Core Services: Transition Support
11th of May 2017
The Continuum of Care Reform (CCR) was designed so that children living out of their home would be provided the most appropriate placement in committed nurturing foster homes. Services and supports will be tailored, based on each child’s needs. All of these services and supports fall into 6 Core Services: mental health, transition support upon entry, educational/physical/behavioral/extracurricular support, transition to adulthood support, permanency support, and Native American child services.
The Trinity Youth Services (TYS) team, along with our foster/resource families, will directly provide the core services and support to children, Non-minor Dependents (NMD) and their families fulfilling the requirements of CCR.
Last month we outlined the first core services: specialty mental health services, and how TYS will provide that service. This month we will look at transition support services. Transition support services focus on initial entry and when a placement changes for a child.
TYS Treatment Foster Care Social Workers (TFCSW) along with the Child and Family Team (CFT) will develop a permanency goal upon entry and when a placement changes, and will determine what services are needed to support the family through permanency. A permanency goal will either be reunification, adoption or guardianship. The CFT must include the child, resource parents, biological family, County Social Workers and any other identified support of the child. The TFCSW will prepare the child and the resource parent on what to expect at a CFT meeting and will encourage the child to voice their needs to the team. Each CFT meeting will be unique and based on the needs of the child and family. At that time, a case plan will be developed. Each member of the team may be tasked to be responsible for items of the plan.
Upon initial entry into placement, TYS works directly with resource parents and the biological family to coordinate visitation as directed by the court order. Visitation services, including monitoring and transportation to and from visits, are the responsibility of the resource parents and agency.
In the event of a placement change, the TCFSW will explain the need for the change in an age appropriate manner. If appropriate, the youth will have a say in the change of placement. When a youth is known to be transferring from another agency, TYS will work with the other agency to ensure the transition is smooth. TYS will request and provide all records of the youth including, but not limited to, medical and educational records.
TYS will also assist the child in family finding in order to locate family members or other supportive adults that may be willing to provide permanency.
TYS will provide resource parents with temporary care to assist in stabilizing and maintaining placement.
Stay tuned for my next blog, which will cover educational/physical/behavioral/extracurricular support. This topic delves into the important support offered to TYS children in their everyday lives.
Jackie Jakob, Foster Care and Adoptions Director
Having over 20 years’ experience, Jackie currently oversees Trinity Youth Services’ operations of foster care and adoptions programs throughout Southern California and in Houston, Texas. She received a bachelor’s degree in law and society from University of California Santa Barbara, a master’s degree in social work from California State University Long Beach and recently became a Licensed Clinical Social Worker. Jackie enjoys spending time with her husband and two children attending various baseball, softball and judo meets. She is on the parent board for a judo dojo and is one of the troop leaders for her daughter’s Girl Scout troop. Additionally, she really enjoys running half marathons and aims to run 4 to 5 races each year.
Tel: 909.825.5588 | Email: info@trinityys.org
