Lutheran Social Services of Illinois (LSSI) has partnered with the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) to launch an evidence-based pilot program called Families Together to decrease the length of time children spend in foster care and strengthen opportunities to help children and their families thrive.
Implementation of the program started in October 2022, and the three-year pilot phase is set to begin July 1, 2023, through LSSI’s Chicago office with three teams serving 120 families. Over three years, the goal is to observe, refine, and expand to six teams serving 240 families in Chicago, by the pilot’s end, before launching statewide.
The average length of time for children in foster care in Illinois is 35 months. Families Together aims to reduce the length of stay for children in foster care and to return them home within 12 months. In cases where children cannot be safely returned to their parents, the pilot’s goal would be to achieve adoption or guardianship within 24 months.
Many extenuating factors contribute to this long timeframe, including lack of referral services and resources for children and families (counseling or alcohol treatment for a biological parent, etc.), the local juvenile court, shortage of needed foster parent supports, and staff turnover.
Once a family becomes involved in the child welfare system, a child often experiences multiple moves, which disrupts attachments and increases trauma. The Families Together pilot helps avoid this issue by blending expert case coordination, behavioral health interventions, and evidence-based interventions.
Families Together differs from the current process in which one caseworker oversees the combined needs of the foster parent, youth in care, and the biological parent.
“This can stress not only those involved parties—children and families—but the caseworkers as well,” said LSSI Executive Director of Children’s Community Services Jere Murry. “This can lead to foster parents who don’t feel supported, children whose behaviors worsen, and biological parents feeling unheard and defensive.”
The ultimate goals of Families Together include:
- Fewer families and youth advancing in the system and needing a higher level of care outside of a traditional foster home
- Quicker response to concerns to avoid cases escalating in the system
- Reinforcing feelings of success among staff serving the children and families
The care team is assigned to the child, biological parent and foster parent. These child welfare professionals include:
- Child Specialists, who explain in age-appropriate language what has happened and what to expect. They support the child in their foster home placement and assess the child’s physical and behavioral health needs.
- Foster Parent Specialists guide the foster family through the new placement to ensure routine, rules, and structure. They advise on problem-solving skills and ensure material needs are met.
- Parent Specialists support the parent while their child is in foster care, addresses the issues that brought the family into care, and set up visits with the child and biological parent(s).
With this strategic, evidence-based model, team members are trained to assess quickly and intervene appropriately. The case coordination team meets weekly to provide all parts of the family unit—children, birth parents, and foster parents—with individualized assessment, training, and support. Training includes:
- Trauma Focused-Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT): This therapy resolves a broad array of emotional and behavioral difficulties associated with trauma experiences.
- Keeping Foster and Kin Parents Supported and Trained (KEEP) is a support and skill enhancement education program for foster and kinship parents that provides training on parenting practices and behavior management skills to support foster parents.
- Families Together Preparing for Reunification (FTPR): Based on 50+ years of ongoing research, FTPR promotes social skills and prevents, reduces, and reverses the development of moderate to severe conduct problems in children and youth.
“Families Together guides the parents, both biological and foster, to gain the skills, resources, and support needed to provide positive, effective parenting that allows the child to heal and grow with their permanent families,” said Murry. “Combined with the thought partnership and collaboration of DCFS, this can serve as a model for all organizations serving children in foster care.”
