CPYP | Los Angeles County (Metro North)

LOS ANGELES COUNTY (Metro North Region)

Accomplishments to Date

Since August 2005, the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) SPA 4/Metro North office (herein Metro North) has embraced and worked laboriously to implement various strategies to assure every child/youth exits our child welfare system with a permanent plan. Our office currently provides ongoing case management services to 2,535 children and their families with open cases and assesses an average of 1,100 new children every month. Without intentional, targeted efforts to provide immediate and ongoing permanency planning services to every new and existing child/youth, many will likely fall through the cracks. Metro North especially recognizes that older youth commonly present very unique challenges and require specialized attention to achieve permanency. To address the needs of older youth, Metro North has implemented various strategies. As of October 2007, the following efforts have been forged:

The Metro North Permanency Task Force and Leadership Team, comprised of internal DCFS staff and external partners, meet monthly to organize and carryout administrative permanency work.
Various youth permanency training events for internal and external staff are organized and provided on an ongoing basis.
A target population of 180 high-need, older youth has been identified and resources are coordinated and assigned on an ongoing basis.
Internal and external resources are developed and coordinated to provide family finding and engagement, loss and grief work, and other work necessary to address the needs of older youth.
The development of champions and the celebration of success stories remains a priority and plans for such are being carried out on a continuous basis.
Specific goals and outcomes have been defined for all youth served and the tracking of such has been developed.
Administration liaisons were made with the executive team and other office's administrators to effect necessary changes in system wide.

Metro North Permanency Unit

A highlight in our achievements is the work accomplished by the Metro North Permanency Unit (MNPU). In October 2007, the unit was the recipient of a "Special Merit" and "Million Dollar Club" award from the Los Angeles County Productivity and Quality Awards. This unit's focus is on older youth most at risk for lingering in care and exiting DCFS without a family. The MNPU is the only unit of its kind in Los Angeles County to standardize youth permanency and connectedness strategies into casework practice. Experienced and well-trained social workers design, provide and ensure effective services for older, high-risk youth that are essential to improving their outcomes.

Goals for youth assigned to the MNPU are:

Youth participate in planning for permanency
Restored or strengthened connections, visits, or placement with birth parents, siblings, relatives and non-relative extended family member (NREFM), defined as any adult caregiver who has an established familial or mentoring relationship with the child
Return to home of parents, if possible
Assessment and preparation for adoption or legal guardianship if return to home of parents isn't appropriate
Permanent placement with relatives or NREFM
At lease one committed adult who will provide a safe, stable and secure parenting relationship, love, unconditional commitment, and lifelong support
Placement in family-like settings as opposed to group care, a.k.a., reduction in level of care.

County social workers receive expert consultation and training to support the efforts of the Permanency Unit's goals. Due to its interest and capacity for sustainability, the Metro North office partnered with the California Permanency for Youth Project (CPYP) to ensure no youth leaves the California child welfare system without a permanent lifelong connection to a caring adult. Through a CPYP grant, provision of regular and ongoing management consultation and training on the most recent and successful youth permanency practices continues to be provided to the Permanency Unit social workers, unit supervisor, and regional office administration, which resulted in significant cost avoidance and savings .

In working with high-need youth, the MNPU social worker implements the following key practice methods:

Youth-Driven Plans
Through the utilization of specialized techniques designed for older youth, social workers develop trusting relationships and empower youth to be the leader in their permanency planning process.
Family-Finding and Engagement
Social workers increase youth's feelings of connection, belonging, and hopefulness through the search and engagement of family or other meaningful persons. Social workers (or those identified on the team to assist) complete in-depth interviews, mining of case records, and Internet searches to establish regular contact/visitation schedules and the possibility of placement.
Loss and Grief
Social workers recognize the pain youth face resulting from their significant loss of relationships and how that impacts a youth's ability to form trusting relationships with others.
Youth Permanency Teams
Social workers develop, coordinate, and lead youth permanency teams to identify and carry out the tasks or services deemed necessary to achieve the goals. The youth, family members, caregiver, social worker, attorney, and service providers comprise the team. Always from a youth advocate perspective, social workers help team members recognize strengths and needs, understand and normalize behavior, and develop effective responses, interventions, and solutions to ensure stability and long-term success. Resources and service providers are engaged in the process as needed to complete specific activities designed to meet the goals.

Benefits from MNPU

The following outcomes were achieved on behalf of the eighty high-need youth served by the MNPU from October 2005 to March 2007:

55 youth found increased connectedness in that they have contact by phone/mail, visits or are placed with their parent(s), sibling(s), relative(s), or NREFM.
8 youth returned to the home of a parent or were in the process of reunification.
1 youth was adopted and 2 youth were adoptively placed.
28 youth were appointed a legal guardian or had a plan of legal guardianship and were proceeding through the court system.
29 youth were replaced from high-level residential group home care or high-rate, non-relative foster family homes to family-like settings (a.k.a: reduced level-of-care).

As outlined above and in the cost savings analysis [hyperlink to LA MNPU cost savings.pdf], the benefits to the youth and children placed in the MNPU are astonishing. In addition to quality of life enhancements for older foster youth's current and future circumstances, the MNPU work resulted in significant fiscal savings. The MNPU pilot project has been so successful that DCFS has plans to implement Permanency Units department-wide. In addition, other California counties, including San Francisco, plan to replicate the MNPU in their own programs.

A quilt was created depicting a tree to represent the increased connectedness established for MNPU youth after just four months of county social workers' increased focus on family finding and engagement. The quilt is striking in its symbolism for the life and beauty that can be achieved through finding permanent connections for children and youth (pictures below).

Permanency Unit Trees