In October of 2021, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Administration for Children & Families, Children’s Bureau funded the Quality Improvement Center on Engaging Youth in Finding Permanency (QIC-EY). The QIC-EY is charged with advancing child welfare practice and programs that ensure children and youth in foster care are empowered, especially in relation to permanency decisions. Anticipated outcomes at the eight pilot sites will create systemic changes in how children and youth are authentically engaged in intentional policy, practice, and culture shifts.
Spaulding for Children leads the QIC-EY with four collaborating partners—the North American Council on Adoptable Children, New England Association of Child Welfare Commissioners and Directors, University of Washington, and Center on Children, Families, and the Law (CCFL).
CCFL’s role includes participating in project planning and administrative decision-making, providing input on the selection of the eight sites, leading and facilitating a workforce council to support the design and development of the training/coaching model, offering direct technical assistance to integrate this model into local systems, delivering strategies for systemic changes that authentically engage and empower youth, coordinating capacity-building activities, and supporting sites with dissemination and sustainability planning.
