Permanency Enhancement Project Peoria, Illinois Jennifer La Fever Elizabeth Morgan Amy Roman

Peoria Action Team Project Action Team Meeting Action Team Project Data Collection Interviews of Community Leaders Development of an Informational Brochure Identification of Community Stakeholders

Peoria County Data

Research and statistical data from across the state are indicating that there are discrepancies in indicated child abuse and neglect reports that clients of different ethnicities are receiving

African Americans: have had more substantiated reports within 12 months; experienced more substitute care placements within a year; entered and stayed in care longer; more were placed in a group home or institution; and more were placed in kinship care.

Why are African American children so grossly over-represented? Pope and Feyerherm’s (1995) research Racism lays at all levels of the system and begins from the first encounter that a family has with an authority figure (police or DCFS investigator) At every single decision check point that a youth makes through the juvenile justices system, African Americans are over-represented Pope, C. E. & Feyerherm, W. (1995). Minorities and the juvenile justice system: Research summary. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Department of Justice, Washington, DC

What can be done to address the over-representation? National Center for Cultural Competence (2007) has several suggestions: develop program initiatives to address these differences, which should include educating local communities and agencies on the prevalence of the problem agencies should conduct self assessments to check where they stand in their attitudes, procedures, policies, and staff towards cultural competence programs should be tailored to meet the needs of a diverse array of families and clients (later hours, etc) above all, ongoing assessment and training are critical in identifying discrepancies and correcting them Goode, T. & Jones, W. (2007). A guide for advancing family-centered and culturally and linguistically competent care. Washington, DC: National Center for Cultural Competence, Georgetown University Center for Child and Human Development.

Central Region Permanency Enhancement Project From Robert Blackwell, Central Region Administrator for Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, March 14, 2007: The Central Region Permanency Enhancement Symposium was held in 2007 and represents the culmination of a six year process to address the over representation of African American children in foster care that began with the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services African American Advisory Council. During this period, representatives from the Council met with several directors of the Department to discuss the role, philosophy and practice of staff that affected the safety, permanency and well-being of African American children in care. The issues presented focused on examining our current practices and how to engage birth parents, community stakeholders, and child welfare professionals to provide better results... with the goal of reducing over representation of African American children in care.” Goals of the CRPEP Team 1.Reduce overrepresentation of African American youth in foster care 2.Improve Return Home permanency outcomes 3.Maintain children in the home 4.Improve Adoption/Guardianship permanency outcomes The overall goal of DCFS is to provide quicker reunification and to prevent entry into the system. It is of high priority to move clients through the system as quickly as possible to gain permanent outcomes in a timely fashion. Next Meeting: Peoria County Courthouse 324 Main St. Peoria, IL January 8, :30 a.m.

CRPEP December 2008 Number of Children 2004 Peoria County Caucasian African American Permanency at 12 months 14 8 Permanency at 24 months Permanency at 36 months Median Length of Stay (months) *University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana 2007 Peoria County Statistics Caucasians under 18 28,311 African American under 18 12,561 Caucasian child abuse reports 279 African American child abuse 339 *U.S. Census Bureau Number of Children 2007 in Peoria County Caucasian African American Traditional Foster Specialized Foster Kinship Care Institutional/Group *U.S. Census Bureau Current Participants CASA DCFS GAL State’s Attorney Children’s Home Lutheran Social Services Catholic Social Services Judges Family to Family ISU School of Social Work South Side Mission Current Participants CASA DCFS GAL State’s Attorney Children’s Home Lutheran Social Services Catholic Social Services Judges Family to Family ISU School of Social Work South Side Mission

Current CRPEP Team Projects -Recruitment of foster homes in specific areas and populations -Reducing time in care and addressing the issues and barriers that exist -Improving staff training as there appears to be inadequate foundations training as staff are unprepared for court -Continue to the next step regarding a cross-training needs assessment that has been completed -Standardization of counseling and treatment reports to make charts easier to understand -Utilize in-service trainings to train staff with outside speakers -Addressing communication breakdown between DCFS and private agencies, case workers, supervisors, and management regarding court report problems Web Links of Interest DCFS CASA