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July/August 2008Vol. 9, No. 6Your Program Can Help Child Welfare Research

Two national organizations have publicized opportunities for child welfare agencies and programs to participate in or contribute data to national research efforts.

Apply to Be Part of Casey's Next Breakthrough Series

The August 1, 2008, deadline is fast approaching for public agencies that would like to be involved with Casey Family Programs' Breakthrough Series Collaborative (BSC) on Timely Permanency Through Reunification. Casey will sponsor 20 teams of public child welfare agencies/Tribal social service agencies along with a court or Tribal court partner. During the 2-year program, teams will identify, develop, and test promising practices in their agencies and courts that may improve timely reunification for children.

The BSC is an approach used by Casey in previous projects such as improving kinship care and addressing disproportionality in the child welfare system. As part of a BSC, teams test strategies on a small scale at their pilot sites, share results with other teams, and then retest the most promising strategies at multiple sites.

For more information and the application for the latest BSC, visit the Casey website:

[Editor's note: this link no longer exists] 

Data Collection on Older Youth

The National Family Preservation Network (NFPN) is collecting data on older youth involved in the child welfare system to find out more about how these youth can be served. The study will take place in the context of ensuring that older youth have family connections with biological, kinship, guardianship, or adoptive families. If your family preservation or reunification program has data on older youth, please contact the NFPN Executive Director, Priscilla Martens:
director@nfpn.org