Key Themes for Youth in DHS Care

Relationships: Youth in care experience disruption and need more continuity and stability in their relationships with family, staff, foster parents, Life Skills Workers, Siblings, and with other youth in care.
Lack of experienced DHS staff: The turnover rate among casework staff is so high that youth in care often have multiple caseworkers. Due to turnover, youth are often "breaking in" new workers and having to endure the worker learning the job.
Placements - There is a lack of matches between youth needs and a placement that can fit those needs due to an overall lack of quality placements. This also leads to an overuse of shelters ("the shelter shuffle").
Education / Learning: Youth's education and learning is often disrupted, delayed or interfered with because of moving from community to community, from home to home. Youth need both academic learning in the school setting and life skills in the home and community.
Youth Voices Being Heard: Youth in care need to be heard in the judicial, case planning and policymaking process. Additionally, youth in care need to hear and understand exactly what is happening from the beginning of their involvement with DHS. Too often, youth are not adequately informed and tend to fill that void with self-blame.

Key Recommendations

1. Increase the number and variety of placements. Placements should be geared to the needs of each individual child.
2. Increase the number of caseworkers.
3. Increase the number of Life Skills Workers.
4. Improve Communication - Tell youth what's happening, why things are happening, tell them the truth rather than shield them from the truth. Just as important, listen to what children have to say and include their perspective in decisions.
5. Youth should be a part of the policy making process. Successful examples of this include the BCFS Director asking youth to assist with sibling policy, youth testifying with legislative committees like this. Other policy issues that youth would like to effect include:

• Youth attending court,
• Extension of care,
• Coordination of Medicaid and Extended Care,
• Medicaid coverage of dental after age 18.

Additional Recommendations

1. GAL should meet with youth before each court date.
2. Youth, caseworkers and family need to meet to review goals and activities every 6 months.
3. Camp To Belong is a summer camp for siblings separated by foster care. Maine is considering establishing a Camp To Belong affiliate here. This is needs funding and community support.
4. Pass the Sibling Policy.
5. "Answers" should go to all youth entering care. Additionally, youth leaders in each region could be available to meet with new youth entering care for support, to provide information, to establish a connection with someone who understands.

Key Issues With Services Received

School Support: Including financial assistance to continue post secondary education.
Safe Housing: This could include foster home, group home or treatment program. The most important piece is the goodness of match between the care provider and the youth in placement.
Life Skills Workers: DHS caseworkers funded by federal Independent Living funds who form a different relationship with youth. This relationship is founded on supporting the youth's goals and dreams for the future, building a plan to achieve these goals, accessing tangible resources to achieve these goals and advocating for the youth. Emphasis is on partnering with the youth. Relationship and easier access are also important to the success of Life Skills staff.
Emotional Support: Youth in care identified the need for a strong network of emotional support. Youth are dealing with reasons for coming into care, leaving home, the challenges of being in the child welfare system and preparing for their future.
Time Lapse to Get Services - It often takes excessive time to receive needed services and even returned telephone calls.
Lack of Adequate Resources: Youth identified the lack of quality placements, good matches with placements, the turnover with casework staff and the number counselors they have to work with as obstacles for them in the child welfare system. Again this lend to the overuse of shelters and placement in the first available bed rather than an appropriate match for what the youth needs.
Restrictions in Placement: Youth in care often feel like criminals due to extreme restrictions when entering placements. Youth are often restricted from taking walks, making telephone calls, getting snacks when hungry and more.

Additional Service Issues Include:

• The availability of financial assistance for basic needs (clothes, food) has been helpful. Additionally, DHS has helped with special things (recreation, class rings, prom, yearbook, senior photos, vacation) that have created a more "normal" experience for youth.
• Support for learning life skills is important (drivers education, the V9, tuition waiver, mentoring).
• The funding of the Youth Leadership Advisory Team created more support and a way for youth voices to be heard collectively.
• Medicaid
• Counseling
• Difficulty reaching caseworkers creates many challenges.
• Different decisions on the same issue for different youth is caused by values differences, bias and punitive approaches rather than based on sound policy.
• There is very little or inconsistent support for the children of youth in care.

Key Issues With Family Relationships and Contact

Visits with Parents: This is important for that relationship be able to grow.
Visits with Siblings: - This is often overlooked and very important to youth healing, growth and development when it occurs.
Financial Support for Transportation to Visits
Sibling Policy: DHS BCFS Director asked YLAT youth to assist with development of a sibling policy, as none currently exists. The YLAT draft now goes through the DHS policy process. Being asked for their perspective was very important.
No Explanation: Youth are often not informed why they are removed from their family, why decisions have been made. Youth need to know exactly what is going on.
Poor Visitation Arrangements with Family - Sometimes visits did not occur at all. Some youth lost contact completely with parents. Often youth do not receive explanations.

Additional Issues with Family Include:

• No visits with extended family.
• Family placements need to be explored both to create other family options for youth and to identify safety concerns that may exist with an extended family member who is being considered as a placement option.
• Birth family disallowing visitation with a sibling who remains at home.

Key Issues With Placements

Learned A Lot: Youth identified that they have learned a lot about themselves, life skills and options in good placements.
Good Relationships: Youth identified that good relationships with foster parents, group home staff have been important connections for them, particularly when these are ongoing relationships. Additionally, connections with other youth in care are important.
Placed with Siblings: Some youth in care were placed with siblings, at least initially. Being placed with siblings avoided additional loss.
Leaving Relationships - Youth who move or staff turnover creates loss of additional relationships for youth. This is confusing and violates trust.
Inconsistency: Rules often are different from place to place. Youth are always adapting to new rules, new religion, new routines, etc. Placements often create an artificial structure that is not based on an individual child's needs to grow up. Some youth experience homelessness, over use of shelters, not having a secure place to store their stuff.

Additional Issues with Placements Include:

• Youth learn responsibility.
• Independent Living Programs help prepare for transition from care.
• Being involved with their community.
• Foster parents that stick with you.
• Therapeutic placements and foster homes - the structure is good for some, not needed for others.
• Not enough matching is done with youth and placements.
• When youth are not placed with siblings (more often than not).
• Over medicating kids