SLIDE 1:
Hello everyone!
Welcome to the Monday afternoon session of the conference!
211 - iFoster Kinship Navigation Portal
Helping Kinship Families Access Critical Resources
SLIDE 2:
I am Vanessa Briseno, Grants & Operations Manager for 211
California, and my Co- Presenters include:
Neil McKechnie: Director of Services and Development, iCarol
Cathleen Dwyer: Expert Consultant to 211 California
Serita Cox: Co-Founder and Executive Director of Foster. Serita
was scheduled to join this presentation, however a family
emergency prevented her from being here. So I ask for your
patience as I try to review and inform on her slides.
SLIDE 3:
In 2012, the United Ways of California responded to an RFP issued
by the Administration on Children, You, and Families of the U.S.
Dept of Health and Human Services. The RFP called for
applications on projects that would develop and implement
Kinship Navigator programs to:
1. Assist kinship caregivers, through information and referral
systems and other means, to learn about, find, and use existing
programs and services to meet their own needs and the needs of
the children they are raising; and
2. Promote effective partnerships between public and private,
community and faith-based agencies to better serve the needs of
kinship caregiver families.
Implementation on these Projects called for strong collaboration
between the grantee partners; the public Child Welfare agency,
and the agency administering the Temporary Assistance for Needy
Families (TANF) program.
These Kinship Navigator programs are designed to promote
protective factors as a means to support social and emotional
well-being and healthy, positive functioning in kinship caregiver
families served or potentially served by the Child Welfare and
TANF systems.
As demonstration projects, these grantee programs will serve as
models for other States and communities seeking to implement
family connection services for their Kinship population – a place
where they can look to for guidance, insight, and possible
replication for effective ways that Child Welfare and TANF
agencies can collaborate to meet the needs of Kinship children,
youth and families.
SLIDE 4:
RFP Overview:
The U.S. Department of Children, Youth and families called for
applications on projects that would develop and implement
Kinship Navigator programs to:
1. Assist kinship caregivers, through information and referral
systems and other means, to learn about, find, and use
existing programs and services to meet their own needs and
the needs of the children they are raising; and
2. Promote effective partnerships between public and private,
community and faith-based agencies to better serve the
needs of kinship caregiver families.
SLIDE 5:
Grant Term:
3 year grant
• First two years to be focused on the planning and
implementation of the Project
• Third year focused on Evaluation
SLIDE 6:
Grant Partners
iFoster: an online resource focused on closing the economic gap
between what it costs to raise a child and what child welfare and
social services provides.
United Ways of California: the statewide network of local united
ways focused on improving the health, education and financial
results for low-income children and families by enhancing and
coordinating advocacy and community impact.
2-1-1 California: the statewide network of local 2-1-1 information
and referral providers.
This partnership is very unique in that it offers the opportunity to
provide Kinship children, you and families the opportunities to be
connected to private enterprise resources via iFoster (and those
include (discounts to major theme parks, discounts to major
department stores, and memberships to major retailers such as
Costco and Sam’s Club)
SLIDE 7:
Edgewood: a multi-pronged agency that supports youth and their
families through life’s challenges with a full continuum of
behavioral health services. Our work focuses on issues such as
mental health, family relationships and life skills, and our
programs range from prevention and early intervention to
community-based, day and residential treatment services. The Edgewood Institute for the Study of Community-Based
Services (The Edgewood Institute) focuses on research and
evaluation of Edgewood services and those of similar programs
nationwide with the goal of continuously improving services to
children and families.
We are thrilled to have Edgewood as the Evaluator for our Project
because they not only conduct the critical research needed to
ensure that the needs of Kinship families are met, but they also
work with a population of children and youth that are
experiencing challenges and family unconnectedness.
SLIDE 8:
Our Work:
211 – iFoster Kinship Navigation Portal
SLIDE 9:
The three Grantee partners submitted an application to the Dept
of Health and Human Services for a Demonstration Project that
would:
Develop a one-stop, comprehensive resource portal
– 211-iFoster Kinship Navigation Portal –
containing all requested and available services and
resources for foster youth and caregivers in
4 counties across California in order to:
SLIDE 10:
Purpose
• Provide supportive services to Kinship caregivers
• Meet the needs to Kinship families
• Promote family well-being and health
• Promote partnership among public and private
agencies
SLIDE 11:
Project Goal
To enroll 13,000 Kinship caregivers into the Portal
A secondary goal is to get 5,000 of those caregivers to agree to
participate in the evaluation process (which we’ll review later).
