How can birth and foster parents partner to achieve reunification?
While the birth and foster parent relationship has long been assumed to be adversarial, there is a growing movement, led by birth and foster parents themselves, to shift thinking and promote a practice change within child welfare to encourage relationship-building and co-parenting.
Corey Best and Amanda Williams:
Birth parent Corey Best and foster parent Amanda Williams speak about the importance of strong birth and foster parent relationships, strategies to help birth and foster parents work together toward reunification, and how to generate support in the field for this innovative approach.
Jody Rodgers and Robyn Robbins:
Birth parent partner Jody Rodgers and foster parent Robyn Robbins describe how they began a pilot birth and foster parent mentoring program in Sonoma County, Calif. They tell the story of their first case, in which they worked together in a coordinated way to wrap supports around the birth mother.
Casey Family Programs is hosting an audio series to uplift the voices of constituents and child welfare professionals and share ideas of how to keep children safe, support families, and strengthen communities.
Casey Family Programs consults with individuals and teams across the country to compile research, experiences, and insights about approaches that can safely reduce the need for foster care and ensure the well-being of children and families. We share this information broadly to help child welfare leaders and their partners tackle similar issues in their own communities. For questions about this resource, or if you have other child welfare information needs, please email kmresources@casey.org.
