the children and youth has little or none. This can result unintentionally in child welfare professionals deciding “what is best” for children and youth rather than collaborating with them to determine what will help them thrive.

The Pathway to Solutions

Ensuring that children and youth in care are engaged authentically, particularly in relation to permanency, requires a paradigm shift in how the child welfare system understands children and youth and views their involvement in decision-making. Children and youth need to be seen as competent, knowledgeable experts who are partners in decisions about their lives, especially those related to legal, cultural and relational permanency.

The QIC-EY will address changes necessary at both the systemic and workforce levels to support a vital shift in philosophy and practice nationwide by doing the following:

Produce a training and coaching model that can be used to shift mindset, practice and culture of the child welfare workforce and courts. Once piloted and evaluated, the new training and coaching model will become a free resource available across the nation.
Implement and evaluate models for engaging children and youth in decision-making. Lessons learned will be disseminated nationally to inform practice, policies and laws regarding how child welfare systems engage children and youth, especially in respect to permanency.
Work with sites (states, counties, tribal nations and territories) to make systemic changes aimed at transforming system culture; increasing knowledge, attitude and skills; and developing infrastructure to ensure that authentic youth engagement is included in all aspects of a child welfare system.

To accomplish its goals, the QIC-EY will partner with six to eight pilot sites (states, counties, tribal nations and territories). These sites will be selected during the first year of the initiative. They will receive support and resources from the QIC to implement a youth engagement model, a training and coaching model for the child welfare workforce and a training on youth engagement for courts. They also will receive QIC support and resources to make systemic changes in how they authentically engage children and youth. The information gained from these pilot sites will help to transform how children and youth are engaged authentically in child welfare systems throughout the nation.

The Determination of Success

The work of the QIC-EY including the training and coaching model and the models of youth engagement will be evaluated by an independent evaluation team. The evaluation will consist of the following evaluation components: systematic and technical review, process, outcome, cost and dissemination.

QIC-EY Overview Document

Review Document

QIC-EY Press Release

Review Document

Catalog

A curated list of programs, frameworks, and training curriculum that support the promotion of youth-adult partnerships in child welfare systems.

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QIC-EY Products

State Survey, Literature Review, Expert Interviews, and more.

Find all reports here

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Join our mailing list to receive quarterly updates on the QIC-EY including products being released, training opportunities and other information to help inform your work on youth engagement.

This website is supported by the Administration for Children & Families (ACF) of the United States (U.S.) Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) as part of a financial assistance award totaling $5,000,000 million with 100 percent funded by ACF/HHS. The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement by, ACF/HHS or the U.S. Government. For more information, please visit the ACF website, Administrative and National Policy Requirements, at https://www.acf.hhs.gov/administrative-and-national-policy-requirements.