Denver today is to be named one of three cities nationally where child welfare agencies can come to learn how to implement a novel approach to keeping troubled and at-risk kids with their families and out of the foster-care system.
The program, known as Family to Family, was pioneered by the Baltimore-based Annie E. Casey Foundation in 1992 as a way to reform foster care, where judges and social workers typically control a child’s fate.
It’s been growing in popularity nationally because it uses a community network – relatives, neighbors, social workers, teachers, foster families – to serve the child.
Denver Human Services adopted the method in 2002 and has attained such success that the foundation is making it one of three places – the other two are in Cleveland and Louisville, Ky. – where others can see how it works.
Department director Roxane White said that since inception here, Denver has seen re-abuse rates for children drop to 2.5 percent – less than half the national acceptable rate. Nearly two-thirds of the children remain with family members. Additionally, the number of kids placed in treatment centers has dropped by more than a third.
She said the network of people involved with a child makes for a better outcome than a judge deciding what’s best.
“There is no one person playing God now,” White said. “Before, an agency or a judge could do as they deemed fit.”
The group decides on a safety plan for a child. If that means removing the child from the home, the first option is to place the child with a relative. If that doesn’t work, then with a foster family in the child’s neighborhood.
“We want to reunify families, but only when that’s safe,” White said.
Staff writer David Migoya can be reached at 303-954-1506 or dmigoya@denverpost.com.
