Diligent Recruitment Navigator

The Diligent Recruitment Navigator can help you have a framework for going through your process of developing a comprehensive, multi-faceted diligent recruitment program. The Diligent Recruitment Navigator helps guide you through some discussion questions to consider related to each element of a comprehensive diligent recruitment program and provides suggestions for key people to include in your discussions. The Diligent Recruitment Navigator is a tool that you can use however it works best for you; you may want to use it as a discussion guide to help you and other stakeholders in a strategic, data-driven process to develop your comprehensive, multi-faceted diligent recruitment program.

The Diligent Recruitment Navigator can help you have a framework for going through your process of developing a comprehensive, multi-faceted diligent recruitment program. The Diligent Recruitment Navigator helps guide you through some discussion questions to consider related to each element of a comprehensive diligent recruitment program and provides suggestions for key people to include in your discussions. The Diligent Recruitment Navigator is a tool that you can use however it works best for you; you may want to use it as a discussion guide to help you and other stakeholders in a strategic, data-driven process to develop your comprehensive, multi-faceted diligent recruitment program.

The Diligent Recruitment Navigator can be useful to child welfare systems at many times and stages. Ideally, you’ll use it while developing your diligent recruitment plan due to the Children’s Bureau as part of the Child and Family Services Plan and for making periodic updates to your plan. Using the Diligent Recruitment Navigator at that time will help you develop a diligent recruitment plan that provides a very clear course of action for implementing your comprehensive, multifaceted diligent recruitment program and gives you a framework for making updates and reporting progress on your diligent recruitment plan in your Annual Progress and Services Report each year.

The Diligent Recruitment Navigator can be helpful for your child welfare system at many other times, including the following:

• If a new legislative initiative or lawsuit requires your child welfare system to change your foster or adoptive parent recruitment practices or to increase your system’s number of approved families, the Diligent Recruitment Navigator will help you look at not just the number of families you currently have or need, but also at the types of families that you have and need to recruit to meet the needs of children in out of home placement.
• When child welfare leaders want to develop data-informed messaging for the press, legislative testimony, or other purposes regarding your agency’s foster, kinship, and adoptive parent recruitment and retention programs and strategies.
• When your child welfare system wants to explore ways to have your recruitment, retention, and family support efforts be more data driven and to apply a continuous quality approach to your recruitment, retention, and support strategies.

No, the Diligent Recruitment Navigator is a robust tool, but it is only one tool you should use as you develop your diligent recruitment plan and program. The Children’s Bureau is the only authoritative source of information and guidance on the required elements of a comprehensive, multi-faceted diligent recruitment plan and the expectations for states, tribes, and territories as they implement their diligent recruitment plans and programs.

A truly comprehensive, multi-faceted diligent recruitment program requires an integrated approach to family recruitment, engagement, development, preparation, and support. The Diligent Recruitment Navigator can help a child welfare system explore the multiple elements involved in developing and implementing a robust diligent recruitment program, but in order to truly build a comprehensive approach to diligent recruitment, a child welfare system will need to address its unique systemic and organizational factors that either facilitate or create barriers to comprehensive diligent recruitment.

The Diligent Recruitment Navigator provides useful suggestions and questions to consider as you go through the process of developing your diligent recruitment plan and program. The Children’s Bureau is the only entity that can approve your diligent recruitment plan (as part of the approval for your Child and Family Services Plan) and using the Diligent Recruitment Navigator does not provide any assurance that your plan will be approved. The Diligent Recruitment Navigator is designed to help guide you through a thoughtful, strategic, data-driven approach to developing your diligent recruitment program. Using the Diligent Recruitment Navigator may help you identify strategies and approaches that you want to include in your diligent recruitment plan, but the Diligent Recruitment Navigator does not provide any guidance or interpretation of guidance from the Children’s Bureau on the requirements for diligent recruitment.

To learn more about diligent recruitment, read our tip sheet What Is Diligent Recruitment? (164 KB PDF). The tip sheet provides a list of elements to include in a comprehensive, multi-faceted diligent recruitment plan and program.