How can Missouri help children in foster care better? These states have the answer

For 75 years, America’s foster care model has struggled to do its job. Decade after decade, class action lawsuits and front-page tragedies have given rise to frustration and calls for sweeping change. Again and again, child welfare leaders and advocates have resolved to fix the system. So why isn’t it “fixed” yet — and why is real, lasting improvement so hard to achieve?

At its heart, the problem isn’t the people; it’s the “machinery.” Foster care’s flaws are baked into its infrastructure, and that infrastructure is long overdue for a change.

Most professionals who work in foster care are just as frustrated with the status quo as the families they serve are. They want to offer proactive support to help parents care for their children. They want to keep kids in safe, stable homes. They want to minimize the number of young people adrift in foster care limbo, and give them resources and support to grow into confident, successful adults.

But for years, those professionals have been constrained by a system designed over decades to do one thing: Take kids out of homes and place them in care. Breaking free of that momentum is an uphill battle, and it’s one in which we’re only just beginning to make progress.

That’s where community-based care, or CBC, can make a difference. In an increasing number of communities nationwide, local, private nonprofit agencies operate their states’ foster care and family service programs under the CBC model. Unlike services traditionally provided by state government, this model offers flexibility, adaptability and solutions that respond to problems, not political agendas. Agencies have more freedom to identify the specific needs of their community, seek out new funding streams and use those resources to create enhanced opportunities for kids and families.

It’s not a panacea. But it’s a place to start — and a chance to change the trajectory instead of delivering the same results year after year.

In Florida, the CBC model has achieved in years what traditional care hadn’t managed to do in decades. While states such as New York and California continue to report an average length of time in foster care of more than two years — and in some instances, almost three — Florida’s CBC agencies have successfully kept more kids out of care and in stable homes. The outcomes speak for themselves. For example, under the CBC model, Embrace Families, the CBC lead agency in central Florida, reduced the number of children in foster care by almost 50%, reduced the number of older youth “aging out” of foster care by two-thirds, and doubled the number of kids adopted out of foster care. Two years ago, that number tripled.

Florida, Michigan, Texas partnerships get results

Of course, numbers tell only part of the story. What really matters is the impact for thousands of kids who have grown up in loving homes instead of unending care. It’s the teens in foster care who can learn to drive, earn summer internships and access crisis mental health care. It’s the successes of young adults who reach age 18 in foster care with a support network in place and the tools they need to thrive.

And that impact isn’t limited to Florida. From Michigan to Texas, established CBC agencies and newcomers alike have joined forces in national partnerships to share best practices, expand successful programs and raise the bar for foster care nationwide. At this year’s National Symposium for Community-Based Child Welfare, held in Kansas City, 14 states were represented, ranging from long-time CBC innovators to groups hoping to launch their states’ very first pilot programs.

In states like Missouri, that nationwide support has been especially critical. Since the state’s partial CBC launch in 2005, local agencies such as the Missouri Alliance for Children and Families have expanded resources and adopted programs piloted in other regions. And in the face of changing leadership and high turnover, strong relationships with experienced partners have provided a welcome foundation of stability.

Of course, those benefits go both ways. Just as Embrace Families has shared insight and new initiatives with its CBC colleagues nationwide, central Florida has also benefited from the new methods pioneered in Missouri and Texas. Instead of making incremental improvements in one city or state at a time, we’re collaborating and pursuing a shared vision of change.

As a national network of advocates, we’re poised to solve the challenges that have plagued the child welfare sector over the long term — and work alongside families to put children first.

Carrie Bolm is president and CEO of Missouri Alliance for Children and Families , a partnership of nonprofits that contract with the Missouri Department of Social Services to serve more than 2,000 foster children and their families. She co-authored this with Glen Casel, president and CEO of the 501(c)(3) nonprofit Embrace Families, which oversees child welfare in Orange, Osceola and Seminole Counties.