How agencies can help keep more kids with kin: Strengthening kin caregiver supports
Is your agency committed to kin-first practices? Are youlooking for more strategies to set up kin caregivers and placements for success? Are you looking for opportunities to better support kin caregivers to enhance the stability of those placements?
Join the Harvard Kennedy School Government Performance Lab for an interactive learning opportunity with a cohort of child welfare and foster care agency teams committed to building kin-first systems to come together in a collaborative learning environment.
Through this cohort, we hope to increase exposure to, enthusiasm for, and adoption of kin-first strategies. You and your teams will gain tools to help you build trust with new kin caregivers and improve placement stability to make it possible for more children to remain with kin while in care.
Learn and interact with a group of practitioners and walk away with:
Examples of effective strategies, co-developed by GPL and agency teams, for supporting kin placements (e.g., strategies for building trust with kin caregivers, tips to meet caregivers where they are with tailored supports.)
Easy-to-use, customizable resources to help you continue to build a kin-first culture in your agency (e.g., “getting started” resource guide for kin, template tool for communicating the benefits of kinship care.)
Peer connections to other practitioners working on similar issues.
Access to 1:1 office hours with members of the GPL kinship team.
What does it mean to have a kin-first culture? It doesn’t feel like a separate initiative, it is part of what you do, it is your DNA. It is part of our conversations now. It is so embedded in processes, frameworks, ways of thinking, approaches. Placing with kin and finding kin regardless of placement type is what we do, because we know the benefits and we’ve set ourselves up to operate that way. Mariah Williams
Kinship & Community Engagement Support Program Coordinator, San Diego County Child & Family Wellbeing
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About the Learning Sessions
This four-part virtual series will take place over two months in fall 2025:
Wednesday, October 8 | Meeting Kin Caregivers Where They Are
Wednesday, October 22 | Well-Timed, Tailored Supports for Kin
Wednesday, November 5 | Building and Maintaining Trust with Caregivers
Wednesday, November 19 | Spreading the Message: Growing Your Kin-First Culture
Each cohort session is 90 minutes (75 minutes of content + 15 minutes of optional Q&A) and will take place over Zoom from 2:00pm – 3:30pm ET / 11:00am – 12:30pm PT. Between sessions, each team can access optional 1:1 office hours with the Government Performance Lab kinship team. Practitioner teams may also want to schedule separate internal meetings between cohort sessions to debrief and plan next steps together.
For the mutual benefit of the cohort, participant teams are asked to commit to attending all four sessions in the series.
Who should participate?
Child welfare and foster care agencies committed to strengthening kin-first approaches and investing in staff as kinship champions are encouraged to apply. Each participating child welfare or foster care agency should identify 2-3 staff who are leaders in making and/or supporting kin placements. This could include:
Managers or supervisors
Resource coordinators
Kin specialists
We recommend that at least one participant from your agency possess a strong knowledge of your jurisdiction’s existing supports for kinship caregivers, and at least one person who directly manages case-carrying staff or supervisors supporting kin placements. Make note in your application if you are still deciding who to include to maximize your agency’s cohort experience and the GPL would be happy to help you further.
How does my team apply?
Complete this very brief application by Friday, September 12. The application will take no more than 10 minutes to complete.
You will be asked to nominate 2-3 participants from your agency and describe your interest in this cohort opportunity.
Agencies will be notified about their applications and next steps for participation by the week of September 15. To maintain a collaborative, interactive learning environment, the number of participants may be capped.
Questions?
Reach out to Emma Cregg, emmacregg@hks.harvard.edu, with any questions about the learning cohort or application process.
Our data in Michigan shows how much more stable kin placements are for kids. They experience better outcomes, go on to have fewer re-placements, experience less difficulty, compared to kids who aren’t placed with kin, who ultimately bounce around more and experience more disruptions.Jennifer Ulmer
Program Section Manager in Wayne County, Michigan Department of Health & Human Services
What does it mean to have a kin-first culture? It doesn’t feel like a separate initiative, it is part of what you do, it is your DNA. It is part of our conversations now. It is so embedded in processes, frameworks, ways of thinking, approaches. Placing with kin and finding kin regardless of placement type is what we do, because we know the benefits and we’ve set ourselves up to operate that way.Mariah Williams
Our data in Michigan shows how much more stable kin placements are for kids. They experience better outcomes, go on to have fewer re-placements, experience less difficulty, compared to kids who aren’t placed with kin, who ultimately bounce around more and experience more disruptions.Jennifer Ulmer