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Cuyahoga County Remains Committed to Child Welfare Best Practices
Media contacts:
Donisha Greene: (216) 443-7075 or dgreene@cuyahogacounty.us
In 1992 DCFS was selected by the Annie E. Casey Foundation to be a demonstration site for Family to Family, a child welfare practice reform initiative. In partnership with the community, DCFS made great strides in improving its system and its positive outcomes for children and families. For over 20 years, the agency has continued to embrace the values and principles of this approach to child welfare, often hosting other child welfare systems across the country as they visited Cuyahoga County to learn from the Family to Family implementation experiences.
Family to Family values have been the driving force behind numerous practice improvements in Cuyahoga County. Among the successful impacts have been the development of a network of neighborhood-based collaborative service systems that support the safety, permanency, and well-being of children; a dramatic and sustained reduction in the number of children who spend time in foster care; and an equally dramatic and sustained reduction in the use of group and institutional care.
The core values of Family-to-Family:
Donisha Greene: (216) 443-7075 or dgreene@cuyahogacounty.us
Division of Children and Family Services holds ‘Family to Family’ Renewal Event
CLEVELAND – Cuyahoga County Division of Children & Family Services (DCFS) will host the Renewing the Commitment to ‘Family to Family’ event on Monday, August 19, 2013 9:00 AM – 11:30 AM at the Centers for Families and Children located at 4500 Euclid Ave.In 1992 DCFS was selected by the Annie E. Casey Foundation to be a demonstration site for Family to Family, a child welfare practice reform initiative. In partnership with the community, DCFS made great strides in improving its system and its positive outcomes for children and families. For over 20 years, the agency has continued to embrace the values and principles of this approach to child welfare, often hosting other child welfare systems across the country as they visited Cuyahoga County to learn from the Family to Family implementation experiences.
Family to Family values have been the driving force behind numerous practice improvements in Cuyahoga County. Among the successful impacts have been the development of a network of neighborhood-based collaborative service systems that support the safety, permanency, and well-being of children; a dramatic and sustained reduction in the number of children who spend time in foster care; and an equally dramatic and sustained reduction in the use of group and institutional care.
The core values of Family-to-Family:
- A child’s safety is paramount;
- Children belong in families;
- Families need strong communities; and
- Public child welfare systems need partnerships with the community and with other systems to achieve strong outcomes for children
Moving forward, DCFS has made the commitment to revisit and reinforce Family-to-Family’s values and its four core strategies (team decision-making; building community partnerships; recruiting, developing and supporting resource families; and self-evaluation) in the context of the needs of children and families today.
“By reinforcing our commitment to Family to Family’s underlying values and their relationship to our overall practice model, we hope to re-energize our work and make new inroads in several outcome areas that are still in need of our focused attention and effort” said DCFS Administrator Patricia L. Rideout.
