This report provides a directory for those seeking services in their county. It can also be used to increase access and advocate for the expansion of mental health services.
The Promise of Continuum of Care Reform (CCR)
Continuum of Care Reform draws together a series of existing and new reforms to our child welfare services program designed out of an understanding that children who must live apart from their biological parents do best when they are cared for in committed nurturing family homes. AB 403 provides the statutory and policy framework to ensure services and supports provided to the child or youth and his or her family are tailored toward the ultimate goal of maintaining a stable permanent family. Reliance on congregate care should be limited to short-term, therapeutic interventions that are just one part of a continuum of care available for children, youth and young adults. Implementation efforts for CCR will occur in stages between now and 2021 in Child Welfare Services, and in succeeding years in probation foster care.
Hearing the Voices of Youth Involved in the Foster Care and Juvenile Justice
Report from Mental Health California and Kaiser Permanente highlights the impacts of trauma on system-involved youth along with key suggestions for system improvements from a youth lived-experience perspective.
Reducing System Crossover for Black LGBTQ+ Girls & Nonbinary Youth
This new Center for Juvenile Justice Reform publication highlights the critical need to ensure that systems fully support Black LGBTQ+ girls and nonbinary youth–a population that is at higher risk for crossover (i.e., becoming dually-involved in both the juvenile justice and child welfare systems) than their non-Black, non-LGBTQ+ peers. The white paper also provides recommendations to mitigate this disparity and improve the experiences of and outcomes for this population of young people.
The Space Between Life, Death and Opportunity: When I Was 16
Amnoni Myers provides the introduction to this series of essays and poems reflecting on the death of Ma’Khia Bryant while in Ohio foster care. Amnoni Myers is an alumni of the former care system who works as a resource family trainer specialist and is the author of “You are the Prize,” a memoir of her life and journey through the foster care system and beyond. Her memoir will be published in December 2021.