Washington's family identification strategies

Washington has an intensive family finding program that began in Pierce County with a contract funded by the mental health and child welfare programs. The contractor is Catholic Community Services. This program was developed as a crisis response for children whose placements were disrupting due to behavioral or emotional issues and alternatives to mental health hospitalization or therapeutic residential care placements were needed. Teams support the children in foster homes and relative homes as well as in their own homes. The state is expanding this program and it has been held out as a model nationwide.  Read more.

The Fostering Connections Resource Center gratefully acknowledges the National Association of Public Child Welfare Administrators for providing these summaries of state approaches. Please visit NAPCWA for the complete implementation summary.