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California Permanency for Youth Project
The California Permanency for Youth Project (CPYP), housed at the Public Health Institute, is centered on the belief that no foster child is too old to find a permanent connection to a loving adult or family. Not long ago this was an unfathomable notion. Common wisdom assumed, and child welfare practice reflected, that once children reach the age of 11 they would remain in foster care until their 18th birthdays.
The CPYP goal of ensuring every foster child a lifelong permanent connection to a loving, caring adult has transformed child welfare practice in California and throughout the country.
Permanency is both a process and a result that includes involvement of the youth as a participant or leader in finding a permanent connection with at least one committed adult who provides:
A safe, stable and secure parenting relationship Love Unconditional commitment Lifelong support in the context of reunification, a legal adoption, or guardianship, where possible, and in which the youth has the opportunity to maintain contacts with important persons including brothers and sisters
Strategies
- Assisting 21 counties in transforming their child welfare practice through technical assistance and training, supporting peer learning opportunities, evaluating permanency programs to inform practice, and disseminating findings regarding best practices.
- Informing policy makers to promote system-wide adoption of permanency practices.
- Leveraging funding.
Impact
Highlights from the 2008 evaluation, which focused on ten participating CPYP counties, include:
- Of the 293 youth who received services starting in 2006, 74% achieved permanency.
- Of the 264 youth starting in 2007, 47% have achieved permanency.
- Increased sibling connections.
Since its inception, CPYP has spawned a statewide and national movement on permanency for older youth.