As a form of targeted and/or child and youth centered recruitment, these efforts are specifically aimed at finding permanent family connections for older youth and teenagers. While many youth at this age may be working with an independent living program, teen recruitment recognizes the vital and important role family plays in creating future stability and success for them. In addition to providing support and security through the sometimes turbulent teen and young adult years, a family is there to provide love over a person's lifetime.

Ideas from the Field

The programs and initiatives highlighted below include ideas and examples of successful efforts from the field. Some of these initiatives have ended while others are still active. We are continually adding to this list as new strategies emerge. Check back soon for more great ideas on recruiting and retaining foster, adoptive and kinship parents.

• Massachusetts Breakthrough Series Collaborative on Adolescent Permanency: Promising Practices and Lessons Learned (4.1 MB PDF): From November 2005 to October 2006, the Massachusetts Department of Social Services sponsored a statewide Breakthrough Series Collaborative focused on Adolescent Permanency. This initiative supported 29 teams from across Massachusetts, along with one team each from Rhode Island and Maine. This final report from 2007 highlights the emerging themes and practices resulting from the work of the participating teams as they tested and implemented practices to improve the way permanency is achieved for adolescents. Source: Massachusetts Department of Social Services / Contact: Mary Gambon, Mary.Gambon@state.ma.us
  
  
• Permanency Partners Program (P3): In an effort to address the approximately 8,000 youth ages 12-18 in care, Los Angeles County DCFS has implemented a pilot program that pairs trained Permanency Partners with youth to identify one or more permanent connections, with the goal of either family reunification or moving the child out of long-term foster care and into adoption or legal guardianship. Started in October of 2004 as a public-private partnership between L.A. County DCFS and Consortium for Children, the program initially identified 50 youth to participate and continues to expand today. Key program components include intensive file mining, exploring the youth's life and past connections and the development of a written agreement regarding the relationship and services that will achieve permanence for each youth. Source: Los Angeles County DCFS (CA) & Consortium for Children / Contact: Tiffany Collins, collita@dcfs.lacounty.gov
  
  
• Recruiting with Power Point Presentations: Using technology creatively, Three Rivers Adoption Council in Pittsburgh, PA, has found a way to bring the personalities and stories of their youth to life through Power Point presentations. These presentations, created by the youth with assistance from a worker, allow the youth to express themselves through words, pictures and graphics in a media format that can be used in recruitment events as well as on the organization's website. The program, which started in January 2004 and continues today, not only draws on older youth and teens' computer savvy, but also provides a great opportunity for workers and youth to work collaboratively and address adoption issues. Says Sheila Hill of TRAC, "So far 50 kids have completed Power Points with 22 kids having some sort of placement where they were removed from [our] webpage." Source: Three Rivers Adoption Council (TRAC) / Contact: Sheila Hill, 412.471.8722 or shill@3riversadopt.org
  
  
• Youth Advisory Board Training Video: Missouri's Independent Living Youth Advisory Board wrote and directed a videotape "What's It All about? Missouri's Youth Advisory Board Speaks Out on Foster Care." In the video, several foster youth are interviewed and give their honest takes on their experiences - the good and the bad - while in care. Missouri uses this tape during foster and adoptive parent pre-service training. Many important discussion topics around foster care and adoption naturally arise as a result of the video, such as youth being separated from their siblings, parent and social worker visits, and and their labeling as foster children. Says Cindy Wilkinson, Missouri State Adoption Program Manager, "We have had many positive responses and are currently being flooded with requests for the video." Source: Missouri DSS / Contact: Cindy Wilkinson, Cindy.R.Wilkinson@dss.mo.gov Cindy.R.Wilkinson@dss.mo.gov
  
  
• Extreme Recruitment™ :The Foster and Adoptive Care Coalition in St. Louis, MO has developed an Extreme Recruitment™ approach to achieving permanency for older children and youth in a fraction of the time that would normally be required. In addition to intensive work with and on behalf of the young person, the strategy involves the efforts of a private investigator to help find relatives who may have lost touch with the child. Details can be found on the agency’s website, along with links to an Extreme Recruitment™ Toolbox with forms, planning materials and other resources. Source: April 2010 issue of E-Notes
  
  
• It's Time to Make Older Child Adoption a Reality: Because Every Child and Youth Deserves a Family (1 MB PDF): This publication from the North American Council on Adoptable Children (NACAC) draws attention to the rise in the number of young people aging out of foster care over the last decade and provides a framework for making adoption possible for older youth. Key barriers and successful strategies are fully discussed, with detailed steps that can be taken immediately to improve policy and practice to achieve youth permanence. Data, research, and specific policy and program examples provided to support the report’s recommendations. Source: May 2010 issue of E-Notes

Resources and Reports

Federal Resources

• Report to Congress on Adoption and Other Permanency Outcomes for Children in Foster Care: Focus on Older Children: Full documentation of the 2005 report given to Congress on the challenges older children in foster care face in finding permanency, including promising practices gathered nationally. Source: Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children & Families
  
  
• Field-Initiated Research on Successful Adolescent Adoptions (1 MB PDF): This 2004 report begins by defining success in adolescent adoption on a variety of levels, and goes on to explore the factors of success through qualitative analysis of interviews with 58 adoptive parents of teens and their children between October 1999 and September 2003. The report also includes a number of practice recommendations and implications. Source: Children's Bureau and South Carolina

Other Resources

• A Family for Every Child: Strategies to Achieve Permanence for Older Foster Children & Youth (318 KB PDF): This booklet, developed in the spring of 2006, provides detailed background into the characteristics of older youth in care, the barriers that keep them from permanency, and a new emerging youth permanency philosophy. It also provides recommendations and action steps agencies can take to affect organizational change toward permanency for older foster children and youth. Source: North American Council on Adoptable Children & The Annie E. Casey Foundation
  
  
• Individualized and Targeted Recruitment for Adoption (141 KB PDF): This 2003 resource provides an overview of child-specific and targeted recruitment efforts and strategies that have achieved observable results. Targeted recruitment programs highlighted include One Church One Child, Strategic Recruitment, RESULTS and the Utah Foster Care Foundation. Source: Casey Family Programs / Contact: cncinfo@casey.org

For additional resources on recruitment and retention of foster, adoptive and kinship parents, see our publications for professionals or find out more about targeted recruitment and family retention.