Apr 22 One Step at a Time: Ending the Need for Group Placement

Apr 22h in Bold Voices by

(April 22, 2024)

We at Allies for Children had the pleasure of hosting the kick off event for one of our newest big projects: Ending the Need for Group Placement (ENGP). Along with our partners at Cayuga Centers, we welcomed child welfare professionals, people with lived experiences, including youth who are currently or have been involved with the child welfare system in the past, and representatives from Allegheny County Department of Human Services (DHS) and the Office of Children, Youth and Families (CYF). We invited all of these people to be a part of a journey to imagine what Allegheny County could look like without group homes.

ENGP is part of a nationwide initiative being led by the Annie E. Casey Foundation and Casey Family Programs, with similar projects being conducted in Oklahoma, Connecticut, and New Jersey. A representative of Annie E. Casey spoke to the gathered stakeholders about the values that guide this work for the foundation:

  • “Children and youth should live in families they are naturally connected to, in their own communities.”
  • “Young people, families and communities need to be at the center of designing solutions.”

Allegheny County is already a leader, not only in Pennsylvania but nationwide, in reducing the number of children placed in group settings. During the event, Erin Dalton, Director of DHS, emphasized the county’s commitment to finding and implementing solutions to end group placement. Allies for Children and Cayuga Centers are honored to have been chosen as the community based organizations who will convene a group of people with lived experiences and industry professionals on a co-design team so that their voices can guide the process of developing policy solutions that the county can implement to end the need for group placement.

The formation of the co-design team was the main reason for the kick off. We wanted to introduce possible candidates for the team to the project and present them with the opportunity to be part of this journey. Beyond that, though, we wanted to take the opportunity to ground ourselves, all of us, in the reason for doing this work: the youth.

We were delighted to welcome many youth voices into the program for our kick-off event. The young people at We Rock Academy performed two songs that they had written and produced themselves. We Rock is a program for Allegheny County youth currently or formerly involved in the child welfare system, offering a 30-week intensive program on music writing, production and recording. Several youth from the Allegheny County Speakers Bureau performed poems that they wrote and have been practicing about their identities and how they see themselves. Finally, Ivory Bennett, a former foster youth and current advocate (who recently wrote a blog for Bold Voices), read one of her own poems for the group.

AFC and Cayuga Centers are incredibly excited to be embarking on this journey with our soon-to-be-formed co-design team, Allegheny County DHS and CYF, and the Annie E. Casey Foundation. Building the co-design team is just the first step along this path. To see where this work is headed, take a look at the road map that we’ve designed to guide us along the way. We will be sure to keep you updated on this work as it progresses.

To learn more about Cayuga Centers see their guest blog post:
The Need for Foster Parents: A Growing Crisis

To learn more about the child welfare system see these blog posts by Allies for Children’s Policy Director Heather Wilkes:
The Importance of Kinship Care
Out-of-Home Placement Options for Children in the Child Welfare System
A Glimpse at the Child Welfare System: An Introduction to Child Protective Services

Laura Condon, Allies for Children Project Coordinator