Resources

While in recent years the Chafee program and the Family First Prevention Services Act have made positive changes to promote kinship care and align foster care policy with healthy adolescent and young adult development, the data show that our government systems must do better. And the solutions are within our grasp. Practitioners and policymakers must work on two fronts: support families to prevent older youth from entering foster care; and redesign systems to meet the needs of youth and young adults in foster care today, enabling them to become thriving adults tomorrow. As the number of young people entering foster care declines, policymakers, practitioners and advocates must seize the opportunity to engage these youth; understand what is, and is not, working in states; and make strategic investments in the future.