Benchmarks’ staff attended the virtual policy summit hosted by NC Child and the NC Essentials for Childhood Initiative on March 29th and 30th. The two-day conference was packed with inspirational messages from child advocates across North Carolina. After a formal opening from NC Child Executive Director, Michelle Hughes, and a moving keynote address with a call to action by Reverend Dr. Starsky Wilson of the Children’s Defense Fund, organizers from across the state came together to host the Empowered Communities Driving Change plenary panel. During this discussion Letha Muhammad of the Education Justice Alliance shared a statement that resonated with our Pathways to Permanency project work, “Nothing about us, without us.”
The Pathways to Permanency project strives to coordinate efforts between child welfare and behavioral health to ensure youth in foster care have access to high quality behavioral health services and a nurturing environment in which to thrive. Through coordinated efforts, stakeholders who serve child welfare involved youth address the need for shared understanding, accessible quality behavioral health assessments and interventions, and safe and supportive homes.
Through discussions and focus groups, it is evident that child welfare-serving stakeholders need an avenue to improve communication and coordination of resources serving children and families. One of the most important pieces of this work is ensuring that representation from each sector is present to have their voices heard and to be involved in the planning of project initiatives. We are in the process of setting up workgroups that will be composed of representatives from child welfare-serving stakeholders across Vaya Health’s 31 county catchment area.
Each workgroup’s areas of focus were created based on the feedback regarding priorities heard from participants during focus groups held at the end of 2021 and the beginning of 2022 as well as the analysis of child welfare and behavioral health data. NC Child conference presenters Vikki Crouse of NC Child and Elizabeth Miller of Parenting Path discussed the power of data and using data as a storytelling tool to drive change. Both qualitative and quantitative data are important tools that were used in creating the story of the experiences of North Carolinas youth in foster care and drives the Pathways to Permanency projects next steps.
There will be six workgroups: Common Language and Shared Understanding, Quality Clinical Assessments to Drive Services, Accessible Quality Continuum of Behavioral Health Services, Appropriate and Supportive Home: Kinship Providers, Suitable Placements, and New Foster Family Recruitment. Participants were asked to join the workgroups in which they feel the most passionate and will begin later this month.
Benchmarks is committed to continuing to engage stakeholders across the child welfare serving continuum so that no decisions that impact their work are made without their representation.
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