Charles Riley, who once was like a father to Anthony Spikes, calls out from the front door of his Atlanta home: “Wassup, boy?”

Anthony has longed for this moment— to be reunited with his family. He makes a beeline from the curb and leaps into Riley’s arms, the force nearly bringing them both to their knees.  

Anthony already is taller than Riley, even though he is only 14. His growth spurt occurred while he was in foster care, living in four different homes over the past four years.  

“You got so skinny!” Anthony tells Riley, whom he hasn’t seen since he was 9.  

The father of two of Anthony’s half sisters, Riley is about to become Anthony’s legal guardian. His home—the one with the package of meat thawing in the kitchen sink and the 60-inch big screen TV overwhelming the living room—soon will be Anthony’s home, too.  

The idea of Anthony thriving in a home full of love and laughter overcomes Riley, and the tears begin to flow. “Lord, have mercy,” he says.  

Finding permanent homes
An urgent priority of child welfare systems must be to move children safely out of foster care and into permanent homes with strong families that will stand beside them for all time. This can be accomplished through safe reunification with birth parents, adoption or guardianship.

“Children need the stability of a permanent home and family,” says David Sanders, Casey Family Programs executive vice president for systems improvement. “Research has shown that children who grow up in foster care have higher risks of becoming homeless, ending up in prison and suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.”  

About 13 percent of children in foster care enter adulthood without being part of a permanent family. They often enter it alone—ill-prepared to hold jobs or build healthy families of their own.  

Georgia Permanency Roundtable
The Georgia Department of Human Resources is taking an assertive approach to find permanent homes for children who have been in foster care the longest. The Georgia Permanency Roundtable project, sup-ported by Casey Family Programs, put more than 500 cases before a team of five to eight caseworkers, supervisors and experts from inside and outside the department.  

The process was intense—10 roundtables occurring simultaneously each day for five consecutive weeks until every case had been scrutinized. Each roundtable ended with the drafting of a precise permanency action plan with firm deadlines.  

Ground rules for the roundtables were simple: No idea was a bad idea, and every possible idea was put on the table. The fresh perspectives ushered in new possibilities as each roundtable posed a series of straightforward questions:

• What will it take?  
• What can we try that we’ve never tried before?  
• What have we tried before that we can try again?  
• How many of these things can we try at the same time?  
• How can we involve the youth in the permanency plan?

The brainstorming parted clouds.  

All Riley needed was to be asked
Anthony seemed destined for the unacceptable—staying in foster care until age 18—after a plan for his older sister to become his legal guardian didn’t pan out. The roundtable directed his case manager to approach the older sister again to scout for other relatives who might be interested in becoming Anthony’s guardian. The sister thought of Charles Riley.  

The system had approached Riley previously about guardianship, but he ruled it outbecause at the time he was a truck driver who was on the road a lot. Now, Riley is home all the time. The past reason for his resistance was no longer relevant. All he needed was to be asked—and the permanency roundtable made that happen.  

Forever family  
During his first visit to the Riley home, Anthony saw it as a place where he could keep growing. “In a few years, I’ll be hitting my head on the ceiling,” he says.  

Anthony will share Riley’s home with his 16-year-old half sister, Criyuana, who is Riley’s daughter. Eager to complete the momentous family reunion, Riley calls Criyuana to check on the location of the school bus that is dropping her off at home. She’s just a couple blocks away.  

Anthony leaps up from the carpet and runs outside to meet her, bouncing with anticipation.  

On the school bus, Criyuana’s friend spots Anthony’s welcoming committee of one.  

“Who’s that happy boy on the hill?” she asks.  

“That’s my brother,” Criyuana says. “My little brother.”  

And this is his home.