# Presentation: 398856

## Casey Family Programsand Life Skills Tools: 

- Free New Tools for the Job Corps Community

**Job Corps Annual Leadership Summit **
**November 7, 2006 **

**Dr. A. Chris Downs**
**Eric Steiner **
**Systems Improvement**
**Casey Family Programs**
- _[www.casey.org](http://www.casey.org/)_
**(206) 282-7300**

## Presentation Overview

- Audience Introduction
- Purpose of Presentation
- Introduction of Casey Family Programs
- Overview of Our Tools and Resources
- Moving Forward with Job Corps

## Our Goal Today...

- To introduce a range of tools and products that are practice-focused and results-oriented; and
- To improve the life outcomes of youth in foster care and to help young people make positive connections to the world of work.

## Job Corps and Casey Family Programs

- Brief background
- Casey Family Programs’ interest in youth employment
- Cross-systems work across multiple Federal systems
- Improving connections on behalf of youth in care
- Support for Federal interagency youth collaborative
- THANK YOU for Program Instruction No. 06-07,
- 	“Serving Students in the Foster Care System”

## Our mission

- To provide and improve— and ultimately to prevent the need for—foster care

- Casey Family Programs

## Casey Family Programs operates in two ways

- We provide direct services and support to youth and families.
- We promote improvements in child welfare practice and policy.

- Casey Family Programs

## We have a national responsibility to help children and youth in foster care

- 800,000 American youth spend time in foster care each year—nearly double the number two decades ago.
- Research shows when youth in foster care have stable families and receive support, they are more likely to succeed.

## We have a national responsibility to help children and youth in foster care (continued)

- 20,000 young people between 18 and 21 “age out” of care each year; many are left without any support, family connections, or life skills.
- Investments in improving foster care now will save taxpayers money in thelong term.

## Who we are

- The largest foundation working solely on foster care issues ($2 billion endowment)
- 40 years’ experience working directly with youth in foster care
- A Seattle-based foundation established in 1966 by UPS founder Jim Casey

- Casey Family Programs

## Where we are

## What we do

- Casey works directly with youth and families in 7 states.
- Casey provides tools and products to child welfare agencies in 47 states.
- Casey provides a variety of services and support to families and communities.

- Casey Family Programs

## What we do (continued)

- Casey collaborates with others to improve outcomes for children and youth in foster care.
- Local** **communities
- State child welfare agencies
- National corporations
- Tribes
- Casey creates innovative tools and model programs to improve child welfare across the country.

- Casey Family Programs

## What we do (continued)

- Encourage innovation and collaboration across agencies that serve youth, we offer these tools **free of charge**. Use them in your daily work with youth and families to:
**Improve **the foster care experience and well-being of young people
**Build **community strengths
**Assess and develop **client strengths
**Define and document **outcomes for your agency’s target populations

## Tools and Resources

- Casey Life Skills
- 	Online tools to assess and develop independent living skills
- 	- Instant, confidential feedback
- 	- Customized learning plans
- 	- Secure data reports
- _www.caseylifeskills.org _

- Casey Family Programs

## Casey Foster Family Assessments

- Assess an applicant’s potential to foster
- Pinpoint areas for growth
- Customize home studies
- 20 standardized measures

- Promote foster parent success with easy-to-use, standardized tools

- Casey Family Programs

## It’s My Life 

- An integrated practice framework for transition services
- Build a youth-driven, holistic, and strengths-based child welfare practice
-  It’s My Life defines seven “life domains”

- Casey Family Programs

## It’s My Life Guides

- It’s My Life:  Postsecondary Education and Training
- It’s My Life:  Housing
- It’s My Life: Employment

- Practical resource guides for transition services

- Casey Family Programs

## A Road Map for Learning

- A practice framework and resource guide to improve educational outcomes
- Objective #10:  To prepare youth to achieve their postsecondary education, training, and career goals

- Casey Family Programs

## Endless Dreams

- A video and curriculum to educate teachers about foster care
- A complete toolkit for school social workers and education specialists

- Casey Family Programs

## Better Together 

- A facilitated curriculum for agency managers and alumni of foster care
- Better Together helps build effective partnerships with alumni of foster care

- Casey Family Programs

## Powerful Families

- A partnership to strengthen vulnerable families with peer-to-peer learning.
- Powerful Families builds community capacity to prevent the need for foster care.

- Casey Family Programs

- www.powerfulfamilies.org

## The Breakthrough Series Collaborative

- An innovative method to test and implement change in child welfare practice.  Recent topics:
- Recruitment and retention of foster families (2004)
- Kinship Care (2005)
- Disparities in outcomes for children of color (2006)

- Casey Family Programs

## Knowing Who You Are

- A video, e-learning, and in-person learning event for social workers
- KWYA:
- Promotes pride in a young person’s racial and ethnic heritage
- Develops multicultural competency in staff and youth
- Prepares youth to cope with racism and discrimination

## Research: Improving Family Foster Care

- The Northwest Foster Care Alumni Study
- Groundbreaking research and analysis of what works in foster care.

- Casey Family Programs

## Youth Employment Demonstration Grants

- Casey Family Programs is evaluating five DOL demonstration grants targeted to improving employment outcomes to youth in foster care (New York, Detroit, Chicago, Los Angeles County, and Houston).  Initial report: _www.iel.org/pubs/caseysitesreport.pdf_

- Casey Family Programs

## John H. Chafee Foster Care Independence Program 

- National Resource Center for Youth Development
- 	www.nrcys.ou.edu/yd/
- Frequently Asked Questions III
- 	www.nrcys.ou.edu/yd/programs/pdfs/chafee_faq3.pdf
- 	This program helps foster youth receive the education, training and services necessary to obtain employment, including assistance to enter postsecondary education and training institutions.

## “Casey will not only provide direct service, but change community attitudes toward foster parenthood, work with other agencies for mutual improvement, provide expert testimony, carry on research and collaboration on new methods of foster care and child development, and cooperate in community efforts to improve services to children.”
							—Jim Casey

- 							—Jim Casey

- Casey Family Programs

## Honoring the Casey legacy since 1966

**Jim Casey**
- Founder
- Casey Family Programs and United Parcel Service (UPS)

- Casey Family Programs