Alameda County Family to Family

Keeping Families Together

Family to Family is a child welfare reform initiative developed by the Annie E. Casey Foundation that is based on the belief that community-centered responses can better protect children, support families and strengthen neighborhoods. Family to Family is a shift in philosophy; a change in our approach to child welfare practices, requiring "systematic re-thinking" that views each part of the child welfare system in relation to the entire picture.

In April 2003, in response to the many challenges faced by our child welfare system, the Department of Children and Family Services implemented Family to Family here in Alameda County. We realize that now is the time to rethink the fundamental role of foster care and to implement very basic changes of how we do business. These changes include building bridges between public agencies and communities, foster and kinship families and between systems committed to helping children.

To that end, the Department of Children and Family Services is committed to improving outcomes for children and families involved in the child welfare system by:

Reducing:

• The number of children brought into care;
• The number of children in congregate care;
• The children's length of stay in care;
• The number of children re-entering care;
• The number of placement moves;
• The differences associated with race/ethnicity, gender and age.

Increasing:

• The number of children reunified;
• The number of children placed in their own   neighborhoods;
• The number of siblings placed together.

To achieve these outcomes, we are committed to the following goals by:

• Developing neighborhood-based culturally sensitive networks of foster care placements;
• Ensuring all children are placed with families in their own neighborhoods;
• Increasing the number and quality of resources families (foster and kinship families);
• Providing timely reunification services;
• Screening children to determine resources needed to keep them safe in home or to return home;
• Creating teams of birth, foster, kin families and child welfare professionals who work in the best interest of the child;
• Becoming a neighborhood resource and building community capacity to provide for families involved in the child welfare system.

To achieve our system goals, we have developed four core strategies:

• Recruitment, Training and Support of Resource Families: Finding and maintaining foster and kinship families who can support children and families in their neighborhoods;

• Community Partnerships: Establishing relationships and/or assisting with the identification and development of community organizations that can support families involved in child welfare systems;
  
• Team Decision Making: Involving foster parents, child welfare staff, birth families and community members in placement decisions for children;

• Self-Evaluation: Collecting and interpreting data about the children and families we serve to determine where we are making progress and where we need to make changes.

Workgroup meeting details and co-chairs

Our core strategies are the heart of our Family to Family initiative and are developed and led by workgroups comprised of direct service providers, resources families, community members and child welfare staff. To learn more about the strategic workgroups, click on the respective icons to the left.

Thank you for your interest in Family to Family.