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ROLES OF PERMANENCY PLANNING RESOURCE FAMILIES

National Resource Center for Foster Care and Permanency Planning, Hunter College School of Social Work

• Nurture Children and Support their Transition from Familiar to Unfamiliar
• Support and Mentor Birth Parents
• Facilitate Visitation and Reunification Efforts
• Share/Receive Information About Children
• Participate in Pre-Service Training
• Participate in Resource Parents Supports
• Serve as members of the Planning/Treatment Team
• Find other Resource Parents
• Serve as a permanency Resource if Needed

Families for Kids reformers are imaging new definitions of "family and "permanency." These concepts, many of which are still evolving, promise to overcome the limitations of older formulations as well as to address emerging needs. At the center of this new vision is a recognition that the polarization of caregivers in the parenting "triad" of birth, foster and adoptive families so common in our nation's child welfare system may be unnecessary and wasteful in many cases. Reformers are also recognizing that specially trained foster parents operating as "resource families" and "foster-adopt families" can bridge the divides separating triad members and in doing so help to establish "communities of care" in lace of separate, hostile camps.

Massachusetts is among those working on versions of resource families and communities of care. Their "Community of Care" concept embodies four basic principles where are generally applicable to the new visions of family:

1. All of those who make a long-term commitment to a child's welfare are "family."
2. For most children in care, the biological family, extended kinship networks, foster family, and adoptive family represent a permanent web of relationships, all of which have value to the child
3. This network of care taking relationship can provide increased stability and support if it is acknowledged, and it the formal service system helps various "family" members work together. However, if the system ignores the connections between caregivers, it can inadvertently reinforce potential conflicts.
4. The more consistently all family members are involved in decision making and planning, the more committed they will be to finding permanent homes for children and securing their welfare

10/11/02