Resources for Communities

Your group or organization can play a vital role in supporting the more than 430,000 children and youth involved in foster care. Your engagement helps create a community of care to support families—especially those involved in foster care—to be the best they can be even under stress. There's an overwhelming need for individuals and families to become involved as foster parents, respite providers, volunteers, or mentors of children who need an adult role model. Resources in this section outline information about the children in your community involved in foster care, the national and local policies that impact communities, and how to support local children and caregivers involved in child welfare. You can also find additional information on collaborative community relationships and trauma-informed child welfare practice across the country.

• Who are the children in foster care?
• Policy and supportive programs
• Guides and additional information

Who are the children in foster care?

About the Children in Foster Care
AdoptUSKids
Provides information about the children in foster care, including the median amount of time a child spends in care and the number of youth who age out of foster care.

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Policy and supportive programs

National CASA Association
Court Appointed Special Advocates For Children
Explains how court appointed special advocates provide consistency and advocacy for children involved in the child welfare system.

Supporting Informal Kinship Families in Nebraska (PDF - 441 KB)
Voices for Children in Nebraska
Explores the challenges kinship caregivers may face—such as trying to make important decisions for children in care—and potential solutions to help.

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Guides and additional information

Benefits of Grandfamilies
Generations United
Provides research related to the improved outcomes of children and youth who are cared for by relative caregivers instead of traditional foster care settings.

Building and Sustaining Collaborative Community Relationships
Capacity Building Center for States (2017)
Highlights the importance of effective, ongoing collaboration between child welfare agencies and community-based partners to strengthen assessment and decision-making, increase understanding of the family’s needs, promote communication and information sharing across systems, and provide better overall support to children and families.

CW360°: Trauma Informed Child Welfare Practice (PDF - 1,516 KB)
Center for Advanced Studies in Child Welfare (2013)
Provides working definitions and examples of casework practice implementation for emerging knowledge about trauma-informed care in the child welfare system.

Child Welfare Toolkit for Early Childhood Professionals (PDF - 23,091 KB)
Partnership for Resilient Infants + Toddlers (2014)
Outlines a collaborative approach between early childhood professionals and the child welfare system in order to implement trauma-informed practices in work with parents and children.

The National Child Traumatic Stress Network: National Disasters
The National Child Traumatic Stress Network
Provides information about responding to children's mental health needs following natural or manmade disasters.

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