Vol. 18, No. 2 • May 2014

CFTs Can Help Us Build Better Futures for "Crossover" Youth

by Jenny King

When a child in foster care breaks the law, they become involved in both the child welfare and juvenile justice systems. When we are working with these "crossover" or "dual-system" youth, child and family teams (CFTs) are one of the best tools we have for sorting matters out in a way that is clear, fair, and focused on building a better future for the youth.

CFTs
In child and family teams (CFTs) family members and their community supports come together to create and update a plan with the youth and family. The plan builds on the strengths of the youth and family and addresses their needs, desires, and dreams.

CFTs provide a great road map for us to follow when seeking to support and partner with young people in the foster care system. CFTs are both a meeting process and a philosophical approach. They are the real-life application of the following values, which North Carolina's child and family serving systems have wholeheartedly embraced:

Six Principles of Partnership

  • Everyone desires respect
  • Everyone needs to be heard
  • Everyone has strengths
  • Judgments can wait
  • Partners share power
  • Partnership is a process

These principles nurture best practice in child welfare. They are guideposts, helping direct and remind workers about what child and family teams are.

Family-Centered Principles
Family-centered principles include:

  • Families are experts about themselves.
  • Families and community members should be partners in determining solutions and making decisions.
  • Meetings should be set up in a way that fits with and honors the family's culture.
  • The role of the child welfare worker is to help the family and ensure child safety.

Done right, child and family teams embody these principles, encouraging workers, family, and community supports to learn from young people in foster care. CFTs are a way for youth to teach us who they are and what's important to them, to provide us insight into how to partner with them and their family system for safety and success.

Start the Ball Rolling
If a child in your home becomes involved with the juvenile justice system, one of the first things you should do is ask for a CFT. That's right--foster parents and kin caregivers can call a CFT.

Don't wait to be asked IF you would like to have a CFT meeting or IF you can attend a CFT. Ask for one yourself.

Because they are key partners, foster parents and kin caregivers have the right to have a say in what is happening in the lives of the young people in their care.

Working with Multiple Systems
Asking questions is even more important when more than one system is involved in the youth's life. Questions help hold everyone accountable. Questions also make each system more aware of how the other is working with the youth. This opens the door to better communication.

Questions caregivers might ask when planning a CFT for dual-system youth include:

  • How can I help actively involve this youth in the CFT?
  • How can we ensure that everyone working with the youth is at the CFT so they will understand what the youth is supposed to be doing?
  • What questions does the youth have about either system?
  • Do we have an effective plan to manage behaviors that may put the youth at risk for further trouble?
  • Are we sure the youth is receiving appropriate, effective treatment for any mental health issues that may underlie the delinquent behavior?
  • How we can coordinate across systems to ensure the youth's plan meets the needs of both DSS and juvenile justice?
  • How can we ensure both courts are kept informed of what's going on with the youth?

Be Prepared!
While both child welfare and juvenile justice agencies are working to assist your child, their approaches may be very different. Juvenile justice's focus on the safety of the community and helping to stop delinquent behaviors is more of a "corrections" approach. This can lead to harsher punishments and even incarceration/detention settings. North Carolina is one of the few states that prosecute youth 16 and older as adults.

This makes the involvement of families, supports, and the community highly important for crossover youth. As a caregiver, it is your voice, and the voice of your family, community, counselors, and workers, which can help shift the focus from harsher punishments to accountability and healing--for the youth, for victims, and for the community.

Here are some suggestions that may help you make this shift:

  • Ask for copies of--and seek to understand--the laws, policies, and process your child is facing as part of the juvenile justice system. This online document is a good starting place: www.ncdps.gov/div/JJ/JJdiagram.pdf.
  • Bring supporters for you and your child to a CFT. This meeting is for your child--you have a right to have support through this process.
  • See if the child's GAL can attend the CFT and/or ask if you can have a family advocate join you and your child at the CFT.
  • Become familiar with juvenile justice services offered in your county; a description of these services can be found at www.ncdps.gov/sbc/.

Be Persistent and Patient
As you seek to understand the systems working with your child, you may initially find your questions go unanswered. Or they may simply generate other questions. Or you may not get the answers you're seeking. If this happens to you:

  • Don't be deterred. Keep the lines of communication open. Partnership is truly a process. It takes time.
  • CFTs are a resource you can use to initiate and enhance your partnerships with agencies. Advocate for the process to slow down enough to involve your youth.
  • Ask for a meeting to provide greater understanding of what is expected and going on in the plans for your child.
  • Ask for other family members, mentors, and community partners to become a part of the youth's team to provide resources and ideas for their success.

Conclusion
Asking for a CFT is a powerful first step. If you patiently persist, you may just see tentative exchanges between systems grow to become true teamwork.

In the words of Henry Ford:

Coming together is a beginning.
Keeping together is progress.
Working together is success.

Jenny King is Training Coordinator and Trainer for the Center for Family and Community Engagement at NC State University.

To Learn More about CFTs . . .
Read Fostering Perspectives, vol. 16, no. 2

~ Family and Children's Resource Program, UNC-CH School of Social Work ~