Family Connections Specialist

Fostering Connection -Midwest Travels

Over the past month I have continued to meet and learn from Wisconsin and Illinois (!) social workers about their work and how it fits with the Fostering Connection Act. While in Chicago at the CWLA regional meeting, I learned about how effective Illinois has been in reconnecting their youth with family, resulting in fewer kids in out of home care over the past 4 years. It took Illinois 3-4 years to have more youth in paid subsidized placements (relative placements) than those in foster care. As we know, this fits the goal of the Casey Foundation for the year 2020- cutting the foster care population in half!  Wisconsin can also look forward to this outcome with the levels of care; promoting the certification and placement of youth in care with kin. The face of foster care is certainly changing, all for the benefit of youth in care!

Susan Schwab