Actions by Funders and Policymakers

Funders and policy makers mobilize funding, expertise, and the political support so welfare agencies and other partners can create an infrastructure and a stable, high-quality workforce that will effectively protect children who are not adequately protected by informal arrangements.

	The Annie E. Casey Foundation's Family to Family Initiative assists states and communities with a portion of the costs involved in both planning and implementing innovations in their systems of services for children and families. It makes available technical assistance and consultation throughout the process. The Foundation also provides funds for development and for transitional costs that accelerate system change. http://www.aecf.org/initiatives/familytofamily/overview/htm The California Department of Social Services, with the assistance of the Foundation Consortium for California’s Children and Youth, has convened a diverse group of key child welfare stakeholders to redesign the California’s Child Welfare Services and to change policies and practices so that every child in the state lives in a safe, stable, permanent home nurtured by a healthy family and strong community. www.foundationconsortium.org/what/redesign.html

Funders help programs and agencies use resources for training, including training that occurs across programs and agencies, and create and support networks of programs, not just individual programs.
Policymakers modify laws, rules, and regulations so they:

• Help child welfare programs make effective decisions and provide services and supports that protect children who are not adequately protected by informal arrangements
• Support the organization of child welfare programs as neighborhood-based services
• Facilitate the development of neighborhood-based child protection teams
• Support collaborations between formal agencies and community/neighborhood groups that make high-quality, neighborhood-based, residential out-of-home care available
• Facilitate collaborations that help to recruit, utilize, and support neighborhood foster homes

Policymakers support efforts to place children promptly in permanent homes, through adoptions, subsidized kinship care, and (where prospects of reunification are unrealistic) prompt termination of parental rights.

Policymakers require that every young child in out-of-home care receive a developmental screening by a trained developmental specialist, followed by appropriate services.

Policymakers establish within Medicaid a system of monitoring to ensure that EPSDT check-ups of children referred through the child welfare system are comprehensive in scope and address developmental issues and delays.

Policymakers make sure that zoning decisions support neighborhood-based services and supports.