Direct child and family services
Since our founding in 1966, Casey Family Programs has worked directly with children, families, child welfare systems and community organizations to demonstrate and spread effective, practical solutions to reduce the need for foster care, improve well-being, and secure safe and lifelong families for every child.
Our Child and Family Services team serves approximately 1,100 children and families each year. We operate nine field offices in five states — Arizona, California, Idaho, Texas and Washington — and work in a mix of urban, suburban and rural communities. We draw on evidence gained from research-informed and promising practices, as well as our six decades of direct child welfare experience, to provide a range of multidisciplinary services to children, young adults and families.
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Supporting families
Our family-centered services approach is grounded in the application of the gold standard principles of the Indian Child Welfare Act that support a strong connection to family, tribe, community and culture.
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Kinship care
Kinship placement should be a universal expectation. We know children do better when placed with relatives or other kinship caregivers, and we facilitate kinship caregiver licensing.
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Family reunification
We help families develop their strengths and discover their own solutions.
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Permanency practices
We have set a bold goal for our direct services work — to secure a safe, nurturing and permanent family for every young person in our care.
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Foster care
We offer a wide variety of services and supports to help resource families succeed as caregivers.
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Young adult transition
We support young adults who have aged out of foster care in developing and maintaining permanent connections and making a successful transition into adulthood.
Meeting families where they are
Through in-home family services, we concentrate supports on preventing children and youth from entering the child welfare system. For children already in foster care, we work urgently and relentlessly to achieve legal and relational permanency. This is accomplished by partnering with families to make their homes safe so youth can be reunited with their parents.
If that isn’t possible, we work to find them other safe, loving and permanent families through guardianship or adoption. Making a connection or placement with relatives is a priority. We also work with young adults who are transitioning from foster care.
A focus on well-being
We have particular experience in working with older youth, who tend to experience more barriers to permanency and are at risk of aging out of the foster care system. We help create opportunities for them to reach their full potential with forever families, while also focusing on advancing their educational, employment and emotional well-being
Child welfare practices that work
We use family engagement strategies such as family finding, family group conferencing and other multidisciplinary teaming models with youth, families and jurisdictions. We demonstrate and spread strategies that improve child safety and well-being and strengthen families in partnership with state, local and Tribal child welfare systems, courts and community partners.
Applying trauma-informed practice
We seek to understand and help heal the effects of trauma, engaging caregivers, partners and communities in creating trauma-informed services and supports.
