Achieving permanency for youth in foster care: assessing and strengthening emotional security

Abstract

A B S T R AC TFor some youth in foster care, the closest family or family-like relationships are with the foster parents with whom they have lived for extended periods of time. Nonetheless, child welfare agencies often do not explore these relationships and the potential they may hold for youth for legal permanence through adoption or guardianship. Recognizing that social workers often lack resources to help them initiate permanency conversations, Casey Family Services, a direct service child welfare agency in the USA, developed a tool that social workers can use to explore youth's sense of emotional security with their foster parents and foster parents' sense of claiming and attachment with youth in their care. The research literature that suggests that emotional security is a critical component of successful permanence provided the foundation for the development of the Belonging and Emotional Security Tool (BEST). When used with youth and foster parents, the BEST was found to advance meaningful permanency conversations.

Renewal and Risk: The Dual Experience of Young Motherhood and Aging Out of the Child Welfare System

“…Findings from this project thus clearly support the importance of helping youth heal from the disruptions and loss of a stable family unit for one's development (Frey, Cushing, Freundlich, & Brenner, 2008;Unrau, Seita, & Putney, 2008). It is crucial to not underestimate the challenges these young people face, including the trauma of youth prior to entering care as well as the potential difficulties incurred during foster care, particularly in terms of shifting parental figures.…”

Social Factors Predicting Women’s Consideration of Adoption

“…These results suggest support for foster-adoptive placements when pursuing permanency for children in the foster care system as well as the need for recruitment of potential foster-adoptive families. When reunification with biological parents is not possible, it is often preferable for children to be adopted by parents who are already providing foster care, rather than undergoing another placement and the accompanying experience of separation and loss (Frey, Cushing, Freundlich & Brenner, 2008).…”

Innovative Practice Approaches to Matching in Adoption

“…Also discussed is a relatively new tool developed by Casey Family Programs, the Belonging and Emotional Security Tool (BEST) (Frey, Cushing, Freundlich, & Brenner, 2008) as well as the Casey Foster Applicant Inventory (Orme, 2007a;2007b).…”