Family is Possible:
Insights on the Transition to Family Care from the 2020 Rapid Return Cohort
As the gravity of the COVID-19 pandemic became apparent, many governments mandated the release of children from residential care facilities and asked organizations serving vulnerable children to immediately place children back into their communities of origin. This rapid reunification plan was filled with unique challenges and potential dangers for the vulnerable children. However, it also created an unique opportunity to serve families and communities in need.
The COVID-19 Child Protection & Family Care Challenge Grant Program awarded $120,000 in grants to 10 organizations committed to supporting children and families to not only thrive during the period of crisis-driven reintegration, but to also remain together when the COVID-19 pandemic would recede. The program provided an opportunity to learn together and discover general themes and principles that can lead to better care for children and families in crisis situations like the COVID-19 pandemic.
Toward the end of the project, participating organizations decided to collaborate in developing a resource to share with their key stakeholders and other organizations who are considering shifting their resources toward family care solutions for vulnerable children.
This document is the summary of their personal feedback around the experience of shifting organizational resources from supporting children in residential care to supporting family care for children.
What We Learned from Transitioning to Family Care
What We Learned from Transitioning to Family Care
Family is God’s ideal for children.
When we support children in families, they are where He intended them to be.
Children, families, and entire communities can benefit from children being in family care.
Benefits to Children
• Children are more likely to grow up healthier and have stronger support systems when raised in families and local communities.
• Children develop a stronger sense of belonging and identity within a family.
• Children’s behavior, sense of wellbeing and identity are often improved when their own guardians are involved in caring for them.
• Children in families have the opportunity to establish a network of support that they can rely on throughout their lives.
Benefits to Families
• When children are cared for in families, an organization can offer support and strengthening services to the entire family. More lives are impacted and a greater difference is made.
• Caring for children in families reinforces the foundational value of family and can build a greater sense of togetherness and shared family values.
• Families can thrive as well when children receive support while the family is kept together.
• Supporting families as a whole unit can provide greater long-term sustainability. As parents and caregivers are supported in their own needs, they are better able to support the child themselves.
Benefits to Communities
• Entire communities are more likely to see the value of children being cared for in families and can grow in their understanding of how to care for children across the community.
• Children in families are able to learn how to be an active part of the community and are better prepared for community connection and support in adulthood.
• Entire communities can benefit from the economic development work that is part of family strengthening services for one family in the community.
• Guardians begin to thrive when they are empowered, encouraged and affirmed in their ability to care for their children. The whole community benefits as individual guardians grow in self-confidence.
• The impact of family strengthening is multiplied as guardians receive support to care for their children, share their learning with others, and begin to care for children in their community.
Reimagining Resources:
What We Needed to Transition to Family Care
What We Needed to Transition to Family Care
As programs shift to family care, their assets and resources must also shift. Where projects like building maintenance and food supplies may have been the focus of previous fundraising efforts, funds for transportation to family visits and strengthening services become imperative. This shift in thinking and giving is necessary for program transformation to be successful.
Some examples of shifting resources may include:
Money to meet the basic needs of children
Money for onsite teachers
Money to house children onsite
Money for staff to supervise and care for children
Money to obtain the resources a child needs
Staff to provide long-term care for children
Building children’s homes for long-term care for children
Money for economic development to help families provide for their children
Money for educational needs and schooling in the local community
Money to provide transportation for social workers and counselors to visit children in their families
Money for staff social workers and counselors to support families in caring for their children
Money for staff to assist families in connecting with resources in the community
Additional staff to provide shorter-term care for whole families
Developing alternative forms of family care options to provide temporary care for children until reintegrating with family
Staff Development as Part of Transition
As a program transitions from residential care to supporting children in families, staff members can be retrained to be part of the work of caring for families. Some staff members may engage in professional degree programs to gain credentials in Social Work, Psychology, or other relevant fields. Others may require additional skills training and development.
Some examples of staff development may include:
Providing childcare
Providing case management
Providing education
Mentoring in business skills
Staff to manage the needs of children living onsite
Staff supervisors of onsite care
Support staff for retrieving resources for the facility
Family advocates and counselors working with the whole family in the community
Support for staff woroking with challenging family situations in the community
Staff networking in the community to help with finding resources for family
New professional skills can be developed among existing staff, including how to:
• Teach healthy parenting
• Empower guardians to find solutions
• Provide family-based case management
• Provide support for various societal challenges, such as substance abuse and addiction, school truancy, and educational motivation.
• Provide asset-based development to work from strengths instead of weaknesses
• Build infrastructures for transitioning from an institutional setting to family care
• Empower kinship grandparenting
• Support families in finding and using resources, like sustainable childcare in the community teach empower provide build support
Around the world, residential programs are realizing their important role helping children to be raised in secure, loving families. Beyond impacting only individual children, they are now impacting entire families and communities.
It’s a journey that often begins with grief, in realizing that all we have done for children and out of obedience may not have been as it seemed. It includes processing hard decisions and can include big emotions like guilt, regret, resistance, and frustration. But then we come to the place of realizing that when we know better, we do better. We have done what we have done from good intentions, and we are now moving in a new direction based on better information.
The road to transition from residential to family care isn’t always smooth, but it is possible. Brave leaders are seeing their role in moving children toward family solutions, and they are bringing others with them on the journey. It started with just a few residential programs recognizing the need for children to be in families, and it has grown into a movement.
For programs that want to join this movement, there is room at the table for you. If you are looking for information or support, view our resource guide of select, curated options that will point you in the right direction. If you are interested in a free meeting with a personal Transition Coach, complete this application. If you want to discuss whether transition to family care is a fit for you, reach out to the CAFO Research Center at researchcenter@cafo.org.
Together, we are moving toward better care for children. You are part of this.
cafo.org/research-center
