Resources Covering Both Recruitment and Retention

• Recruitment and Retention of Resource Families: Promising Practices and Lessons Learned
  This report from Casey Family Programs illustrates the use of the Breakthrough Series Collaborative (BSC) methodology and describes the successful strategies and lessons learned by the twenty-two public child welfare agencies who participated in this BSC on Recruitment and Retention. (June 2005)

• Listening to Parents: Overcoming Barriers to the Adoption of Children From Foster Care
  This study was designed to explore the question of why, despite an increasing demand for children to adopt and active adoptive family recruitment efforts, few “general applicants” (those who were not the children's relatives or foster parents) adopt children from foster care. It makes a number of recommendations in the areas of screening vs recruitment of families, first contact, matching, training, use of a buddy system, and listening to prospective parents. (January 2005)

• Creating Foster Care Capacity for Abused and Neglected Children
  This policy paper from the Center for Public Policy Priorities examines the problem of an insufficient number of foster homes in Texas, and makes recommendations for capacity building. (January 2008)

• Working with African American Adoptive, Foster and Kinship Families
  This guide was developed by AdoptUsKids to assist public and private child welfare staff in their work with prospective and current African American foster, adoptive and kinship families. It is important to remember that there is no “one size fits all” description of African American families. Rather, African American families, like all families, are diverse with various beliefs, values, and socioeconomic experiences. The guide includes the following sections: A historical perspective; strengths of African Americans; Tips to Remember; Additional Information (with resources).

Resources on Recruitment

• Wendy’s Wonderful Kids Research
  The Impact of Child-Focused Recruitment on Foster Care Adoption: A Five-Year Evaluation of Wendy’s Wonderful Kids, Prepared by Child Trends.
  The most comprehensive evaluation ever conducted on family recruitment practices for children in foster care was released from the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption. The five-year study, led by Child Trends, found children served by a child-focused recruitment model experienced substantially higher rates of adoption than children not served by this model. (October 2011)
  • Press Release
  • Fact Sheet
  • Executive Summary
  • Evaluation Report Summary
  • Technical Report: Program Description and Implementation
  • Impact Findings Technical Report
  • Parent Brief
  • Youth Brief
  • Guide to Child-Focused Recruitment
  • Policy Maker’s Guide
    
    
• Recruiting Foster Parents
  This report was developed by the Office of the Inspector General at the Department of Health and Human Services. It focuses on States' efforts to recruit foster care families. (May 2002)

• Individualized and Targeted Recruitment for Adoption
  This document from Casey Family Programs National Center for Resource Family Support looks at some child-specific and targeted recruitment efforts that have achieved results. (March 2003)

• A Community Outreach Handbook for Recruiting Foster Parents and Volunteers
  The handbook, written by Kathy Barbell and Lisa Sheikh, is offered here in an on-line version, which you can download and read for your personal use. You can purchase printed copies of the handbook directly from the Child Welfare League of America. (2002)

• Handout from the Rural Adoption Recruiter
  Planting Methods - Recruiting Techniques: ideas for recruiting in rural areas. (2008)

Resources on Retention

• Relationship Between Public Child Welfare Workers, Resource Families and Birth Families: Preventing the Triangulation of the Triangle of Support
  In this paper written for the NRCPFC, consultant Lorrie L. Lutz, M.P.P., discusses lessons learned in facilitated dialogues around the country with birth families, resource families, and child welfare workers. Insights from each of these partners in the care of children in the child welfare system reveal why agencies struggle with the process of building relationships among these three sets of people so important in the life of a child. Yet challenging or not, if a child is to be well served, it is the responsibility of public child welfare systems to find a way to build relationships between these three components and to preventing the triangulation of the triangle of support around the child. (March 2005)

• Understanding Foster Parenting: Using Administrative Data to Explore Retention
  This report from the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, uses data from three States to explore the relationships among foster parent characteristics, activity levels, and length of service. (January 2005)

• Retaining Foster Parents
  This report was developed by the Office of the Inspector General at the Department of Health and Human Services. It focuses on States' efforts to recruit foster care families. (May 2002)

• Resource Family Retention: An Overview
  The basic elements of resource family retention. (2002)

Resources from the States

• Ohio:
• An Eye on Recruitment: Who Are Ohio's Adoptive Families?
  This PowerPoint Presentation was developed for Adoption Services Section, Office for Children and Families, Ohio Department of Job and Family Services. It was designed to assist ODJFS in identifying where it needs to focus its recruitment and retention efforts for prospective adoptive parents to ensure that all of its children achieve permanency. (September 2005)

• New York:
• Supporting the Needs of Foster Parents: Recommendations
  These recommendations from the New York State Office of Children & Family Services resulted from the analysis of the findings from a Foster Parent Training and Support Assessment that was conducted with foster parents and foster care workers statewide. The recommendations are intended to assist local districts and voluntary agencies in assessing and supporting their partnerships with foster parents. (May 2005)

• Recruiting and Retaining African American and Hispanic American Foster and Adoptive Families
  This resource from the New York State Office of Children and Family Services, PDP Distance Learning Project, includes information, resources, and a variety of handouts to help support child welfare staff in recruiting and retaining African American and Hispanic American families as foster and adoptive families. (August 2010)

• North Carolina:
• Finding Families for Children in Foster Care
  This issue of Children's Services Practice Notes discusses recruitment and retention of resource families as the job of everyone in child welfare. (July 2008)

• Core Strategies for Recruiting and Retaining Resource Families
  This issue of Training Matters describes three key strategies for resource family recruitment and retention. (July 2008)

• A Best Practice Guide to Partnering With Resource Families
  This guide, produced by the North Carolina Division of Social Services with support from Jordan Institute for Families, seeks to provide tools and strategies you and your agency can use to build, refine, and sustain partnerships with resource families. (January 2009)

NRCPFC Information Packets

• Child Specific Recruitment by Kristine Schuerger (August 2002)

PowerPoint Presentations

• Retaining Foster Families
  NRCPFC summary of the Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General Report (May 2002)
  
  
• Recruitment of Resource Families: The Promise and the Paradox
  Presentation by Lorrie Lutz, consultant to the NRCPFC. (March 2002)

• Recruitment and Retention of Resource Families
  Presentation by Lorrie Lutz, consultant for the NRCPFC. (October 2002)

Websites

• National Resource Center for Recruitment and Retention of Foster and Adoptive Parents (NRCRRFAP)
  NRCRRFAP at AdoptUSKids is a member of the Children’s Bureau Training and Technical Assistance Network. The NRCRRFAP website provides information and offers free recruitment and retention resources.

• Child Welfare Information Gateway
  • Recruiting and Retaining Adoptive Parents
  • Recruiting Foster Parents
  • Supporting and Retaining Foster Parent