By Erica Burgess
Kinship care is when children or youth reside with relatives like grandparents, aunts and uncles, siblings, cousins, or someone they have a “family like” relationship with. In North Carolina, approximately 24% of youth involved with the child welfare system are placed in kinship care. Many of these families are providing care as non-licensed homes and are not receiving the same support as licensed foster homes. Many of the children and youth in these homes have experienced some form of neglect and abuse, which has resulted in their removal from their biological parents and caused trauma. Some of these children and youth may now be experiencing behavioral or mental health concerns and need further support to remain in their kinship home.
The Family Focused Treatment Association (FFTA), a national membership organization that works to advance best practices and advocate for policies that supports families in care, believes all children belong with their families or with someone they have a family-like relationship. FFTA believes that children and youth with treatment needs can remain in the home of their relatives or those with a family-like relationship when given proper support such as therapeutic foster care.
“As a foster child and now adopted teenager, it wasn’t always easy. But my kinship family found amazing support through the KTFC program. They offered so much help and guidance to my aunt and uncle, making sure they had everything they need to take care of me.”
In 2020, the Family Focused Treatment Association (FFTA) launched a demonstration project to develop and pilot a therapeutic kinship care model in NC. This pilot engaged three public and private agencies in partnership to build a model with the goal of licensing more kin as therapeutic foster parents. This was designed with the hope that children and youth may have their treatment needs met by kin and would not need to transition from a home environment to a higher level of care.
The following agency partner pairs are participating in this project:
- Wake County Health and Human Services and Methodist Home for Children
- New Hanover County Department of Social Services and Boys and Girls Home of NC
- Forsyth County Department of Social Services with Children’s Hope Alliance
With the support of FFTA, UNC School of Social Work’s Family and Children’s Resource Program, and Child Trends, all three partner pairs have been able to effectively locate, place, train, and license kinship caregivers to provide therapeutic foster care. As a result, many youth and young people have been able to reach stability in their kinship home and many have even reach permanency through adoption, guardianship, or KINGAP.
If your local agency is interested in learning more about the KTFC project and how to engage in your community, please contact Erica Burgess.
“As kinship caregivers who have benefited from the FFTA’s KTFC Pilot, we can attest to the difference it has made. The support has been invaluable in providing the best care for our adopted daughter (biological niece) and helping us feel empowered as licensed therapeutic kinship parents. We have found incredible support through working with the KTFC pilot and the private agency that provided our therapeutic training and supervision.“