SLIDE 12:
We have designed the Portal so that it is an innovative model
that:
• Focuses on the needs of formal and informal kinship families
• Is designed to create an integrated referral and coordinated
service delivery solution for kinship caregivers
• Addresses the most critical areas of Kinship families (such as
cost of living, legal services, digital divide and
communications, academic supports, health and well-being,
and career supports for youth)
• Provides access to private enterprise resources (this is
where the iFoster connection comes in: They provide the
discounts to major attractions and retailers across the
country as well as membership to large markets and access
to free computers and digital literacy services).
SLIDE 13:
2-1-1 Participation
Riverside
Monterey
San Bernardino
Ventura
We originally selected seven counties in California to participate
in this Project along with 3 comparison counties that would help
us (and especially our Evaluators) determine the full impact of our
work in the participating counties. We experienced some
significant issues early in the planning and implementation stages
of the Project, which caused delays in our Project timeline and
which subsequently caused up to tighten up our reach to four
counties.
These counties were chosen based on:
1. Estimated population of Kinship youth and families in the
2.
3.
4.
5.
county
The County’s Child Welfare Agency’s willingness and
readiness to participate
The number of nonprofit family support agencies available
in those County to assist with the support navigation for
those Kinship Families
Our 2-1-1 County readiness to engage and support the
implementation of the Project
AND…. Each county’s ability to support the project and get
the word out to their residents.
SLIDE 14:
County 2-1-1 Benefits
This Project has allowed the 4 counties that are participating in
this effort to experience many benefits.
For one: it advances our California 2-1-1 network’s vision for
database alignment by supporting and promoting quality and
consistency within their individual resource databases.
It also gives us the opportunity to showcase a system that
maintains consistent style, quality, and use of taxonomy terms.
And it allows us to showcase our data in real-time!
SLIDE 15:
Why is this type of Project Important?
AND
How will this Self-Service Resource Portal make a significant
difference in the lives of Kinship Families?
SLIDE 16:
National census data tells us that 1 in 11 children will spend time
in foster or kinship care before they reach their 18th birthday
• 400,000 live in foster care.
• 2.7 Million live in kinship care that we KNOW of, but we’re
confident that there are many more Kinship Families out
there who may not know that they’re Kinship families.
These are families who take in relative children following the
death of a biological parent or parents, their incarceration,
court removal and/or other circumstances.
• Average age that a child is removed from their biological
families is estimated at < 6 years old
SLIDE 17:
We also know that without sufficient resources and supports to
help Kinship and Foster youth, their futures are grim
• 46% won’t get their GED by 19
• 70% will be on welfare
• 51% will be homeless
• 50% will be unemployed
• 25% will be incarcerated
• Less than 3% will earn their BA
SLIDE 18:
According to national statistics provided by the Children’s Bureau,
kinship care provides more stability to the life of a child removed
from his or her family, however it also provides them with worse
outcomes.
• Early placement with kin leads to higher stability and
permanency
• Reunification & exits to permanency are higher than with
foster care
• HOWEVER: Well-being is worse with kinship youth. At age
24, they are showing higher rates of ADHD, PTSD, substance
abuse, anxiety, depression and suicidality.
SLIDE 19:
• In 2011, it cost over $1,000 a month to raise a child. This is
what the average family in the US paid in 2011
• Foster Families on average receive less than 50% of this
amount
• Kinship Families on average receive less than 25% of this
amount to help raise their kids
• And many Kinship Families don’t receive anything at all
SLIDE 20:
• In fact, most Kinship Families do not receive any of the
benefits they are eligible for
• For example … (read a couple of examples from slide)
• They don’t get these benefits for a variety of reasons, but a
big reason is that Kinship Families don’t know these benefits
exist
SLIDE 21:
This Project is a Demonstration of how Technology can help
support Kinship families.
• We conducted a series of focus groups with asking “Would
an online, self-service resource portal” help close the
economic and service access gap?
• 100% of kinship focus groups said they would use it –
including those who did not have direct access to technology
• Use it for information to aid them in getting assistance and
the resources they need
• Believe it would be useful to all child welfare members
including: caregivers, case workers/social workers, schools
and colleges
SLIDE 22:
Our early focus Groups in Monterey and Riverside counties
identified and prioritized 10 Resource Categories that are
Significant to Kinship children, youth and families.
