Permanency Roundtables
Intended Audience
- Child Welfare Workers
- Child Welfare Supervisors
- Social Services Non-child Welfare
- Court Personnel/Legal Professionals
- Caregivers and Potential Caregivers
- Youth
Targeted Age Group(s)
- 0-9
- 10-12
- 13-17
- 18 or older
QIC-EY Engagement Model Components (i) The engagement model components were identified through the QIC-EY Environmental Scan as critical to the support of youth engagement in the attainment of permanence.
- Engage Specialized Staff
- Support Youth Empowerment
- Utilize Youth-guided Team
- Prioritize Legal, Relational and Cultural Permanence
- Enhance Court Practices
Description
Permanency Roundtables (PRTs) are intensive, structured, case consultations among agency case managers and supervisors, permanency consultants and others related to a child’s case who bring creativity and urgency to expediting permanency for children in care. They focus on what permanency options are available to the individual child. Brainstorming among the team members leads to the development of a permanency action plan that outlines the steps to be accomplished within six months. Strategies include: diligent search, youth engagement, family engagement, strengthening of child connections, and services to meet each child’s needs and to prepare the child for permanency. Additional strategies aim to overcome policy, legal and financial barriers to permanency.
PRT evaluation shows strategies that can help to increase a young person’s likelihood of achieving permanency. These include:
- making lifelong connections to at least one adult.
- preparing for permanency from the start of a child’s or youth’s case.
- addressing mental, emotional and behavioral issues with evidence-based interventions.
- participating in cross-team training regarding values and best practices for achieving permanency.
- adopting innovative strategies to overcome systemic barriers to legal permanency that a child or youth faces.
The PRT has been adapted for youth. A youth-centered permanency roundtable (YCPRT) is a structured, in-depth, case consultation process developed to increase the number of each youth’s permanent connections, to expedite permanency for children and youth, to stimulate thinking and learning about new ways to accelerate permanency, and to identify and to address systematic barriers to timely permanency. The purposes of a YCPRT are empowerment and engagement of youth in developing their own permanency action plans.
Implementation Considerations
This training is intended for child welfare workers, child welfare supervisors, court workers, social services non-child welfare workers, caregivers and potential caregivers to build their skills for creating a successful roundtable session.
Youth-centered Permanency Roundtable (YCPRT) Skills is a training curriculum developed by the Colorado Department of Human Services (https://cdhs.colorado.gov/permanency-roundtable-program) with support from Casey Family Programs. The training for YCPRT describes goals, values, roles and phases of the YCPRT case consultation process. It explores relational permanence, the role of trauma, adolescent development, the role of ambivalence in change and strategies to enhance efficacy of roundtables. This is a 6-hour course. This model was designed to be trained collaboratively by a child welfare trainer and a trainer with lived experience. A train-the-trainer course can be offered for those wanting to train this model.
