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 engagement 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.
To accomplish its goals, the Quality Improvement Center on Engaging Youth in Finding Permanency (QIC-EY) is partnering with the following sites:
- Hawaii
- Michigan
- Montana
- Nebraska
- Rhode Island
- Oklahoma Southern Plains (CPT) Consortium
- Yakama Nation
Between 10/2022 and 9/2026, these sites will receive support and resources from the QIC to make changes in how they authentically engage children and youth. The information gained through evaluation of the work being done in the pilot sites will help to transform how children and youth are engaged authentically in child welfare systems throughout the nation.
Pilot sites will advance the authentic engagement of children and youth by working in partnership with the QIC-EY over the next four years to:
- Identify, implement and evaluate an authentic, child and youth engagement program model;
- Implement a child welfare training and coaching curriculum;
- Identify and implement systemic changes, and
- Partner with the courts to implement a training for court professionals and staff