We have found that these are consistent with the national needs
of Kinship families.
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
We have found that these are consistent with the national needs
of Kinship families.
SLIDE 23:
We also know that Kinship Caregivers want more than
Government and Public Resources. They have expressed the need
for:
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
SLIDE 24:
And we know that additional supports are also critical for them:
25
20
15
10
5
0
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Ratings of
Help to get
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including
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trainings and others in the
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SLIDE 25:
• Our solution is to provide a one-stop shop of all the
resources a Kinship or Foster Family needs
SLIDE 26:
This NAVIGATION PORTAL:
(1) addresses the current lack of awareness and information by
Kinship caregivers about existing social service resources in their
community;
(2) reduces the complexity of navigating different social service
and community systems and providers;
AND, via the COUNTY COLLABORATIVES
(3) provides kinship caregiver referral and usage data to county
collaboratives to inform service delivery and coordination
activities; and
It Also
(4) augments limited social service resources with private sector
resources via the iFoster partnership.
The COUNTY COLLABORATIVES, in particular, will support the use
of the resource portal among their kinship caregivers, agencies
and service providers. Additionally, County Collaboratives will be
provided with reports on referrals, usage, approvals, rejections
and failure to follow‐up (either by caregiver or service provider).
This reporting will be integrated into ongoing collaborative
meetings and CalWORKs‐Child Welfare partnerships to review the
effectiveness of service delivery, identify gaps, address issues and
improve services and service coordination.
SLIDE 27:
• We’re fortunate to have iFoster as a grant partner. It’s an
online, self-service resource portal with 100s of national,
regional and local resources that offer supports and benefits
to Kinship and Foster Families
• Resources are either free or greatly discounted
• Resources come from Companies, Government, Non-Profits
or Faith-Based Organizations
• All resources and all partners are vetted and negotiated by
iFoster to ensure the resource is real, available and helpful
to our Families
• All resources are also requested and rated by the
Community so that only the products and services the
Community wants and values are in the portal
SLIDE 28:
• As I mentioned, there are 100s of resources
• Some are National like a special membership with Costco,
free eye exams and eye glasses with Sight for Students,
discounts at Disney and with Mattel toys
• And we have Local Resources too including Resource Hubs
like Family Resource Centers, Grandparents Raising
Grandchildren. These are centers that can provide access to
many local resources and can help Families sign up for
government benefits.
• And 100s of free resources from our 2-1-1 partners that
cover all kinds of needs from Food, Clothing, Housing
Expenses and After School Activities, and family well-being
supports
SLIDE 29:
• All these resources are available through our collaborative
online portal
HAND OVER TO NEIL for Slide 30
HAND OVER TO CAT
SLIDE 46:
(If we still have time)
Member Registration
To use the Kinship Navigation Portal, you must be a registered
member.
• Membership is FREE
• But you must be one of the following (read the 6 categories)
Transition-age foster, kinship and probation youth (age 16-24)
Foster families
Kinship families or relative/near-relative caregivers
Legal guardians
Adoptive families
Any agency or organization serving any of the above
You will be asked to provide the Name of an Agency or
Organization and a Contact Person at that Agency who can
Confirm your Member Type
Appropriate Agencies include:
DPSS / Child Welfare
Foster Family Agency
Grandparents Raising Grandchildren
CFLC Kincare
Schools
Churches
Foster or Kinship Support Groups
Guardianship Attorneys
SLIDE 47:
This is what the Membership Registration Form looks like.
As you can see, we ask for only a limited amount of information
The information is to verify your Member Type and to ensure that
you only see the resources that you are eligible for
SLIDE 48:
You will be asked to set your Preferences
The Navigation portal will automatically filter resources based on
your Preferences so you will only see what you are looking for and
are eligible for
You can change your Preferences any time you are logged into the
portal
SLIDE 49:
Registration Complete. Our application needs to be reviewed and
approved by the iFoster team before you can get started.
SLIDE 50:
Depending on your location, the Portal will ask if you’re a Kinship
Caregiver in one of the participating 2-1-1 counties. If so, we
really want the opportunity to evaluate your experience of the
Navigation Portal, so we offer an incentive to Kinship families for
their participation in the evaluation surveys and process.
HAND OVER TO CAT.