This week at the CASCW Spring 2022 Conference we were inspired, instructed and sent – to further Support Collaborative Birth and Foster Parent Relationships in Child Welfare (as the conference was titled). Discussions included reflections from research, personal narrative, practice implementation strategies, and interestingly – little direct discussion of policy.
Instead there was an abundance of indirect policy discussion. The stuff that makes for the best policy deliberations that include:
- Experts with lived experience who define the challenges and opportunities
- Substantive research
- Outcomes analysis
- Testing the practical implementation
- Return on investment
So – maybe it was two days full of public policy discussion.
At AspireMN we easily draw a clear line between the conference topic, Support Collaborative Birth and Foster Parent Relationships in Child Welfare, and Quality Parenting Initiative-Minnesota. This statewide movement to reform foster care originated as a dream from community-based foster care organizations and has grown from the early visions to a practical set of partnerships that include leadership from birth parents, youth with experience in foster care, foster parents, counties, DHS, advocates and a myriad of partners – all who are invested in the practice of loving parenting as the ultimate best practice for all children and youth.
Researcher Erica Lewis shared her process evaluation of Quality Parenting Initiative (QPI) and how that movement is supporting practices that create positive relationships between birth and foster parents. One of her findings is (in short) the importance of connection over compliance. Diving more deeply into her analysis and that of others at the conference, we learn that a focus of connection over compliance suggests valuing both. Compliance matters, and, as it relates to meaningful change for children, families and systems – connections are foundational to the success for all involved in child welfare. It is essential to emphasize the critical nature of connection – of relationships – as we know too often compliance can get in the way.
This snapshot is a fascinating policy and practice application – where the goals and values of a system can be undermined by the work of adhering to the rules and requirements of the system.
One remedy is to include the practices that build the foundation of relationship into compliance. Representative Rena Moran took that action for Minnesota by establishing the comfort call or initial call, requiring that a phone call at the time of placement with the birth parent establish the first meaningful connection.
The outcomes are irrefutable – use of the comfort call (as one example for creating connection) has a significantly more powerful impact on birth and foster parent relationships than for those were there is no initial/comfort call. National and local research, outcomes analysis and powerful personal narratives make the point repeatedly – that the comfort call is effective at meaningfully improving care for children and families. Despite all of the clarity of evidence there is systemic reluctance to embrace this and other practices that invite us to first prioritize the relationship. The one remedy to the reluctance is training and technical assistance.
The power of personal narrative is a critical component for incentivizing participation and inspiring commitment, identified in this system reform of connecting birth and foster families, in the form of training and technical assistance.
The 2022 HHS omnibus bills currently include a small investment in QPI-MN to sustain and expand training and technical assistance – as we know that is the essential ingredient to implementation of our goal – quality parenting that emphasizes connection over compliance.
If you are inspired by the QPI-MN movement, please bring your voice to the table – find out more and sign up for updates at www.qpimn.org. You are also invited to extend your support to sustain and expand the essential ingredient to QPI-MN – training and technical assistance – by sharing with your legislators your support for QPI-MN in the Human Service Omnibus bills (find who represents you).