About the Grant

In 2003, Kansas was one of nine sites to be awarded a five-year $2 million demonstration grant to infuse systems of care principles into child welfare policy and practice. The systems of care approach holds that no one single agency, no matter how large or well financed, can or should solve the issues associated with child abuse and neglect, foster care and adoption. Rather, systems of care build systems to engage communities to respond to and prevent child abuse and neglect, thereby strengthening families and enhancing the safety of children in their communities.

The grant calls for a statewide steering committee in order to promote interagency partnership and ownership of the Systems of Care initiative. The steering committee represents a broad variety of stakeholders in child welfare as well as a critical mass of family partners. The committee provides oversight and feedback to the grant team’s work in the two pilot communities selected (Cherokee, Reno) and in developing and implementing Systems of Care principles in child welfare practices across the state. The steering committee assists the grant team by reviewing practices for consistency and by holding the grant team accountable for results and timely accomplishment of objectives. The steering committee has representation by each of the two pilot communities and will receive and review regular progress reports from the pilot steering committees.

The steering committee adopted the following vision and mission statements:

Vision:

“ Kansas families have supports to raise their children”

Mission :

“Partnering for the continual growth of families

one community at a time”

The grant provides resources to implement Family Centered Systems of Care (FCSOC) in two counties (Cherokee, Reno). In each of those counties, a steering committee is created to oversee the development of the system. The grant team conducts an assessment, interviewing stakeholders and family members as well as identifying quantitative measures of the child welfare system in each county. The steering committee uses the data from the qualitative and quantitative assessments to create a strategic plan for implementation of a unique system of care.

Interagency Collaboration: The grant team has held several individual meetings with key state level stakeholders to present the Systems of Care concept and to elicit support/involvement. Among those stakeholders are a regional Social and Rehabilitation Services (SRS) director, the Kansas State Department of Education, children’s mental health, the United Way of Greater Topeka, a private non-profit substance abuse prevention and treatment agency, and the state Children’s Cabinet which oversees expenditures of the state’s tobacco settlement for children’s prevention and early intervention.

Family Involvement: The vision for family involvement is to have a network of skilled and confident family members who are valued and engaged as partners on the policy, management and service delivery levels of the child welfare system in Kansas.
A family partner is, or has been, a consumer of Kansas child welfare services. They may be a birth parent, grandparent, other relatives, kin, foster (resource) or adoptive parents, or former youth who was in care. They may also include those who represent a special need or interest group related to the children and families in the child welfare system. Family partners are recruited across the state and are invited to participate in the statewide or local Family Advisory Council (FAC).

Individualized and Strengths-Based Care: This principle acknowledges that every individual has worth and desires respect. It also recognizes that every individual has unique strengths that provide the real life materials for solutions to address the individuals needs and to create a customized family-driven plan.

Cultural Competence: The Director of Children and Family Services has authorized the grant team to begin the process of conducting a cultural competency self-assessment of the division. We have been collaborating with the National Center for Cultural Competency at Georgetown University to discuss the use of various self-assessment tools for this project. Spoke with SRS director of Diversity about Strategic Plan for Cultural Competency for the organization.

Training on Multi-Cultural Diversity and Cultural Competence has been delivered several times to field staff. The training will be delivered once or twice times per quarter throughout the SRS regions of the state as well as when requested by our community partners. Additional training modules will be developed utilizing the results of our agency assessment.

The grant team promotes cultural events to enhance the level of cultural sensitivity and competency within Children and Family Services. To that end, we sponsored a food day within the division to bring awareness and celebrate the accomplishments of African Americans.

One of the keys to sustainability and culture change as well as system-building is the endorsement of agency leadership. The secretary of SRS has instituted a culture of change and risk-taking that encourages staff not to do things the same old way but to challenge ourselves to meet the future. A parallel process being initiated through the Health Care Policy division under the secretary’s direction is a change process infusing the agency culture with prevention methodology. This exercise will serve to train staff to think in terms of planned change—assisting the transition to a Systems of Care philosophical approach to serving children and families.